Tank suggestions, an general feedback

[DamoAu]

I’m recently knew to keeping American cichlids, I was keeping a 60gal with plants an a heap of small stuff but got bored so I’ve started keeping some American cichlids, so the 60 gal is now stocked as follows

1x blue Texas
1x red devil
1x marbeled fenastratus albino, that’s what the guys at my lfs said would love some clarification on that
2x convicts
1x tiger Oscar
2x pearl cichlid
2x geo-tapahose (I think)
1x blue acara
1x fire mouth
1x jewel cichlid ( I know not American got to big in my jewel colony an has been moved temporarily
1x 3 spot gourami ( part of the reason I switched from tetras, cory’s Ect is because he kept killing stuff even in a 60 gal haven’t had any issues surprisingly? With the cichlids)

Been up an running for a couple of months now no issues no deaths an I’m about to upgrade from a 60gal to a 128gal tank in a months time but I’m not exactly sure on a couple of things that I would like cleared up before I upgrade

1. What would be my ideal temperature currently 78.5f I’m un-sure cause of my stocking

2. I’ve done some googling about the aggression of the fish but would be some issues I’m going to have potentially, I do notice that the geo’s do seem to get beat up from time to time an so far there has been one occasion where the blue Texas an the larger pearl cichlid were fighting I moved the rocks added a log an all fighting apart from a couple of nips

3. Some of these fish when they get to big will be moved but would be some suggestions on future stocking? I’m thinking a Mabey a Jaguar, possible a red terror an a jack Dempsey

4. Cheers if you read all this, my spelling is terrible I apologise haha

 

[Gourami Swami]

Hello,
First off, good on you for coming and asking questions. Better to learn the right way, than the hard way.
The fish you have currently, will be far overstocked for the 125 gallon once the fish are mature, and I can predict that your small, less aggressive fish such as the geophagus, will probably be killed once the more aggressive species are mature. If the LFS guys advised you that this stocking would be ok, I would stop asking them, they don't know.

What I would recommend, would be to get rid of the few fish you have which are CA cichlids with a much higher aggression level, and keep the less aggressive fish, which will cohabit much better. The texas cichlid, red devil, and fenestratus, will eventually become extremely aggressive, and can all get to 12" long. Any one of these fish, are likely to want to dominate the tank, usually killing competitors along the way. I would also lose the convicts, much meaner than your other similarly sized fish.

If you get rid of those four fish, you may be able to keep the rest of your stock in the 125. The Oscar alone will get very large and take up a lot of the available bio-load of the tank. The rest of the cichlids you have are relatively peaceful and should be able to live together with the Oscar. I would forget about adding more cichlids, a 125 probably seems big at first, but it is not a large tank when talking about territorial CA/SA species. For example, a jaguar cichlid would outgrow the tank alone, even with on other tankmates. If you wanted to add more, I would be looking at 200+ gallon tanks.

 

[DamoAu]

From what I’ve read an what the lfs have told me over stocking would be my best route if I wanted to keep a few, an I have had good success with African cichlids doing this, as for the bio-load I’m not too worried about that I’m running about 2500l an hour atm as it is, the water looks cloudy cause I just pulled some plants out, an I’m looking a useing one of those 40gal plastic drum as a sump for the 125gal,

How long till these fish reach sizes where the aggression is going to become an issues the red devil is probs 5-6 inches the blue Texas about 4-5 an the fenastraus is about 6-8 inches I’d rather not lose these ones cause personally I prefer the bigger fish Plus don’t plan on breeding any of these, as for the convicts an the geo’s my plan is to keep those in the 60gal as well with the blue acara an the fire mouth till it grows out, personally I rather go down the route of over stocking for aggression cause I find it’s easy to deal with then with one or two fish in the tank, but like I said this is coming from my experience with Africans idk if the same logic applies to Americans as Africans

 

[blackwolf911]

From what I’ve read an what the lfs have told me over stocking would be my best route if I wanted to keep a few, an I have had good success with African cichlids doing this, as for the bio-load I’m not too worried about that I’m running about 2500l an hour atm as it is, the water looks cloudy cause I just pulled some plants out, an I’m looking a useing one of those 40gal plastic drum as a sump for the 125gal,

How long till these fish reach sizes where the aggression is going to become an issues the red devil is probs 5-6 inches the blue Texas about 4-5 an the fenastraus is about 6-8 inches I’d rather not lose these ones cause personally I prefer the bigger fish Plus don’t plan on breeding any of these, as for the convicts an the geo’s my plan is to keep those in the 60gal as well with the blue acara an the fire mouth till it grows out, personally I rather go down the route of over stocking for aggression cause I find it’s easy to deal with then with one or two fish in the tank, but like I said this is coming from my experience with Africans idk if the same logic applies to Americans as Africans

In the above answer the guy told you that that SA /CA cichlids get a bit larger and more aggressive.. most likely the red devil and the oscar wont live together when they get larger.. also the jewel ,the firemouth and the 3 spot cant live with the oscar or the red devil.. it seems like you may have some fish that can live together but you have to group them by max size..

