SA/CA community cichlid tank recommendations for a 600
- Thread starter clekchau
- Start date
All thanks for all the feedback.
The 'aggressive' route is peaking my interest now, I've been browsing and researching.
What if I started with 5 juveniles of the following groups:
GT
Midas
Jag
Festae
Bocourti*
Lyonsi
And weed them eventually down to 1 male from each, based on compatibilty, color, personality etc
That would be 6 big, aggressive male cichlids in a big display , maybe with a centerpiece driftwood in the middle or back end. I think that would make an awesome show tank. Feedback!?
The 'aggressive' route is peaking my interest now, I've been browsing and researching.
What if I started with 5 juveniles of the following groups:
GT
Midas
Jag
Festae
Bocourti*
Lyonsi
And weed them eventually down to 1 male from each, based on compatibilty, color, personality etc
That would be 6 big, aggressive male cichlids in a big display , maybe with a centerpiece driftwood in the middle or back end. I think that would make an awesome show tank. Feedback!?
that would be a very nice combo i think you should go for some thing like that. id be careful with the gt cause that would be the weakest fish in there and may be get picked on but its always aa crapshoot with large cichlids. good luck
green terror is weak? wow i always thought they were highly aggressive and could hold their own.
what other fish would be 'compatible'? i think trimac, black nasty, umbee, dovii all waaay too aggressive, what about a beani or some kind of veija?
another question, if i went fishless cycle, how many fish could i add , based on my plan it would be 30 juveniles, would that be too much?
thanks again, this forum is awesome!
Like with all cichlids it's an individual to individual thing. GTs are still my favorites, and I've kept a lot of them, but some live up to the name and others don't. I've had ones where I had to separate because they terrorized the tank (including RD's and Jags) and others because they got picked on by everything. The vast majority I've kept got along great in communities, but the higher they are on the pecking order the better. GTs are awesome to look at and interact with, but if they are low on the dominance list they tend to hide a lot and can stress easier than some cichlids. I would still try it in your tank (which I am extraordinarily envious of) but remember they grow slower than a lot of cichlids, so you might want to add them first (and then risk them claiming the whole tank early - this is not a perfect solution) and if they can't hang when grown, get a nice species tank going.
i guess with these types of fish the strategy of growing them from juveniles and weeding out the undesirables is the only option. festae's are also slow growers right? maybe start with the slow growing ones and add a group of 3-4" midas and jags when the others get some size?
cichlids are like saltwater angelfish lol some individuals are extremely peaceful and do well in a community some are extremely aggressive and will not co exist with other angels lol ugh
while researching i came across a tank thats exactly what i would want to achieve, its bigger than my tank by a few
http://www.youtube.com/user/greenterra#p/u/0/KXD-99CNcp4
http://www.youtube.com/user/greenterra#p/u/0/KXD-99CNcp4
I'm always wary to give stocking advice like this because you just never know (and I would feel guilty if it blew up in your face), but yes I would definitely grow them out. I've always had more success this way (plus you get to know them better and really understand when things are 'different' and behavior changes).
I haven't kept Festae in years and years (I've left and come back to the hobby in that time) so I can't really remember their growth rate. I can tell you that GTs grow almost painfully slow (one of their drawbacks - I still love those fish - in a community tank) so if I were trying this (and you have the space to try, still jealous - pics look great btw) I would start with them and let them grow a couple inches larger than the jags and Midas you're adding (you will NEED to watch them when you add anything - but I guess that's obvious) since those guys will surpass them in size pretty quickly anyway. If the festae also grow slowly, follow the same pattern. But they do get larger - and in my experience are more consistently aggressive (I remember that part). I have had them in communities (not a pair) without incident, but the meanest individual fish I ever had was a male festae that I learned quickly was not to be kept with others.
Not suggesting against them (they can be great and certainly beautiful) just pick the most suitable when 'weeding out' rather than the biggest and baddest (of course behavior can change after that process will be necessary - plus you'll have to see how behavior changes when tankmates are removed). It's a wonderful project, but it can be a lot to keep your eye on and once attached, painful to fail. Things change all the time in these tanks so no advice can ever be lasting or perfect. Do you like my attempts to preempt blame?
I still say go for it, the tank will look stunning.
beani is a solo fish because of the fact that they get bloat so easy and the fact that they are possibly the most aggressive fish out there and may kill everyone. and im not saying green terrors are weak just that they will prolly be the low man with those other cichlids vieja however is a good idea they seem to always be a good community choice. argentea would be nice
