Which Cichla for SA Community?

[Ryanthony01]

That monster Azul was flexing big time at the end

 

[tcav88]

Great video!

thanks robin!

 

[richyrich]

. @ 51 seconds you can see that azuls and Kel's Co exist in the wild

Interesting video cheers for sharing

 

[tcav88]

Interesting video cheers for sharing

glad you liked it richyrich

 

[robham777]

Thank you. I really appreciate the comment.

Your pH should be totally fine. I wouldn’t give it another thought. Stable water is what’s important.

I like buying juveniles in groups. I start with 5-6 minimum and would plan to grow them out and keep the best looking ones. Cichla do well in groups and they aren’t overly aggressive woth one another in groups while in unbonded pairs they can be.

I would get the bass from Wes or Jeff Rapps or Monster Aquarium. Aqua imports, aquascape, and ichiban tropical has some cool stock in addition to wet spot. I’m always suspect about buying ocellaris unless it’s from a reputable place with a point of origin listed since ocellaris is the catch all name distributors use for farmed hybrids. As for other fish, generally as long as they can’t fit in the mouths, you’re fine. But keep in mind that Cichla grow fast. Something can be a mate today and lunch tomorrow. Buy the other fish larger and be prepared to remove them if the Cichla are growing too fast. Your stock looks fine from what you listed.

Good luck. The hardest part about these fish are having a large enough tank, which you don’t have to worry about, and getting them off of live food.

The thought and planning you put into your display's is definitely worthy of some praise. I am not in a rush to acquire the bass since in order to fit the tank into my garage it is going to involve a makeover, but if you see wc juvies from a good source please let me know. If I am not mistaken availability of WC south american species should improve from now till the start of the rainy season in December. Would growing out 7 or so fingerlings be a problem in a 75 gallon for a few months? How much should I expect to pay for quality wc juvenile fish?

As for tank mates, I will definitely pull anything that could be prey as things progress. I imagine oscars are probably the only fish that would keep up in growth on my list. Depending on the final size of the bass they may be the only fish in the tank once mature.

Good to know that ph is not a big factor, because I want to run a drip on this tank and did not want to have to make the system overly complicated with mixing barrels and dosing pumps.

 

[mrrobxc]

The thought and planning you put into your display's is definitely worthy of some praise. I am not in a rush to acquire the bass since in order to fit the tank into my garage it is going to involve a makeover, but if you see wc juvies from a good source please let me know. If I am not mistaken availability of WC south american species should improve from now till the start of the rainy season in December. Would growing out 7 or so fingerlings be a problem in a 75 gallon for a few months? How much should I expect to pay for quality wc juvenile fish?

As for tank mates, I will definitely pull anything that could be prey as things progress. I imagine oscars are probably the only fish that would keep up in growth on my list. Depending on the final size of the bass they may be the only fish in the tank once mature.

Good to know that ph is not a big factor, because I want to run a drip on this tank and did not want to have to make the system overly complicated with mixing barrels and dosing pumps.

Getting seven to grow out in a 75 should be fine. I grew out six in a 40 gallon. Just feed light and keep the water clean unless your trying to grow them fast.

Price all depends on species. Intermedia, xingu, and brokos will cost you $100+ for 3-4”. Captive bred Kel, Azul, Orino, and Tems should run about 40-65 for 3-4”. Farmies are cheap but I wouldn’t get them since they are likely hybrids.

If you find something rarer like pinima or some of the rarer true ocellaris species, they’ll cost a bit more than the intermedia.

WC bass come in waves. tcav88 , Thomas, can you chime in on this question?

 

[mrrobxc]

The thought and planning you put into your display's is definitely worthy of some praise. I am not in a rush to acquire the bass since in order to fit the tank into my garage it is going to involve a makeover, but if you see wc juvies from a good source please let me know. If I am not mistaken availability of WC south american species should improve from now till the start of the rainy season in December. Would growing out 7 or so fingerlings be a problem in a 75 gallon for a few months? How much should I expect to pay for quality wc juvenile fish?

As for tank mates, I will definitely pull anything that could be prey as things progress. I imagine oscars are probably the only fish that would keep up in growth on my list. Depending on the final size of the bass they may be the only fish in the tank once mature.

Good to know that ph is not a big factor, because I want to run a drip on this tank and did not want to have to make the system overly complicated with mixing barrels and dosing pumps.

Oh. And larger severums species and hypselacara and hoplarchus can work well along with true Altifrons and Winemilleri geos. Oscars will work too. Just buy their tank mates large.

And thanks again. I just moved a bunch of my stock around. New pics coming soon.

 

[robham777]

Awesome footprint. Cichla do well in bigger groups as It defuses agression and odd numbers of fish seems to work best. Your stock sounds good allthough when the bass reach adult size it might be a issue with the smaller Cichlids. As far as ph goes I wouldn’t try to buffer the water. I would just go with it and let your fish adapt to you water parameters. For reference I have a ph of 7.0 and no issues.

Thanks for the input. I figured from looking at your tank as well as others that larger groups probably do better. Tank mates will probably dwindle as the fish grow, the others are fish I want or already have anyway so I would be willing to make other accommodations for them. I didn't really think ph would be a huge hurdle since the invasive population in south Florida seems to be doing quite well in the hard alkaline water down there.

 

[robham777]

I agree with everything said above except ordering from monster aquarium if your not local. Shipping is out the wazoo and they feed all their cichla live from the get go. All the other listed vendors I completely agree with. As for pH consistency is key for sure, the the only bass in my experience that provide aggression consistently are pinima and orinos, beside those two the rest of the species are pretty chill. Azuls and ocellaris are definitely better wild caught instead of the farmy versions most commonly available, ocellaris(brokopondo or Guyana) and Azul(lake furnace/Minas gerais and araguaia) good luck in your newfound C.R.E.A.M. addiction definitely worth it!....oh and groups of 5-7 are usually the staple for cichla

Thanks. Might as well get this out of the way now. I have seen it used on here often, but what does C.R.E.A.M. mean?

 

[mrrobxc]

Thanks. Might as well get this out of the way now. I have seen it used on here often, but what does C.R.E.A.M. mean?

There’s an old song from Wu Tang Clan called C.R.E.A.M. Which meant, “Cash rules everything around me”.

The old school guys on here replaced, “Cichla” with “Cash” to get, “Cichla rules everything around me”.