Opinions, will it work or am I waisting my time

[jgentry]

I have slowly been downgrading the number of fish I keep. I have a 5'X'8 pond that is 2.5' deep. I have always used it for growouts and holding fish after spawning so they would not spawn again immeadiately. I have a whole lot less fish and do not raise nearly as many fry as I used to so I was thinking about setting the pond up as a Costa Rico or Nicaraguan biotope instead. I was hoping for the main feature of the tank to be a dovii pair or trio. Is this even doable? Would this be enough space for a dovii pair and other inhabitants?

The pond currently has a bunch of cynder blocks and flowerpots in it for cover. I was going to remove all of these and make 3 large piles of boulders to more closely represent the natural habitat.

The fish I was hoping to keep are below

6 Vieja Maculicauda
6 or so Amphilophus Citrinellum
Parachromis Managuense trio
Several neets and convicts
Dovii trio or pair

Whats the opinion of other Dovii keepers? Doable or am I just going to get all of the other fish killed? If you think it's doable is there any other fish from the same lakes that I should look at as well?

 

[JJman1698]

let me start off by saying I am NOT a dovii keeper at this moment in time. However, when keeping a pair with other fish you run the risk of fish getting hurt or even killed (I am sure you knew this ). Since you have a large pond I think most fish would be cool but a pair of Dovii with babies you could have a problem.

Just my opinion.

 

[freebyrd]

Hi jgentry
I kept a breeding pair of dovii in a 265g that had a few other inhabitants as well such as loiselli, managuense, ornatum, and a midevil. The male was around 8"+ female a little smaller and I had issues. My tank is 7ft x 3ft if I remember correctly, these fish were relentlessly pounding the other fish and they didn't even dare leave the top edges of the tank in fear of getting blasted by the dovii. Being you have a pond that is bigger, I would assume that your dovii would be bigger, and you would also have issues. A single fish you might be OK with but a pair breeding I would be hesitant. If you were to dedicate the pond to the dovii alone now, you'd be fine. These fish grow to be so large and powerful I wouldn't risk it unless you have space to move some large fish around when...not if...they start to get overly aggressive. Your idea about the managuense though, would probably work out just fine.

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[cacichlids]

Basically nothing is safe with a pair of Dovii. Other fish in the pond might survive while the Dovii are small but they will eventually be killed or eaten. This is a highly predatory, highly aggressive fish which is all muscle and teeth. My advice: don't use expensive fish as tank mates.

Your pond is about 748 gallons, that would seem like a lot of of water and space where you could breed many other species but for a male Dovii it will just be a small territory, he will take it and defend it even from your hands, feet and whatever you put in there while they have fry.



And it's funny that you actually mentioned neets because they are what Dovii eat in the wild.

 

[jgentry]

That's the whole purpose of the neets and convicts.

 

[cacichlids]

LOL I totally missed the part where you said Costa Rican/Nicaraguan biotope.

Well man you can go ahead and try, I already told you what I think about the Dovii. Also, I have a similarly sized pond (1 feet longer and a little less wide, irregular shape and depth) with a 8" female festae, 6" female Umbee, a medium sized Salvini pair and hundreds of guppies/black skirt tetras. The pond has a lot of rockwork, floating plants and driftwood in it. It feels heavily stocked to me and I honestly can't imagine 6x 12" Midas, 6x 14" Black Belts, several Neet/Convict, a pair of Jag and a pair of Dovii living in it. That sounds like a stock for a 3,000 gallon pond.

[YT]884qd5HjXR4[/YT]

 

[FishForLife]

yea doviis are notoriously territorial

 

[jgentry]

LOL I totally missed the part where you said Costa Rican/Nicaraguan biotope.

Well man you can go ahead and try, I already told you what I think about the Dovii. Also, I have a similarly sized pond (1 feet longer and a little less wide, irregular shape and depth) with a 8" female festae, 6" female Umbee, a medium sized Salvini pair and hundreds of guppies/black skirt tetras. The pond has a lot of rockwork, floating plants and driftwood in it. It feels heavily stocked to me and I honestly can't imagine 6x 12" Midas, 6x 14" Black Belts, several Neet/Convict, a pair of Jag and a pair of Dovii living in it. That sounds like a stock for a 3,000 gallon pond.

[YT]884qd5HjXR4[/YT]

I agree, it does sound like too many fish once full grown. I do have plenty of tanks to move anything to if things get out of hand but that is not really what I was hoping for.

I'm guessing it will work for a couple of years and then not so much anymore once the dovii male reaches 14" or so. So I guess in the end I need to decide if I would be happy with just a Dovii pair in the pond if it came to that.

The rock piles I am going to make are going to go all of the way to the surface so there will be complete site breaks in several different places and most of the fish should be able to dart into the rock structures to get away from the male dovii when needed. If he constantly bothers them though that is not much of a life for them or what I want.

I think it could be worth trying since I can always just move everything but the dovii to tanks if it doesn't work out. I think my original stock plan need to be cut down a good bit though. I'm thinking of ordering a total of 6 citrinellum and 6 black belts and at around 5-6" and I'll probably end up keeping the best male and the best 2 females of each. I breed several different con varieties and neets so I'll just dump fry in as I have any since you can't even give them away in my area. Then get a small group of dovii fry at around 3" and keep the best pair. Maybe growing them up together might help, maybe not? Either way I think at some point there could just be one large Dovii pair in there.