What's the secret to stocked tanks ?

[Flowerhorntx]

Oh okay didn't know that. Yeah more often than not us fish keepers tend to overstock our fish lol

Yea lol that's what I put ( it's an example of someone's tank) yea I would never over stock my tanks, I bearly keep those 2 in my 55 and there's still kind of small. I just never get how people are able to over stock and keep there fish from killing each other

 

[duanes]

Most large cichlids take around 3 years to reach full potential, so unless an "overstocked" tank has been set up with the same stock for longer than that length of time successfully, the keeper really doesn't now if it will work or not. You should always question the actual experience of anyone telling you their tank "works".
A tank that has only "worked" 6 months or even 2 years is in its infancy.
And the other posters above are all dead on, about the inadequate size of a 55gal.
Unless you already have much larger tanks sitting there ready to use, and hospital tanks ready for the potential casualties, overstocking is a disaster waiting to happen.

 

[Username.]

I would never do this as nobody else should, but in order to break aggression while overstocking the "trick" is breaking lines of sight, having so many fish territories are unable to create, having dithers, and having them all grow up together. At least of what I've seen.

 

[Username.]

And imo, a 55 gallon is just big enough for a single 7" fish (8" is pushing it)

 

[axs377]

It's a combo of what everyone else said. I have a 320+ tank with a jag, oscar, texas, 2 middevils, 3 chanchos, a brehordi, jd, flowerhorn, festae. And it works fine for now. The plan is removing 1 middevil and 2 chanchos and crossing my fingers that they continue to get along.I did have to remove a trimac due to his insane aggression, some fish are just nuts and will likely never work in a community unless the tank is huge 600 gallons+

 

[Pomatomus]

I would never do this as nobody else should, but in order to break aggression while overstocking the "trick" is breaking lines of sight, having so many fish territories are unable to create, having dithers, and having them all grow up together. At least of what I've seen.

Agreed, line of sight is huge. Having multiple hiding spots could help, and will make it less likely that a cichlid will be pushed into an upper corner (the ultimate submission). You are going to run into this problem in general as your fish reach that 4-6" mark and become sexually mature. That's when cichlids get nasty and you see their adult personalities.