Musical Tanks

[twhittle]

I have struggled to get my carpintis and Argentae cichlids to coexist with other fish. Either they attack, or get beat up. It’s been a month now and have finally found combos that work.

My argentae does well with my huge Oscar, and my carpintis peacefully works with my female Midas/Devil. It’s been a game of musical tanks, but it’s working for now.

 

[abominus]

omg. beautiful tank

 

[muh_fish]

I am going through something similar with my Carpintis after my Green Terror dethroned him in my 150, he is currently alone in a 75 gallon and seems happy but I would like to add a female (either green texas or salvini). He has dug around in the sand and built a few berms. I read that you should 'redecorate' the tank before introducing a new fish but would hate to destroy all of his work haha.

 

[duanes]

Keeping high bodied, silver-ish cichlids together in the same tank, is almost always problematic, so keeping carpintus and argentea together should "not" be expected to work,
With an oscar and an argentea you've get maybe a 50%/50% chance of it working long term, before one kills the other.
Since argentea come from fast flowing water, unless they have a current to fight against, that extra energy often gets focused, as aggression on other large cichlid tank mates. The rub is, oscars do not like as strong a current.

 

[Sinister-Kisses]

When keeping large, aggressive CA cichlids, it's best to accept that more often than not in the tank sizes most of us have, they are meant to be solitary fish. My argenteus is in a 6ft 135gal by itself, has been since it was just 3" in size, because I know he's going to be hella aggressive to tankmates as he matures so I felt it was better to just let him have his own space. And my red texas - which never faded and basically looks like a spectacular blue texas - has been growing up by herself in a 75gal tank for the same reason. My 11" midas has been alone in his 6ft tank since he was about 6 months old. I'm just not willing to risk the well being of other fish knowing with their personalities, even if they seem to be getting along, all it takes is a quick snap overnight and I wake up to a dead tank mate.

Might be something to consider in the near future, as your tanks don't look large enough that I'd personally not be concerned about random acts of violence without warning...

 

[twhittle]

Keeping high bodied, silver-ish cichlids together in the same tank, is almost always problematic, so keeping carpintus and argentea together should "not" be expected to work,
With an oscar and an argentea you've get maybe a 50%/50% chance of it working long term, before one kills the other.
Since argentea come from fast flowing water, unless they have a current to fight against, that extra energy often gets focused, as aggression on other large cichlid tank mates. The rub is, oscars do not like as strong a current.

I never kept the carpintis with the argentae. They never worked. I have many, many tanks in my shop and just couldn’t get those specific fish to work with anything until now.

 

[twhittle]

When keeping large, aggressive CA cichlids, it's best to accept that more often than not in the tank sizes most of us have, they are meant to be solitary fish. My argenteus is in a 6ft 135gal by itself, has been since it was just 3" in size, because I know he's going to be hella aggressive to tankmates as he matures so I felt it was better to just let him have his own space. And my red texas - which never faded and basically looks like a spectacular blue texas - has been growing up by herself in a 75gal tank for the same reason. My 11" midas has been alone in his 6ft tank since he was about 6 months old. I'm just not willing to risk the well being of other fish knowing with their personalities, even if they seem to be getting along, all it takes is a quick snap overnight and I wake up to a dead tank mate.

Might be something to consider in the near future, as your tanks don't look large enough that I'd personally not be concerned about random acts of violence without warning...

I have north of 20 tanks I’ve accumulated over the last 35 years of keeping cichlids in my shop, ranging from 75-1,200 gallons. I’ve got lots of places to move them fortunately. I’m just pleased that these two fish aren’t being bullied anymore.