Would this have me overstocked?

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BloodThirsty

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 31, 2006
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Indiana
Picked up another Chocolate last night. I think this one might be a male and I'm pretty sure my other is a female. They are both about 6" or under right now but here is my possible future stock.

4' tank 120 Gallon:

Chocolate Pair
GT
Texas

So I'm looking at four fish in the 120 along with maybe the three Silver Dollars I currently have. My reasoning for getting the other Choc was because my GT is starting to show quite a bit of aggression toward the Choc that is currently in there. I figured a pair might be a little more aggressive in response. As I've seen pics of Chocolate pairs on here mixed with more aggro SA's.
 
It's not going to be a fun tank. Chocolates are docile cichlids when not breeding; when they are breeding they're aggressive but won't rip other fishes faces off.

What you're probably going to see is either both Chocolates getting the pants beaten off them, primarily by the Texas I would imagine, or both Chocolates will keep the Texas and GT in the opposite corner. Either way that doesn't seem like a great combination to me.

Hotfishgirls has a pair of Chocolates in her well stocked 300, obviously this means it can work, but she has a lot of mildly-reasonably aggressive CA/SA Cichlids in there to spread aggression, four in a 4x2x2 won't do it. I'm sure she also has a backup plan if things went sour with aggression.

Personally, if it was my tank, I'd sell off the Chocolates and get some Convicts, Salvini, or other mid-sized bang for your buck (in the aggression department) Cichlids that you know will defend themselves. Chocolates are big slow moving softies. I would have said sell off the GT/Texas and keep the Chocolate pair with some other fish, but it would be the same scenario; I'm not a fan of aggression.

Edit:

Almost forgot. Wait and see what happens first, the Chocolates may not pair up sexually and defend themselves together, you never know. All about trial and error.
 
I do have a 55 I can drop em in if things get wild. Any other thoughts on this stocking?
 
For the most part I agree with japes. It's not overstocked, since that's the actual question. See what happens. You never know how cichlids are going to interact until you put them together.
 
Hawkfish3.0;1751846; said:
For the most part I agree with japes. It's not overstocked, since that's the actual question. See what happens. You never know how cichlids are going to interact until you put them together.
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Cool. The new Chocolate is in QT right now along with my little Texas. The Texas is still too small to go in with the GT so we shall see in a few months how it turns out.
 
You might make out better with a pair, but a 4' tank is a bit cramped. I just recently lost a chocolate in a 5' tank with a jag,firemouth,gt,jd, and salvini. It got beat up pretty bad and it happened fast. One day it was fine, the nest day it wasn't. I thought, because of what I read in a book, that the chocolate was more aggressive than it was. Keep close watch.
 
its not over stocked in my books.
 
Chocolates seem to be one of those jerkle and hyde type fish ... on many forums have seen them reported as timid and just as many times have seen them wipe out other 'mild' cichlids like sevs, oscars and green terrors (mild compared with most centrals at least). I guess it'll depend on which ones you get.

As for the overstocking, at this time I'd say no. Once full grown all 4 then I'd say yes not for the gallonage, but for floor space/territory.
 
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