Replacement for Green Terror?

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GamerChick5567

Dovii
MFK Member
Nov 1, 2016
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Tustin, CA
Hey all, since my little green terror died from hex maybe a couple weeks ago, I have been thinking of getting a replacement. My current stock list is this. The tank is a standard 90 gallon (4ft long x 2ft deep x 18" wide) overstocked with live plants and 2 strong filters:

1x 8" Burundi frontosa
1x 6" albino mbuna
1x small milomo
(all those guys are super friendly)

1x 5" chocolate pleco, also active and friendly

5x convicts, 2 normal sized males, 2 very small females, and 1 big male (like 7" wow) is a douche but mostly just to the other male cons and my poor java fern lol

1x 5" male salvini who can hold his own

3x 6" saes as dithers, too fast to be hurt

2x 3.5" female? jewels, sometimes they get mean, depends

290 quintillion convict fry

Would getting a female for my salvini be ok? I'm just concerned about finding one big enough to begin with, and that the big daddy convict might eat any fry or kill the pair thinking they are competition. I'm also a little concerned that they might make convinis since one male convict has no mate haha.

Most likely though I will get rid of the 2 extra male convicts since they seem to get beat on by the dominant one too much. I can also re home the 2 jewels (which I'm pretty sure are female or weaker males) as well. I'll be trading the convict fry for plant clippings maybe as soon as they get to be a decent size. My water quality remains stable with 1 25 to 40% water change per week. Basic tank parameters are about 7.8 ph, 76-78 degrees, 15ppm nitrates for the plants.

Any suggestions? I will probably be searching for a replacement after new years. I don't really want to spend a whole lot, maybe 25 bucks tops. I was thinking of maybe a smaller species too. Something like a firemouth, t-bar, or blue acara. For larger ones possibly a jack dempsey, or texas (would it get too big though?) as well would be cool. I was also thinking of maybe getting a roseline shark to go with the 3 saes if they are compatible.

I would get another green terror just I don't want to deal with hex again since I've read they are very susceptible and can get it for no apparent reason like the last guy.

Thoughts?
 
Yeah haha that overstocking is my fault. I made the mistake of going on craigslist for one fish and the guy had the frontosa, 2 mbunas, 3 huge plecos, and the big convict all crammed in a 30 gallon tank. He only mentioned the convict and when I got there they were all super excited that I could care for them.... And me being nice I took them all... Oops. Had to trade in the plecos and other mbuna ended up dying when I was treating it in quarantine. Plus when I bought the 90 it had the smaller convicts and pleco when the guy said it was torn down haha. I haven't been enthused about getting rid of any more but I will have to. Maybe I'll sell the frontosa.

Craigslist. Not even once. XD
 
Yeah my original plan was to just get central/south americans but then the jewels we're cheap and the milomo was mislabeled. He was supposed to be a geophagus. Then craigslist. Lol.

I've lucked out haha. Only real agression has been from the dominant convict and the mbuna that died.

I feed them all a varied diet but I try to keep the frontosa on shrimp based stuff. He has gobbled an occasional algae pellet in one fell swoop tho.
 
Sorry to say you are well overstocked with fish that have very different needs.
I would move on all the fish except maybe a convict pair.
Salvini will cause you problems in a pair.
The African fish have different needs to the American cichlids,
 
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Definitely get rid of the frontosa, they are much better suited to a 6' tank and do better with other fronts. Even after that the tank needs thinned down.

I know if I want to keep him for a while longer I'll need a 150 or bigger if he grows more. I'm a little concerned that he (maybe she?) was stunted though after being stuck in that tiny tank since he isn't very big. It seems like the guy had that tank running for a while. I've been feeding him higher quality foods than what the guy had him on, and he has healed and colored up well compared to how he was but with no apparent growth. So far he seems fine with the other fish. I guess he is too big to mess with. He's a lot less shy than he was when I got him thankfully.

BTW I've only had the rescued fish for maybe 2.5 or 3 months. The only one I'm really attatched to is the albino mbuna. He is super calm and lost his tail while smaller. According to the Craigslist guy it got bitten off a long time ago. Poor stumpy still gets around just fine and thinks he has a tail still.
Here he is a while ago:
stumpy_zpsh70nh4rr.jpg
He looks like a fish fillet, the poor guy.

I will try to get some better pics when I get home since there's no good recent ones on my phone. Hopefully the big convict didn't decide to go on a rampage against the other males and my plants. Ugh. Now I feel kinda bad for making a silly mistake like this haha.
 
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