Youve got some pretty thick cichlids there when fully grown. If you cannot do more than 50% water change per week, I would scale that stocking back as they growout. Realistically, at 10-14”, nitrate production would be high before 3rd year.
stocking advice
- Thread starter Goonie
- Start date
Oh i don't mind doing 50% wcs only reason I don't now is my heaters would be exposed hence hiding in a small sump.
Dont mind the wcs.
This tank was an all male african tank with 70 cichlids so I was doing tons of wcs then as well
My brasiliensis was always chill with other fish even when spawning. If they ate the eggs, he'd get to spawn again sooner.
unlike Africans, SA and CA don’t handle being overstocked too well. They stress out rather easily due to crowded conditions. So don’t be tempted to put more cichlids to disperse aggression when it happensDont mind the wcs.
This tank was an all male african tank with 70 cichlids so I was doing tons of wcs then as well
I'm not above flipping fish either, im keeping 3 of my africans and getting them some lady's because I love their personality. Most of them were just giant agressive guppies
You could give it a shot, if you will have a 500-700 in a year or two like you say, that would be a good upgrade and more than large enough for all of them. I would agree with Duanes the brasiliensis and green terror together is probably not going to work out, too similar and both can be quite mean. Even without the GT, keep an eye on the pearl cichlid, I have had some bullys in the past with that species.
I have already started getting every thing together for the tank, substrate (shallow sand bed) XXL drift wood pieces, some stuff from universal rocks ect. I learned the hard way with my 185 that the tank is only about 60-70% of the set up cost.
I haven't decided yet if I am going to a plywood tank with a couple of large windows or buy a custom acrylic, but the tank is coming, likely closer to the 2 year mark. budgeting about 10k for the entire set up.
Any thing I didn't mention that could work with the Oscar and the Geo (looking for fish with personality)
I had thought about trying a pair of convicts assuming the fry would be eaten by the Oscar, but Ive heard some horror stories about those little convict being a handful even to much larger fish.
Convicts are mean little buggers, plus are from central america (wheras the rest of your fish are from South america) and prefer totally different water. Your fish will appreciate softer water with a lower pH, and convicts won't thrive in this. There are many SA cichlids that would potentially work with your mix- Belly crawler or Sveni pike cichlids come to mind. But, I would personally not advise over-stocking the 185 with the thought of upgrading to the 500. Life can throw curve balls, you may not end up getting the new tank as soon as you'd like, you may have setbacks if attempting to build it yourself, etc.
