what kinda fish should i get?

[Jkoziatek]

i wanna have a cichlid tank and i understand they get very messy, so i was wondering what i should get to clean up? ( i chose bottom dwellers cause I'm assuming scraps will fall to the floor)

 

[Jkoziatek]

should i get a cat.. or a plec?

 

[jconley]

If you are doing African cichlids I would do one or several synodontis cats, if South or Central American cichlids, I would still do a synodontis or a small pim cat. Here are some links to both families....
Synos.http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/family.php?family_id=13
Pims. http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/family.php?family_id=15
P. pictus is a common and good choice.

On a side note, some people will probably flame me for recommending synos. with new world cichlids, but I've been doing it for years and MOST of them are happy in pH levels from 6.0-8.5!

Plecos tend to create WAY more mess than they clean, trust me, I speak from LOTS of experience cleaning pleco crap lol!

 

[killerfish]

what kind of cichlids? depends on the size really for big cichlids try
sun catfish
some fourm of pim
rapheal (mabye they grow slow)
lima shovelnose (for mildly aggressive cichlids)
some kind of armored catfish ]
also what size tank

 

[Jkoziatek]

the cats gotta go in a 30 and its prob gunna be with rams, apistos and kribs

 

[jconley]

Those types of cichlids aren't really "messy", and in a 30 gallon your going to have major territorial issues when they want to breed! Also IF you are going to try to breed them, most of the affore mentioned cats are going to try (and probably succeed!) to eat the eggs and or fry. Try some coryadoras cats, they tend to be more placid and stay small.

 

[killerfish]

we'll kribs and rams won't work they need totally differnt water but for the cat i'd go with
pictus
rapheal
some kind of syno
a cory of some kind
or another small catfish there alot of them

 

[jconley]

we'll kribs and rams won't work they need totally differnt water but for the cat i'd go with
pictus
rapheal
some kind of syno
a cory of some kind
or another small catfish there alot of them

Actually, they come from very similar water conditions. Rams, Apistos, and Kribs will thrive and breed quite readily in pH ranging from 6.0-7.0, of course rams and apistos will thrive in lower pH as well. We maintain populations of all of these in the store and they are always breeding in these conditions. Not so much the rams, but the apistos and kribs.

 

[Jkoziatek]

i'm not really looking to breed them as much as i just want beautiful fish to live a long time... and i heard if i add dither fish that territorial issues arent as common ( adding dither to the degree where u overstock a little) is that true?

and i wanna keep my tank as clean as possible crystal is always best , so i want a cat that will just clean up... so what cat stays small but is a big eater and isnt too aggressive

 

[jconley]

Then I would definitely suggest a spotted pim(pictus) or a synodontis that stays small.