That’s a shame, have they found a new apartment yet?My house is 60 square meters, so for 2 Vieja's I would have to evict my wife and children from the apartment in order to adopt them. hahahahahaha... You are KING!
Monster Cichlids: Fish to Tank Ratio
- Thread starter TheViciousBitch
- Start date
Thank you - I should have phrased it differently. I meant, I don’t need guidance on massive filtration and flow (though I always will take advice, I’m not clueless in the area of sable water quality). I do need guidance in understanding personality, territory, swimming preferences, etc for monster American cichlids. In that aspect, I am clueless.
Thank you. Yes, that is the concept with this tank - only monster aggressive *******s. So they are all equally matched in size and aggression.
May be a pipe dream. Trying to do the research now, at the beginning… not 47 min before ordering 30 fish that will destroy each other in a tank half the size they need.
Yes, I don’t mind aggression if everyone is just having a little brawl and the tank isn’t stressed and injured/sickly from it. One of the reasons I want all big, not a crazy mix.
But I have enough experience that I know at least one, if not half, the fish I put into an aggressive tank will have problems. I expect having to make adjustments based on the specific fish. But, I would like a general idea of 1 fish for 50/75/150 gallon to have the least chance of a death match nightly. Another poster said 1 fish per 240 gallon. Not sure that is accurate based on everything else I’ve reviewed on YouTube. But I want a large range of real experience to help inform my future plan.
Thank you. This might be the way. Big one big species, get a group, and keep them with smaller fish like severum/geophagus that they will be happy to ignore.
I am not here for confirmation bias - I am willing to let this dream go. No matter how confident I am about my planning and fish keeping, I know I won’t be able to match the systems the massive YouTubers maintain. It take more than just time and a ton of money… you need luck and to be willing g to restart and ditch the fish a week after the impressive video. Lololol. To keep these fish healthy and happy for years requires caution and planning!
Thank you. It might be best to plan only one species of monster in a 600+ gal.. then smaller species to compliment. I want to keep considering multiple monsters, but if it just fighting daily, that isn’t fun for me or good for them.
I’m with you. That is why I’m asking. I want people who have kept monsters for years, to share. I might love the idea of 15 massive fish in a 600 or 800…. But if that is just bat s4it crazy… I would rather abandon the idea before the tank planning stages and go a different way.
There is a word that comes up on MFK now and again when questions regarding fish compatibility arise.....that word is "crapshoot".
It is probably the best word to sum up this monster cichlid dream tank you are planning. Would your tank look awesome? hell yeah. Would that same tank, maybe not at first, but certainly somewhere down the line, give you sleepless nights due to all the constant aggro? quite possibly. The outcome is a complete roll of the dice.
A calmer monster cichlid tank in my eyes, just as awesome on the eye, would be a huge tank with oscars, chocolate cichlids and severums (why did you state "NOT" severums). They're a great fish.
Those are more peaceful large cichlids. I think you'd have a better chance of some level of harmony, but at the end of the day we're talking about cichlids here and there we go, that word creeps back in.....crapshoot!
Can we interest you in a goldfish tank intead, lol!
It is probably the best word to sum up this monster cichlid dream tank you are planning. Would your tank look awesome? hell yeah. Would that same tank, maybe not at first, but certainly somewhere down the line, give you sleepless nights due to all the constant aggro? quite possibly. The outcome is a complete roll of the dice.
A calmer monster cichlid tank in my eyes, just as awesome on the eye, would be a huge tank with oscars, chocolate cichlids and severums (why did you state "NOT" severums). They're a great fish.
Those are more peaceful large cichlids. I think you'd have a better chance of some level of harmony, but at the end of the day we're talking about cichlids here and there we go, that word creeps back in.....crapshoot!
Can we interest you in a goldfish tank intead, lol!
Its not necessary to abandon the entire idea, but more to refine it with species compatibility research.
In your list you have a number of species from widely differing habitats, and water parameters.
I see soft water preferring Amazonian South American, but also hard water preferring Centrals, etc etc.
I see cichlids that are the only cichlids species in their habitat, and others that may live in a more species diverse habitat.
You mention previously keeping Africans, does this mean your tap water parameters are mineral rich, and high pH?
Rift lake Africans are often very social species that in nature, thrive with other lots of other cichlid species together in a limited reef-like area.
If your water is hard/high pH, Central Americans may work well,, although Centra Americans are often loners, sharing habitat with non cichlids, (non competition for resources).
In a tap hard water based tank, certain Amazonian species may be at a disadvantage, and that disadvantage could make them targets for those more suited to that environment.
Now with this, I'm not referring to all S Americans.
You first mentioned two S Americans from west of the Andes. (Andinoacara, and Mesoheros)
The water parameters west of the Andes are generally far different than waters east, and species from west would never encounter more placid easterners like oscars or severums.
Western waters are generally more alkaline, and a tad cooler, the cichlids often act more territorially (like Centrals) than those from the east that come from diverse, species rich habitats.
Of course these are generalizations that may be bucked, and by-passed successfully by some aquarists.
I jus use this type info to help make my combinations more likely to work.
I believe my attitudes are sometimes considered narrow, probably because I am biased toward biotopes.
I find mixing a cichlid like H carpintus, that comes from northern and central Mexico where there are more obvious seasonal changes and cool nights in the 50s'F, with a cichlid like Darienheros calobrensis from Panama where temps are almost always in the mid 80s or higher is not advantageous.
Below H carpintus "Lago Chairel", the lake gets seasonal cool in winter, and storms make it seasonally brackish
I also find it problematic to combine a loner like Mayaheros beanii (the only endemic cichlid in its northern Mexican habitat) with more social cichlids like Geophagines and expect it to turn out hunky dory,
Below, female beanie
below average temp of my beanii tank, and the temp they spawned
Geography also comes into play with these, Mayaheros are the most northern cichlid from the west coast of Mexico and experience much cooler average temps, than Geophagines from Brazil where temps average 80'F
Above, Tribe Geophagini, Acarichthys heckelli, average tank temp 82'F.
I find mixing a cichlid like H carpintus, that comes from northern and central Mexico where there are more obvious seasonal changes and cool nights in the 50s'F, with a cichlid like Darienheros calobrensis from Panama where temps are almost always in the mid 80s or higher is not advantageous.
Below H carpintus "Lago Chairel", the lake gets seasonal cool in winter, and storms make it seasonally brackish
I also find it problematic to combine a loner like Mayaheros beanii (the only endemic cichlid in its northern Mexican habitat) with more social cichlids like Geophagines and expect it to turn out hunky dory,
Below, female beanie
below average temp of my beanii tank, and the temp they spawned
Geography also comes into play with these, Mayaheros are the most northern cichlid from the west coast of Mexico and experience much cooler average temps, than Geophagines from Brazil where temps average 80'F
Above, Tribe Geophagini, Acarichthys heckelli, average tank temp 82'F.