 

[duanes]

I agree totally with Gourami Swami assessment.
Assuming the African cichlid model will work with Central Americans just doesn't work unless you have a 300 gallon or larger tank, and in anything less, usually a disaster in the making..
A 125 is good for maybe 2 or 3 medium Central Americans, or better a group of S Americans. To me, a 125is even too small for a pair of manganese.
I realize this seems to be a bit thin stocking now, when they are young, but at maturity their aggression level, and territoriality can devastate a tank of that size.
Besides that, most Central American cichlids usually don't mix well with South Americans for this heightened sense of aggression reason. The South American are much more tolerant of slight overstocking, and may be better for the kind of community you seem to want.
I have kept every Central American, and most of the S Americans cichlid you mention, over my 50+ years of cichlid keeping, and my reasoning, comes from that experience, and easily making every mistake in the book (similar to, what to me you suggest as stocking), and then some.
If death and destruction, and stress induced disease are tolerable as the norm in an aquarium, then go ahead. And be sure to document it, to show if what we say is true, or if we are just simple naysayers.

 

[Gourami Swami]

The African cichlid method does not work as well with American cichlids, because (among other reasons) the way they fight is different, preferring lip-locking which can result in a fish losing half it's face, as opposed to the africans which usually strike at each other quickly, nip tails, and chase.
If you like the bigger fish and want to try having a community of large aggressive cichlids such as the red devil, fenestratus, texas, I would advise you skip the 125 and go for something 200-300 gallons, which will give you a much better chance of success. In the 125, chance of long-term success for the type of setup you want, is very low. Most likely outcome is you will end up with one dominant fish which does well, and the rest of the fish will be badly battered, hiding, or dead. In a 200-300 gallon tank, I think it is very plausible to do the type of setup you want with big fish.
As for how long you have, for all these species I would expect 1" per month growth until about 8-9", as long as water is kept clean (less than 20ppm nitrate) and decent food is provided. 8-10"+ is usually when these fish stop being so tolerant of each other as well.

 

[celebrist]

That is all very Sound Advice hopefully you will take it into consideration everybody wants you to be successful

 

[DamoAu]

I wanna know how fast do they go from 4-5 inches to the 10-12 inches, I know they get a bit larger an i know they are more aggressive, but mixed tanks can be done just requires work like i said all these fish currently are fine im upgradeing just to give them more room, i dissagree with the 3 spot gouraim while in size yeah not big enough but nothing attacks him an his fast enough to get away, gouramis are servely underated his the only one that has killed any cichlids, my red devil is the sook of the tank is way bigger then the jewel ( the jewel is only in their while it stops being a bully then it will go back with the colony of them ) an the red devil backs off from the jewel, the only aggression i have in the tank is geophagus (the pearl cichlid)

Which i also cleared up by saying that the firemouth, blue acara, convicts the 3 spot an geophagus arent going into the 125gal with the oscar, red devil, blue texas, i wanna know how long does it take for these guys to get 10inches or too a size were it could be issue

 

[Niki_up]

i wanna know how long does it take for these guys to get 10inches or too a size were it could be issue

I’m not an expert on stocking by no means, but I do know when you over crowd growing fish they grow slower and you run the risk of stunting them, preventing them from reaching their true mature size.

Fish put off growth inhibiting hormones in the water to slow down the growth of other fish (their siblings usually) so they can increase their own chances of growing the biggest and the fastest and end up being the survivor of their siblings.

Now you don’t have siblings but you do have immature fish that are still growing and still striving to be the survivor...

I honestly don’t think anyone can tell you when or how long it will take them to reach the 9-10 inch mark as you are not providing the optimal environment for them to reach their optimal size. Some of your fish are too large as adults to live in a 60g alone for its entire life.

 

[Stanzzzz7]

This looks like another case of asking a question and not liking the answer.
Some very knowledgeable people have advised you well
Your stocking is awful, it won't work, your tanks are tiny for what you are attempting. Ops going to do what he's going to do, I just pity the poor fish.