Overstocking opinions

[kearns21188]

Hi I have a 4foot 200litre~49gallon aquarium it is quite heavily planted and has plenty of hidding places and caves I have a lot of fish though
1kkp
1convict
2festae
1firemouth
And 4 clown loaches how bad is this? The tank is always clean with a 1600L an hour canister and weekly water changes it's not for ever perhaps a year or so opinions??


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[Etan]

I think you are overstocked. I see some serious territorial aggression problems happening. How long have you had this setup and how big are the fish?

 

[kearns21188]

It started with just the kkp and two festae since about 8 months ago
last month added the convict and firemouth

and the loaches were added
just the other day the fish are still all pretty small except the kkp you can see in the photos there's a little chasing here and there but it's not constant

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[xraycer]

With the exception of the kkp, your other cichlids are on the small side, and CL are very slow growers. So, I think you can make it a year, as long as aggression and water parameters are in control. Keep them well fed and that should help with the aggression scenario. IMHO

 

[nstefan2597]

Festae will probably kill everything sooner or later lol

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[Redearsunfish]

I warn you, get rid of the festae and the convict. That KKP is too nice to get the stuffing beaten out of it.

 

[doomiedee]

Festae will probably kill everything sooner or later lol

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+1. I had a pair in a 75 alone and that didn't last long the male killed the female in about 3 weeks.


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[lando]

I always push the limits with aggressive community's, but I always use larger tanks and get away with it. Your red terrors have to go! It might be fine now but one day you will wake up to dead fish!


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[kearns21188]

Thanks for the advise atm the 2 festaes are really submissive and the kkp and the convict are most dominant I'll just continue to keep a close eye

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[David R]

Do you have the ability to separate them if needed?

The 4' length will slow the growth of the clowns and possibly stunt them long-term before they look anywhere near too big for that tank, ideally they would have 6' length and more flow and a higher temperature than the CA cichlids will appreciate.

I had a pair of festae in a 210g tank and even that wasn't enough space for them to not kill each other, and after that the male wouldn't tolerate any other fish in there. Are yours a pair, or two males/females? If your tank is 4' long and only 200L I'm guessing it isn't all that wide. Male festae can get to over a foot long, and the females will also get fairly large, so I think you would be better to rehome them or invest in a larger tank if you want to continue with them.

If you're not going to get a bigger tank, I'd say remove the two festae, rehome the clown loaches by the time they get to around 4" and replace them with a group of smaller more suitably-sized bottom dwellers.