14 replies to this topic

[Bninja79]

i've got a 6x2x2 tank sitting empty till my new house is finished and i'm interested in putting in a couple of americans. i've only kept braziliensis and rivulatus for a short time before so i'm looking for some advice on possible combinations. i was thinking 2 bigish ones and maybe 4 smaller/medium cichlids. Anyone with experience of this type of setup?
i'd like to get a texas in there but the rest i'm flexible on

[Barca888]

As long as the two biggish ones cant fit the two smallish ones in its mouth. I find the big fish dont really mind the not eatable not threatable fish swimming along in their territory.

[Bninja79]

So if i put in say a texas and a black belt as the big fish what smaller ones would be possibilities?
preferable something nice and colourful

[Bninja79]

hmmmm
so realistically if i want 1/2 a dozen cichlids, then texas is out? (that was the one i had my heart set on)
i like the look of the nicaraguense, but some of the pics google turned up were really dull while others were really colourful. What sort of quality are the nicaraguense in perth?

[Barca888]

My green terror has never attacked my electric yellows, electric blue (large) or the other fish which i do not know what it is. These guys just float around in his territory. While the blackbelt, oscars and venustus are bullied out. My oscars dont really care about other fish (even my yellows) as long as they stay out of the nest.

So if you wanna keep several different american cichlids let the big known tough guys have their own territories. Then u can just experiment with smaller peaceful ones. Hopefully they'll let them be, hopefully.

Unless you wanna setup a different tank with some peaceful ones and keep a few tough guys in another tank. It all depends on the fish you get, like people some fish are bastards.

[mremants]

I can't believe you guys forgot my favourite Lrg South American! Green and Gold Severums.
Although I like the greens better personally, they are considered gentle giants amongst South American Cichlids.
They grow to about 25-20cm, are very intelligent and should go fine with other geophagus species.
(check this)
www.sydneycichlid.com/art...verus.html
www.aquahobby.com/gallery/gseverum.html

As for Med-Lrg Cichlids you can't go past jewel cichlids (15cm), or even cichlasoma salvini (15cm)they aren't too aggressive and are some of the most beautiful chichlids you will see.

So this is my final recommendations:
Severum (Heros severus)
Parrots (Hyphosophyrus nicaraguense)
Salvini (cichlasoma salvini)
Jewel Cichlid
Sajica (Arcocentrus sajica)
And any Geophagus

Don't go with firemouths or texas, besides texas's are only beautiful at maturity and those parrot like colours only occur in females I believe. Firemouths are a no no for their aggressiveness.

Sure we can all sit here and tell you about the general temprement of cichlid speices but remember, particularly in large intelligent fish, such as a severum, you get personalities, some destructive others are peaceful.

Hope i helped ( I keep south Americans too )

Edited by: mremants at: 1/2/04 12:15 pm

[Bninja79]

Barca can you tell me more about your setup? sounds very interesting. Are you keeping africans and americans together?

I definately like the idea of salvini as the pics i've seen of them are awesome, are they available in perth?

jonahsaquarium.com/picnicaraguense.htm
is this pic indicative of the quality of nicaraguense we have available here?

personality is definately what i'm after (looks too)
so severum, parrot and salvini are my pics so far...

what combinations are best?
m/f, groups or individuals

i know africans but not sure of the best way to keep americans

[Barca888]

Well i had two large tiger oscars and two large salmon tails living in a 40 g tank. I also had my electric yellows in another. This is where my love for cichlids began. I wanted to give my yellows a nice home and also had the problem with the oscars and tails. So i setup a new 6fter with normal (white) aquarium gravel with limestone rockwork. Since i was gonna keep africans and americans i decided to keep the water at around 7.5 ph.

