Stocking my 125 w/CA's - Thoughts?

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Batboi3000

Feeder Fish
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Aug 30, 2009
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I have recently moved out of state, and had to tear down my fish tank selling all the fish I had. I am now ready to put fish back in the tank again after finally setting it up. Here are the top final 5 Central American cichlids I would like to go with.

- Festae
- Flowerhorn
- Midas
- Red Tiger Motaguense
- Texas

I am undecided if I will actually get all of them, but I know that I want a combination and community out of these 5 species. I have not kept the festae or red tigers before and I don't have a lot of experience in keeping big cichlids in a larger community as I have only had my 125 just a year. Those of you who have had more experience with tanks this size and with these fish, what do you think a good combination and number of these fish would be for a 125?
 
Boy that is an aggressive group there...I would be interested to see if you could make it work. In that size tank though, you may want to just consider one or two of those..maybe three..but that is pushing it....I would go with the Mota's and the Tex...
 
I have a Red Devil with my group of Festae. They have their spats some times but they generally keep to the pecking order. My large male Festae is the real trouble maker. He goes ballistic and chases all of his tankmates out of nowhere. If you get a male Festae you may see the same behavior. I think that a Festae,Midas,Red Tiger Moto would look great together. In a 125 you can't really keep these fish together as adults though. An upgrade will be needed once they reach adult sizes. I'm due for an upgrade myself really soon. Good luck and post pics when your tank is set up.
 
yeah i would knock flowerhorn from the list, even if i liked hybrids it is very rare for these guys to tolerate tank mates once older, other than that i would do 1 male of each of the other fish you listed, and it should be good for awhile, as long as really bad aggression issues don't arise you should be good for like 2 years before the festae will need a larger tank (they pretty much get as large as a 125 is wide, if not larger evenutally so will need larger tank for it eventually but you would definitely have some time as they are slow growers)

that stocklist is actually kind of similar to what i have growing out in my 5ft 120g right now:
festae
carpintis vontehillo
midas
argentea
(They are currently ranging from the vont being the largest at 6in and the festae being the smallest at 3in but so far no major issues, though im keeping a close eye out as they mature)
 
well to be honest these aren't all really central american cichlids. These all get pretty large and won't be able to go with other fish easily, especially the males of these fish.

one thing to keep in mind as well, juvi Texas cichlids are not aggressive until they hit 4-5in (puberty) and will probbaly get killed by the other fish that you mentioned before they hit this age. They are highly aggresisve after but big pansies before.

if i were you, i would definitely try to get a pair of either the festea or Parachromis Motaguense. this tank is just the right size for either of these pairs
 
PS- if you do decide to go with a community of bruisers keep a high temperature and feed a little more. this suprisingly will lower the aggression levels
 
That is one of the most aggressive combinations I've ever seen proposed. Even starting them out together when they're young might not work in the long run.
 
RLHam3;4195625; said:
well to be honest these aren't all really central american cichlids. These all get pretty large and won't be able to go with other fish easily, especially the males of these fish.

one thing to keep in mind as well, juvi Texas cichlids are not aggressive until they hit 4-5in (puberty) and will probbaly get killed by the other fish that you mentioned before they hit this age. They are highly aggresisve after but big pansies before.

if i were you, i would definitely try to get a pair of either the festea or Parachromis Motaguense. this tank is just the right size for either of these pairs
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Which of these is not central american? I know the Flowerhorn is a hybrid but isn't mostly cross bred from other central american cichlids?

sAroock;4196223; said:
hrmmm a Festae and a Texas sounds good... but it also sounds very aggressive

I think maybe just one Big thing and smaller fishes...
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What kind of smaller fish do you think could hang with these bruisers? Could you give me some examples? I can think of an example. I saw a video on youtube of i believe a 135 gallon with a big texas and a midas with a few giant danios or silver dollars in it. That looked cool.
 
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