Quiet SA cichlid tank

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cockroach

cockroach

Goliath Tigerfish
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Jul 28, 2005
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i plan on setting up one of my tanks as a gentle SA cichlid tank and these are my plans:

the tank is 120cmx60cm(W)x52cm(H) and works out to about 100gal.
i want to stock it with;
10 silver angelfish (pterphyllum scalare)
4 festive cichlids (mesonauta festiva)
6 lyre-tail checkerboard cichlids (Dicrossus filamentosus)
and a school of about 12 peppered corydorus (Corydoras paleatus)

there will be two big growths of plants which will include anubius, and amazon swords.

my filter will be set up so that the current is relatively low. but be more than ample with weekly water changes of about 40-50%.

now my questions,

will the festive cichlids be ok with the others?
is there anything anyone thinks i should change?
should i buy all the angels from the same lfs or buy 2's from five different stores?(not looking at breeding, purely asthetic):popcorn:
 
I think the numbers are a bit high.
I think 6 angels would be enough. To start 10 would be fine but I think extra males should be moved out.
In my experience Festivums can be very aggressive toward eachother and cichlids less aggressive than themselves. You can get yourself the 4 and wait till a pair forms and keep only a pair. Or just a single specimen. But you may find that no matter the number they might not be able to resist nibbling on your plants.
Not sure about the checkerboard cichlids.
 
thanks for the replies,

the festivum are actually Mesonauta festivus, i misplelled it, they are river mates of angels and non-agressive. so my books tell me.

wolfFish, thanks for the suggestion, i am actually looking for only cichlids swimming around and cories to clean the floor. i have 8 angels already and they are all happy and the tank looks a bit sparse, thats why i thought of 10.

this is the fish i have in mind:
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile53.html

http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_festivum.php

as none of the fish are predominantly lateral swimmers and hang out at all levels in the tank, i thought the numbers would be ok. yes no?
 
The numbers in your first post are too much. Angels are shoalers but also become territorial and quite aggressive when pairing and spawning.
You need enough space for pairs and the rest of the fish when they start spawning. Often a pair will push everyone else as far away as possible from their chosen spawning site. This could leave room enough for everyone else, this could take up half the tank, or the pair could get greedy and take up much of the tank (especially if the fish are larger).

I'm familiar with festivums. The issue with them is very often you're not really getting the true M. festivus. Depending on where the fish or line of fish originated you could have M. insignis, M. agregius, M. acora, M. mirificus or M. guyanae. Keeping for each is pretty much the same.
I found this link helpful: http://www.geocities.com/napaValley/5491/mesonauta.html
I had true M. festivus, to my surprise. I bought them when small, about 1" in body length and by 5" I had two left. The largest killed the two smallest and constantly picked on the second largest (even in a 6' tank).
I had mine with angels and other dwarf cichlids. The dwarfs (bolivian & blue rams, kribs, keyhole) they didn't mind too much, unless they felt annoyed by them and then the festivums would give a little chase now and then. No harm done. But they were more territorial against the angels and easily dominated them.
They also ate my plants.

This is what I have experienced through my fish. Not all are the same so I don't think keeping them together will always be peaceful or will always result in disharmony. It's different for everyone.

But when it comes to numbers, for a tank that is about 100 gallons, I do think ten 4-6" adult angels and four 5-6" adult festivums are too much for a tank that will also house six 2-2.5" checkerboards and twelve 3" cories, ultimately.
 
thanks for the link an reply straitjack.

saying i drop the festivum what pair of other medium size easy to find cichlid, that is a true south american from the amazom could i add?
 
cockroach;831328; said:
thanks for the link an reply straitjack.

saying i drop the festivum what pair of other medium size easy to find cichlid, that is a true south american from the amazom could i add?
Click to expand...

well servums are a lil more on the larger side of the medium sized spectrum!

for small you can do rams!

i cant think of any smaller ones! but Uaru amphiacanthoides are very timid fish! that get bout 10" IME! but other places will tell you 12! common name Waroo
 
thanks wolf

wont the sevs mess with the other fish too much? also i like the idea of uara but dont want too much of a size difference in the fish and scared the might want to chomp the dwarf cichlids when the are bigger
 
yea sevs can be peaceful but can also be more aggressive a lot like the temperment of angels! I do not have much experience keeping waroo's with dwarf cichlids though! try looking up some threads in SA/CA they may have tried something like this!
 
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