Opinions on female Midas housing

[MC4RKiller]

I have been toying with the idea of "downgrading" my female Midas; it is a confirmed female I purchased her from Rapps at 8-9" around a year ago and she has only bulked since then length wise she is still about the same. She lives in a 55G solo...which I had planned to replace with a 90G and some tankmates....however she has gotten more aggressive than before so I am thinking no tankmate will work with her.

I am thinking about switching things around in my fishroom and moving her to a 40G breeder; which honestly has more swimming space than a 55G anyway. She typically only stays to one end of the 55 and I feel she may appreciate the extra width the 40B has to offer. She cant have any scape outside of some wood or rock which I keep minimal because she digs a lot. She is a wonderful fish but given her attitude I don't want to devote a larger tank to her anymore due to the fact I could utilize it better with some of my other fish.

So my critique is....is the 40B really that bad of a home for a fully grown confirmed female Midas?

 

[Frank Castle]

I have been toying with the idea of "downgrading" my female Midas; it is a confirmed female I purchased her from Rapps at 8-9" around a year ago and she has only bulked since then length wise she is still about the same. She lives in a 55G solo...which I had planned to replace with a 90G and some tankmates....however she has gotten more aggressive than before so I am thinking no tankmate will work with her.

I am thinking about switching things around in my fishroom and moving her to a 40G breeder; which honestly has more swimming space than a 55G anyway. She typically only stays to one end of the 55 and I feel she may appreciate the extra width the 40B has to offer. She cant have any scape outside of some wood or rock which I keep minimal because she digs a lot. She is a wonderful fish but given her attitude I don't want to devote a larger tank to her anymore due to the fact I could utilize it better with some of my other fish.

So my critique is....is the 40B really that bad of a home for a fully grown confirmed female Midas?

I don't think so at all. MAYBE you could get away w/ a 65g but a 75g would be more appropriate. Water quality will be almost impossible to maintain in a 40 Breeder, despite the fact that it's actually 48 gallons. Go with a 75g so she can have tankmates

 

[MC4RKiller]

Im not worried about maintaining the water quality...gallon wise it isnt much different than her 55G which is never over 10ppm of nitrate. I run a Cascade 1000 and a Penguin 350...which would transfer with her. I also keep a bunch of floating live plants which help and do 60% weekly WCs.

Im mainly concerned with her having enough room...but then I think "well technically the 40B is larger than the 55G"; thus I wanted others opinions.

 

[Frank Castle]

Im not worried about maintaining the water quality...gallon wise it isnt much different than her 55G which is never over 10ppm of nitrate. I run a Cascade 1000 and a Penguin 350...which would transfer with her. I also keep a bunch of floating live plants which help and do 60% weekly WCs.

Im mainly concerned with her having enough room...but then I think "well technically the 40B is larger than the 55G"; thus I wanted others opinions.

I mean yea, a 40 Breeder is more footprint, but a 75g would be your best bet. I'm a bit of a hypocrite because of all the fish I have living together, but I still base my tanks on the largest in them so IMO a 40 Breeder might WORK, but she's gonna be super-aggresive and tankmates will be slim and none. You could TRY it, but I wouldn't get my hopes up.

Don't you have a big tank she can co-exist with other fish? Keeping Amphilophus alone only makes them more aggressive - they are like Pitbulls, they need to socialize when younger or if you get them when they are larger, they should be kept w/ other large fish if possible. Any Amph I ever separated for aggression always got worse and worse by themselves

 

[MC4RKiller]

I don't know her history as I purchased her at adulthood; she has always been kept alone. I planned to do the tankmate thing but she has been alone for atleast a year with me and who knows how long before that. My hopes of tankmates have gone down the toilet. Which is okay; I am fine having her alone as most of my "evil" cichlids are alone. I could also devote more space to my Lyonsi and tankmates by "downgrading" her.

I have heard of people keeping lone females in a 29...but that is just way way too small IMO. The 40 though really for its gallons is a decent amount of space; which has me thinking it may be good enough for her as I doubt she will get larger than this and will always be alone.

 

[robham777]

I really don't see much difference between a 40b and a 55. For a 9" fish I would want the extra width more than the extra length.