Hi: I am new in this forum, but my fish are known by most people. I have been keep pikes and other CA and SA cichlid for about three years, in those three years, I have been keep them together in serveral reasons, please let we start this subject, how do you grow pikes? and how do you teach them to get alone with other cichlid? how do you feed them?
pikes and other cichlid, can they stay together?
- Thread starter cichlidmonster
- Start date
Try feeding them cichlid pellets. Maybe some live food such as bloodworms or crickets even. I've never kept pikes before so I am going by other CA/SA Cichlid habits.
My pikes are most wild caught, they need use to the pellets. most of them take long time to try the dry food, so that, I always put them with other kind cichlids together, and it seems to work for most of my pikes. My other question is can we put different pikes together in the same tank?
Say what? Ya lost me! What do you mean how do you grow pikes?
You can't 'teach' them to get along with other cichlids either...pikes have a mind of their own. Some cichlids work with them, some don't. I've had to get rid of many fish cuz my pikes didn't like them. Best bet is to get the as juv. and put them in with the other cichlids as they grow up. That way they will be familiar with each other, but the pikes may still reign hell down on them if they feel like it.
I feed my pikes as wide of a variety as possible. Heres a brief list of what I feed my pikes...
...Mysis shrimp, krill, earthworms, guppies, rosie reds, cocktail shrimp, glass shrimp, black worms, sinkin carnivorous pellets, tadpoles, baby mice...adult mice when they get big enough..and the list goes on. I feed them three times a day. Just enough to get their bellies start to bulge. Twice a week i fast them.....so they can properly digest all their food. Hope that helps...
You can't 'teach' them to get along with other cichlids either...pikes have a mind of their own. Some cichlids work with them, some don't. I've had to get rid of many fish cuz my pikes didn't like them. Best bet is to get the as juv. and put them in with the other cichlids as they grow up. That way they will be familiar with each other, but the pikes may still reign hell down on them if they feel like it.
I feed my pikes as wide of a variety as possible. Heres a brief list of what I feed my pikes...
...Mysis shrimp, krill, earthworms, guppies, rosie reds, cocktail shrimp, glass shrimp, black worms, sinkin carnivorous pellets, tadpoles, baby mice...adult mice when they get big enough..and the list goes on. I feed them three times a day. Just enough to get their bellies start to bulge. Twice a week i fast them.....so they can properly digest all their food. Hope that helps...I had a pike in a tank with a Jack Dempsey, Red Devil, Red Terror, Buttifkoferi, and Synspilum. That bastard Synspilum killed my Red Terror. The tank was as 130. Pikes are cool.
90% of Lugubris pikes are WILD caught.... So all of my pikes right now are wild caught as well. Crenicichla sp. 'xingu I', Crenicichla johanna, and the Sataxilis pikes are about the only ones i know of that are bein bred.
All of my pikes are on prepared foods already though, ie...pellets, mysis, cocktail shrimp...so you can do it. Puttin them with 'trainer' cichlids does help. The other cichlids will show the pikes that the food is good and they will quickly learn its food.
If your tank is large...you can do just about anything with pikes...when i say large...i mean 200gal +.......it can be tricky. As juv. you can keep most Lugubris pikes together since they 'school' as juv to a certain extent...watch out when they hit subadult though cuz they they start not likin other pikes...lol...
. So all of my pikes right now are wild caught as well. Crenicichla sp. 'xingu I', Crenicichla johanna, and the Sataxilis pikes are about the only ones i know of that are bein bred. All of my pikes are on prepared foods already though, ie...pellets, mysis, cocktail shrimp...so you can do it. Puttin them with 'trainer' cichlids does help. The other cichlids will show the pikes that the food is good and they will quickly learn its food.
If your tank is large...you can do just about anything with pikes...when i say large...i mean 200gal +...
....it can be tricky. As juv. you can keep most Lugubris pikes together since they 'school' as juv to a certain extent...watch out when they hit subadult though cuz they they start not likin other pikes...lol...P.power: I have only 26 tanks in my home, and I have almost 120 different kinds of cichlids. when I get pikes, I always watch them for few days, some of them I put with other cichlid right away, some of them I have to put by themselves, for ex: cinctas. two years ago, I put two Venezuelas and a Marmorata together with other cichlids, Marmorata started to eat pellets and flakes after seeing other fish eat. I am going to give you a fish list of one of the 26 tanks: buttikoferi, red devil, midas( 2004 ACA people's choice), jaguar, friederickstahli, dovii,. and two lenticulatas( one took 2nd place in ACA2005).
Good job....sometimes its a pain keepin pikes with other cichlids. For the most part it works though. You've only been keepin fish for 3 years total? Thats very very good for three years. LoL
I have done the same thing with stubborn pikes. If they just will not accept prepared foods I throw them in with other cihlids. Of course I totally rearrange the tank so ther is not excessive agression, and it seems to work in most cases. They learn to accept pellets from the other fish.
I try not to mix pikes together as it (in my opinion) promotes unnecesessary agression and makes the pikes more shy. Once My pikes are on prepared foods, pellets, flakes, sticks, ect., that's all they get for at least 2 months. Then I will slowly introduce krill silversides and crickets. But I always try to make pellets the staple
I try not to mix pikes together as it (in my opinion) promotes unnecesessary agression and makes the pikes more shy. Once My pikes are on prepared foods, pellets, flakes, sticks, ect., that's all they get for at least 2 months. Then I will slowly introduce krill silversides and crickets. But I always try to make pellets the staple
Thats the way i do things...my tankz are centered around my pikes.... The other cichlids are just 'dithers'
. The other cichlids are just 'dithers'