Most appropriate poly for 180G SA/CA cichlid tank

[THQ]

Hi all, I am completely new to polys. I have a reasonably peaceful CA/SA tank with juvies (oscar/ sev/ GT/ blue acara/ ellioti/ heckelii) that are growing up together.

Because I live on an island (Australia), we have the strictest live import laws in the world, leading to many cool fish on the banned list including poly endlicherii and retropinnis. My LFS recently got a pair of senegals in (they are only around 3-4") and are for sale for the right price. They have been confirmed to be male and female so potentially could become a breeding pair. I am quite interested in just keeping them and if they breed that would be a bonus.

I have a 40G tank spare that I can house them in until they are big enough to NOT be eaten by my oscar who is currently 6". What are the growth rates of senegals like?

Also, maybe once a year private sale ads come up for foot+ ornates in my area. Should I just wait and get one of those instead to put in the 180G? Would they be more suitable at contesting for food and surviving with rowdy but not overly aggressive cichlids?

Thanks.

 

[Polyaddict86]

I had some senegal that i bought last march at 1"-2",
By july they were about 6". I feed them once everyday and give them clean water so i do water change twice a week, this factors can make your senegal grow faster. Some will feed twice or three time a day and that power feeding the fish to make them grow faster too.
Most cichlids that you mentioned will eat the polys food, mu suggestion is turn off all the lights before feeding the poly, them drop the food from one side of the tank to the other side, feeding when lights off os the cichlids can see where all the food will drop, and polys are noctural so they mostly eat at night when its dark. Good luck with the polys

 

[jaws7777]

+1 on the feeding at night. Either that or buy some advil and enjoy the headache lol

If it were me i would just wait for the ornate main reason is - ive had a sen for close to two yrs and is stuck at a small 5 or 6 inches. Something that a hungry full grown oscar imo could get down or atleast try too.

Maybe its just poor genetics on the one i have but who knows.

tlindsey is the resident sen whisperer so see what he thinks

 

[DMD123]

I agree with J jaws7777 about waiting till you can get an ornate. Less likely to become a meal and quite impressive looking as a large adult.

 

[THQ]

Great, thanks for the input guys. Yeah I kind of knew that waiting for a large ornate would be better. I am just not sure how aggressive adult ornates would be vs my relatively peaceful cichlids? Do they usually coexist ok if they weren't raised together? Are bichirs like some cichlids in that each fish is very individual or is their temperament more predictable.

 

[jaws7777]

Yeah imo they are individuals but i have never had an issue with polys being aggresive to cichlids... they ignore each other. When my ornate was young he was aggressive to other polys but not cichlids

 

[clm08k]

Yeah imo they are individuals but i have never had an issue with polys being aggresive to cichlids... they ignore each other. When my ornate was young he was aggressive to other polys but not cichlids

what are some good cichlids that are compatible with ornates besides sevrums?

 

[magpie]

That is a wide open question. Many cichlids are only aggressive to other cichlids or if they are spawning fish that come close to their spot. What are you looking for? Size tank, do you want live plants, what other tankmates do you want, do you want more than one, etc.

 

[jaws7777]

I would say stay away from most centrals like parachromis, vieja and amphs... i had argentea that wouldnt tolerate its own water...fish hated everything lol

Look into the acara/aequidens types

 

[isde02]

I've kept poly's and cichlids together without any aggression issues. The only issue that I did have was the same one that J jaws7777 faced, getting food to the poly's with a pearsei. When I kept endlis with peacock bass, I didn't really have that issue