I added in my electric yellows and then my oscars. It was quite amusing seeing my oscars trying to eat em when i first let them in. To my comfort none of the yellows got eaten. I added various other small fish like kribensis, smallish convicts (females got eaten male died another way), lombardoi, electric blues (smallish). Most of these fish were eaten over days or even weeks. Since I didn't want a barren tank i decided to go for some larger fish which my oscars would not eat. I purchased two blackbelts, one vanished over night. I also purchased a large electric blue (i was fairly angry at the death of my prized younger male i raised, its heart was still beating when i pulled it out from me oscars mouth) and then my Green terror (purchased under the name "blue acara").

Well after a few years of keeping a few americans in hardish water they seem to be doing well. The fish politics in my tank is a lil crazy but very interesting to look at. My green terror keeps to his side of the tank while my two oscars and blackbelt share the otherside. My male electric blue spars with my female venustus (venustus becomes butch towards him while she carries eggs) and my electric yellows spar with an unknown fish i purchased at a fish shop closing down. After experimenting with such a weird setup i can come to one conclusion, dont impulse buy and always research . I also find the electric yellow to be a wizard and not getting eaten. If they have rocks nothing will get em. Im glad my tigers are usually busy away building and maintaining their nest.

At the present time i have

2x 30cm tiger oscars
3x Elec yellows (alot more in my fry tank)
1x large venustus
1x large electric blue
1x 20cm Green terror
1x 20cm Blackbelt

all in a 6fter

This is all coming to an end once i get my 5fter. My americans are gonna have their own tank where they cant bully my poor venustus. Well that's the story of my mixed tank, if you are still reading i hope u enjoyed it ;\

Thanks peter

[mremants]

That's sound advice Barca.

As for actual tank setup from my experience (mistakes) i would recommend:

1. Having 3 area's in the tank :
Planted (medium to heavily) maybe some bogwood in-between this should be in a gravel area preferably in the middle of the tank (most of ground should be gravel) * not large stones fine gravel, but not too fine; if you know what i mean, as not to get dusty.*
This is essential to your tanks well being as later on you will run into cleaning problems -> disease.

Area 2 should be a gravel with caves and on the left side or wherever your filter is placed. Area 3 should be caves with sand as some fish will want to sift the sand and breed where the ground is sandy.

Maybe gravel, granite caves one side; sand, limestone caves would go well. Important that caves be on different sides of aquarium.

Also slant the aquarium from back to the front very slightly so that any fish deposits gather at the front and can easily be cleaned.

So in summery:
(Filter)
[=\ -----------------------------------l
I=-I-----------------------------------I
IO/-----------------------------------'l
IJ---(caves)----(plants)-------(caves) I
I----Gravel------Gravel--------Sand---I
==============================

Hope you get something you like out of it, Good luck.

Edited by: mremants at: 1/3/04 4:01 pm

[mremants]

Btw, Salvini can be found in Vebas.

The owner laughed at me asking weather it was a rarity (3-5cm)($16.50) * $15.00 if your PCS member*

Yes they've still got them and no i haven't seen them anywhere else, and believe me i've looked.

Btw the yellow colouration occurs closer towards maturity but the other features happen to be there in jeuviniles ( the black stripes) which makes them still pretty stunning fish at 3-5cm.

[wysiwyg]

Aquotix has parrots, salvini, severums, festivums, jurapari, surinamensis, hondae, acaras, rivulatus, plus many of the bully busters (black belts, synspillum, trochelii, jacks etc). BTW the parrot pair I have are stunning and the colour is equal to that shown in your pic. The young parrots at Aquotix are from their spawning. Male and female are equally nice, although only the female has the blue.

HTH.

wys

[Terry]

I recently spawned temensis. OOPs sorry Alex (Cichla monoculus) They will be available in about 6 weeks if your after BIG americans
Terry

[urodacus]

monoculus or temensis Terry? I havent heard of temensis here, be nice if they were though. Always liked the big Cichla sp. just dont have the room to keep them at the moment.

Cheers
Jordan

[bigfish]

hey Terry i've seen your fish very very nice

these fish will go fast

terry im very interested in a couple can you post prices and size or just PM me from my profile and ill get back to you

cheers Anthony