tank setup and fish

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fork203551

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 23, 2008
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IL
i'm kinda new to keeping anything other then tropical fish and have a few question. here is a list of fish i have

1. Jack Dempsey
2. blood parrott cichlid
3. needle noise fish (freshwater)
4. big pleco

tank=55gal

let me explan abit about my tank. we fist got the blood cichlid with 4 large molly's. we then found out in 30 mins the cichlid ate 3 of them. we got the other out but it ded in less then a day. looking for a mate for the blood cichlid we got a Jack Dempser. they had no problems together. other then the normal get out of my way nip. things we fine. then the alge level went way up. I mean way up. tank got covered in alge in 3 days. I went to the pet store and got the biggest pleco they had. droped him in and he went to town. had it cleaned in 1 day. tested the water and levels were fine. not sure what happened. not i'm finding the pleco and the blood cichild in this grand coliseum part we got from petco. for the life of me i can't find out why. the dempser goes in from time to time just to get chased out. looks like both fish are ok being in there. the other day i went on the hun to get a few more fish for this tank. ended up getting a green terror and a needle fish. the needle fish looks cool and is so far ok in the tank. as for the green terror. well he turned out to be a gran terror for the tank. going after everything. so he went back. had in no longer then 30 mins.

so my questions are. are these ok fish to keep together? will the needle fish be a problem? so far the needle fish hasn't eaten any feeder fish in the tank. should i take the feeders out? if so when should i put them back in and how many?

I also have a Polypterus bichir bichir and was wodering if i could by chance add him to this tank. please let me know the answers and anything else i should know about these fish. I am need to them so the more info thr better
 
Your tank sounds ok for now. But the pleco will out grow the tank if it is a Common Pleco. Your Jack Dempsey may get aggressive and could kill everything else in the tank, but it depends on the individual fish.

Youe Needle Nose should be kept in groups of 3 or more to be happy, but i think your jd will kill it eventually. But it all depends on the JD itself.

Watch the JD and Parrot for aggressive. The JD wil soon outgrow the Parrot, thats when there could be a war.

You can put your bichir in the tank as well.

Be prepared for a lot of water changes because that is quite a bioload. And just keep a warry eye on the tank and all should be ok.
 
piranhalova666;2454392; said:
Your tank sounds ok for now. But the pleco will out grow the tank if it is a Common Pleco. Your Jack Dempsey may get aggressive and could kill everything else in the tank, but it depends on the individual fish.

Youe Needle Nose should be kept in groups of 3 or more to be happy, but i think your jd will kill it eventually. But it all depends on the JD itself.

Watch the JD and Parrot for aggressive. The JD wil soon outgrow the Parrot, thats when there could be a war.

You can put your bichir in the tank as well.

Be prepared for a lot of water changes because that is quite a bioload. And just keep a warry eye on the tank and all should be ok.
Click to expand...


would moving my birchir into the 55 gal tank and moving the jd into the 45 gal long tank be better for the tank setup? and i've noticed the blood cichlid hiding some and chasing the jd away from time to time. but the jd isn't really going after the blood cichlid. more like following it around
 
My suggestion would be to move the bichir into the 55 and take the Needle and move it into the 45 and get maybe 2 more and some cool bottom dwellers like raphael cats.

Maybe reconsider the common pleco and get a Bristlenose pleco?

Just curious where are you at in illinois?
 
i'm concered about adding the birch. not sure if they others will go afterit or what. also about the jd will that be a problem later on or now? looks like he's following the blood cichlid around alot or making it hide. i live about 45 mins from Wi
 
Hmmf well you could do what i had suggested before and put the blood in the 45.

and the bichir is a bottom dweller primarily so the JD shouldn't bother it too much. I have had red devils, texas, and oscars with bichirs before and they never bothered them.

o so you live like Lake Zurich area? or further west?

I live in the south suburbs of Chicago.
 
also would adding the birch with the needlenose be bad. even for a short time. need to fix the bottom tank inorder to move the needle down. also should i move the pleco down with the needle? looks like he stuck in the grand coliseum we have. well not stuck but won't come out and parrot is like leach around it. almost like garding it from the jd. sorry for all the questions new to keeping cichlids alittle west of there. (algonquin)
 
no the bichir and needle will be fine. needle stays on top, bichir on bottom.

its alright everyone has questions that need to be answer.

Just read a post about a guy who has 2 3in oscars in an 8 gallon tank!
 
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