Suggested tankmates for larger, less aggressive cichlids?

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moonstruckmuse

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MFK Member
Jul 10, 2007
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We are moving the arowana and jack dempsey out of the 125 gallon tank because they drive my mother crazy and she's scared of them (and the two people who used to take care of them, my dad and I, no longer live at home). We're also consolidating a few tanks to make it easier on her.

So now, we have a 125 gallon tank with the future stocking of...

2 Severums: 9"
3 Severums: 5"
1 Severum: 3" (unexplainable size, eats like a pig, sibling of the 5 inchers)
6 Bala sharks: 7"
1 Synodontis: 8"
Angelfish: Large (we're getting a few from a friend, don't know how many or how big exactly).

Will this work out? And what sorts of tankmates could we keep? I'm thinking that something colorful would be nice - swordtails/mollies, maybe?
 
Sounds like a lot to me for a 125. You're going to need monster filtration and will most likely run into some aggression problems. IME with severums, most of their aggression has been conspecific.
 
AcsFoolMike;5154423; said:
Sounds like a lot to me for a 125. You're going to need monster filtration and will most likely run into some aggression problems. IME with severums, most of their aggression has been conspecific.
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X2. That is already beyond fully stocked, and those severums are gonna fight... although, with as many as you will have in there, maybe it'll be hard for any one specific one to get too beat up? The sharks are gonna outgrow that tank even. Don't they get up to about 16"? Six fish at 16" is a lot.

Personally, I think you would be prudent to rethink this stocking plan... but just my two cents.

-Rich
 
The smaller sevs (4 of them) have all been living together and will be able to be moved back into their original tank if necessary. The larger sevs have been living with the catfish, JD, and aro no problem.
As for filtration, most of these fish have filters that were already handling all their waste. The only thing I'm doing is consolidating them into one tank, so I would think that the filters would still be able to handle that when grouped together on that one tank? I'll also be doing more frequent water changes initially to help if there is any nitrogenous buildup.

When you say that I'm going to have aggression issues, do you mean mainly from the severums, or any others?

edit: sorry, didn't see your post yet, rich_one. I've never heard of balas getting to be 16", but rather 10". My design was actually based off my Professor (Leibel)'s design, where he has a 125 with 4 Mesonauta and 6 Uara fernandezyepezi, near full grown, living with each other. They had tankmates (tetras) but those started dying off of old age.
 
moonstruckmuse;5154488; said:
The smaller sevs (4 of them) have all been living together and will be able to be moved back into their original tank if necessary. The larger sevs have been living with the catfish, JD, and aro no problem.
As for filtration, most of these fish have filters that were already handling all their waste. The only thing I'm doing is consolidating them into one tank, so I would think that the filters would still be able to handle that when grouped together on that one tank? I'll also be doing more frequent water changes initially to help if there is any nitrogenous buildup.

When you say that I'm going to have aggression issues, do you mean mainly from the severums, or any others?

edit: sorry, didn't see your post yet, rich_one. I've never heard of balas getting to be 16", but rather 10". My design was actually based off my Professor (Leibel)'s design, where he has a 125 with 4 Mesonauta and 6 Uara fernandezyepezi, near full grown, living with each other. They had tankmates (tetras) but those started dying off of old age.
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Hey man, if you have it figured out, then I would say you have to go with what you believe. I'm going to stand by my statement that I think this is a bad idea. But you kinda sound like you have your mind made up, so I'm not gonna flame you about it or anything. I wish you luck on your consoldation efforts!

I really cannot honestly recommend any tankmates, as I personally think this is going to end up being enough trouble as it is... but hopefully someone can chime in and answer your actual question... sorry about that. Good luck!

-Rich
 
Augh, the internet ate my post.

Okay, so I guess I'm confused - I've seen many tanks with large severum happily schooling in groups of ~6 fish in a 125 gallon tank. Since I also have a number of tanks where fish can be separated to if necessary (I also did my thesis on cichlid aggression), I'm not that concerned about them. They've been together, spawned before (somewhat bad, but not awful aggression), etc. There's also a ton of driftwood and planting to help break up lines of vision and provide territories. I could try to sell a few, but ultimately, they're all in my tanks already.

Is the main overstocking coming from the bala sharks? There seems to be a ton of confusion about what size they get and what's the minimum size for a tank, so I'm baffled - Fishbase suggests a 5' tank, many on MFK say a 6' tank, and many say more. The way I see it is that these are mostly all rescues, and therefore a 125gallon is better than a 20 gallon, but should I pass on these anyhow?
I also figured, as minnows, they're a lot less messy than cichlids. Haha. How does that change bioload?

What would be your recommendations?
 
Haha, my mind's not necessarily made up - I just can't lose any of the sevs, hahaha. My mother gets super attached and she literally cried the last time I tried to sell a fish - she's only letting go of the arowana and JD because she's terrified of them and I told her that they could do better than our tank.

Thanks for your help though! I really appreciate it. I don't mean to sound stubborn, but rather, confused, haha. If you don't mind telling me where you think the best places to cut asides from the sevs are, please let me know?
 
bala sharks + angel fish sounds bad. passive and active fish especially dwelling on the same strata don't mix well.
 
Yeah... I'd say do away with the bala sharks. I'm not so sure the sevs will fail... it could work, given the number. I find that those kind of numbers make it hard for one individual to be singled out. So, cichlids being cichlids, you'll have some fighting, but it shouldn't be TOO bad, I think. Maybe you could do away with the bala sharks and go with some sort of tetra that gets large enough, but not as large as the bala sharks. A tetra that will shoal, but not necessarily as "excitable" as the bala sharks? Honestly, I think certain rainbows could possibly work as well.

I think angels and sevs together are fine...

BTW... I don't mean to indicate you as being "stubborn". Just that I've been there. I've tried ill-advised things, and sometimes they've worked, and sometimes they haven't worked. One thing I like about this hobby is that there really are few constants. As scientific as everyone loves to make it... you sometimes never know what works until you try it. So I would take advice that people give... present company included... as guidelines. Not gospel.

That's just me.

Again... good luck!

-Rich
 
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