Vieja's Questions....?

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koltsixx

koltsixx

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I seriously love the way Vieja's look and I really want to try some in my comm. tank. I like to keep a varied comm. though and try to do as much research as possible before introducing a new tankmate into the mix. I've researched the Vieja's I'm interested in and pretty much they're all described as aggressive. A quality not unusual in a cichlid though most of my experience has been with Red Devils which are pretty nasty and very hard to work into a comm. even with fish of non-cichlid descent. Anyway I'm looking for opinions on Vieja Argentea and Vieja Melanarus. I want to try mixing one of them with Gar's and was wondering how viable this is. I know they have a highly developed aggressive instinct to conspecific's, but how severe is it toward non-conspecific's. So any Vieja keeper's please share your experience in this respect, so I can make an informed decision. Thank you in advance.
 
I've had regani, which were awesome by the way, and they were in a community with severums and grammodes. They were the most aggressive of the bunch and ended up killing one of the grammodes. But this was in a 75 gal grow out tank. If you are in 150 or so there should be little or no attention paid to the gar.
 
The conspecifics are really what you have to worry about with Vieja/ Paratheraps. As long as the gar is the same size or bigger I dont see the Vieja pestering it too much.
 
Thanks guys for the info. Does anyone have any personal experience with Vieja Argentea or Melanarus in a community. I know I've seen pics on here with a mixed comm with these guys. I don't know however how long or how successful the comm. worked out. Did the Vieja's become more aggressive as they grew, did the keeper continue to have success with the comm. or did it eventually break down? So please more input I don't want to sentence my stock to death with a poor decision fueled by lack of info. I really need more info from experienced keeper's of these guys. I know there's a Vieja Guru on here(Lol!) that could help me out with tons of info and personal experience. So please help me!
 
Lowcel and Flowerpower have successfully kept Central American community tanks. There are others but I know these two have. I'm just not 100% sure if they had Argentea. I think there success was because of large tank sizes and a lot of trial and error. I have a Central Amer. community tank too, minus the Raphael Cat. I can only say that it is working for me at the moment. My cichlids are still young so this could change. They are around 4-5" each. My Argentea and Fenestratus flare up and chase each other sometimes but there's no real fights. The synspilus is the boss and the largest. He's pushing pretty close to 6" now. My Argentea was the last addition. He was shy and timid at first but after a few days he forced his way up the pecking order. Of the six cichlids, he is 4th in terms of rank. They will be moved to a 220-240gal. in a few months. This should increase my chances of keeping them together with some Clown Loaches. I am also prepared to remove some of them if things go bad. Good luck.
 
I kept melanarus with amphilophus xiloaensis and a growing dovii for a little while in a 125 and the melanarus was fine. It didn't go out of its way to cause problems but at the same time was no slouch if someone came after it.
 
I have an argentea and a regani in my tank. Tank mates are, 10" Oscar, 8" red devil, 6" butikoferi. Both viejas are 10 to 9" in length. The Oscar is the ruler of the tank, the agentea is number 2. Then red devil, butikoferi and finally the regani.

None of the fish seam to bother anyone else. However, the two blue gills in the aquarium get chased a bit.
 
yayagoddess;4554733;4554733 said:
I have an argentea and a regani in my tank. Tank mates are, 10" Oscar, 8" red devil, 6" butikoferi. Both viejas are 10 to 9" in length. The Oscar is the ruler of the tank, the agentea is number 2. Then red devil, butikoferi and finally the regani.

None of the fish seam to bother anyone else. However, the two blue gills in the aquarium get chased a bit.
Click to expand...
What is the size of this tank? It must be pretty big.
 
I had a Synspillum and it was the most aggressive fish i ever owned.
It was rehomed after she had my oscar knock himself out and severely damaged, nipped my SD's and fought my Plecos over their Zuchinni...

Strange thing was that the only fish that wasn't bothered by her, was my Florida gar.
So, be carefull, they can be very temperamentfull..
 
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