You can fill it up with Giant Danios. They work well as tartget fish because they are so fast. Combine that with additional hiding spaces and you should be ok for a little while. And keep ra-arranging decorations
Overstocking to prevent fish from being picked on?
- Thread starter fhawk362
- Start date
It works for all types of cichlids. Overcrowding will cause problems if you don't clean the tank often.
Overcrowding works best with africans though.
Overcrowding works best with africans though.
I had a similiar promblem with angels in my 70. I put a lot of wood and fake plants. I put some plants in the middle of the tank. I have 5 adult angels and 4 adult roselines. But your cichlids are a lot more agressive than angels. I had adult jd and terror in a 90 with filament barbs as dithers and this still didn't work in a 90. still I would try a lot of wood and plants and hopefully it might work good luck.
I have an idea.... Get a bigger tank!! Then yes your overcrowding idea will work but only temporary as a growouts purpose. If you insist on keeping the 30 going then wether you add more fish or not, you won't be any better off than a set up at an lfs and you fish won't grow. If you were to get a larger tank now like a 125 with what you have now would work just fine. If you end up going with the overcrowded idea then keep it empty of decor because cichlids establish territory's and with out sect there won't be anything to fight over and maintain water changes 3-4 times a week. Just my opinion
a bigger tank is in your immediate future. Target fish usually end up being feeders eventually. Mine did. Exact same stock list as you plus a convict and a Midas in a 90 grow out.. My jack dempsey ate all of my 2" tiger barbs, but they lived together for a month or so before it happened.
I eventually got rid of both the Firemouth and the Gt because they still couldn't figure out how to coexist with the rest in a 300 gallon tank.
I also keep mbuna and overstocking with tons of rock works well, but you're talking about much smaller fish at adult size and I still use a 6' tank. Overstocking central/south americans really only seems to work in highly crowded bare setups in larger systems.Big fish, big tank with no territories to claim. Kinda like the big crowded tanks at the lfs.......highly unnatural but functional I suppose, provided you have massive filtration and lots of water changes.
either way, bigger tank is the idea here.....better to have a long term plan than a temporary fix IMO
