Vieja Maculicauda & Firemouth Shoal
- Thread starter Roger Mcfish
- Start date
Firemouths are one of my favourites; beautiful, relatively peaceful, well-suited to living in a school of their own species, usually topping out at 5 or 6 inches. I've kept them in cichlid communities where they were they smallest species, and they survived and even bred under those conditions, mostly by being discreet and pretty much flying under the radar.
I've had one black belt...back in the day it was called Cichlasoma synspilum...and that was one of the most aggressive and troublesome fish in the tank. It was easily able to maintain itself in a community of notable troublemakers like Buttikoferi, Managuense, Red Devil, etc. It killed numerous tankmates over the years it spent in a 360-gallon tank as one of the main Bad Boys in that group.
Even if the mix you propose worked for a time in a 125, the Vieja will continue to grow much larger when the Firemouths have pretty much stopped. If it doesn't kill them when they are all the same size, which I expect it would...once it's twice their size, I think they are toast.
I've had one black belt...back in the day it was called Cichlasoma synspilum...and that was one of the most aggressive and troublesome fish in the tank. It was easily able to maintain itself in a community of notable troublemakers like Buttikoferi, Managuense, Red Devil, etc. It killed numerous tankmates over the years it spent in a 360-gallon tank as one of the main Bad Boys in that group.
Even if the mix you propose worked for a time in a 125, the Vieja will continue to grow much larger when the Firemouths have pretty much stopped. If it doesn't kill them when they are all the same size, which I expect it would...once it's twice their size, I think they are toast.
I have 6 firemouths at 2.5 inches in a 75 gallon and I have a 5 inch black belt in a 125 gallon with a 5 inch electric blue Texas or carpintis , 4 inch female salvini, 3 inch female cuban and jack dempsey. I believe the two future behemoths are starting to realize there could only be one big guy and it's stressing the salvini and jd. The female cuban could care less and doesn't back down.
So I'm thinking of placing the firemouths with significant hiding spots with the vieja and placing the others in separate tanks I have available. Or leave the other residents in the 125 and move the vieja out.
Firemouth r more of an open water type sifter…not like convicts that relate more to structure…convict types would work better
Dont mind the current residents. Few are being moved to a different tank and I'm waiting to decide on a darker substrate decision before placing the firemouths into this with that vieja.