50 gallon aquarium stocking - jack, green terror, blue acara, etc.

What is a fish??

Feeder Fish
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Dec 21, 2022
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Hey everyone I recently purchased a 50 gallon and want to put a jack, green terror, blue acara(hope fully a pair), firemouth, plecos, etc in it. I was wondering how many fish can i put in there and what kind of cichlids listed above can go in together ?? thank in advance for the advice.
 

What is a fish??

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Dec 21, 2022
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I am not really looking for a community aquarium just trying to get into monster fish. if cant have a jack or gt are there alternatives for them. i like how they get big and all the research told me that i can have a gt or jack in a 50?
 

duanes

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Leave out the gt and jack they have no place in a 50 gallon community imo. The pair or group of blue acaras or group of firemouth with some appropriately sized plecos would make for a nice tank though imo.
I agree with this.
A 50 gal is too small a tank for all those different species of cichlids, except as a grow out tank when young, until they reach almost adult size.
But trying to keep them all together in such a tiny territory as adults not a reasonable plan.
 

Backfromthedead

Potamotrygon
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I am not really looking for a community aquarium just trying to get into monster fish. if cant have a jack or gt are there alternatives for them. i like how they get big and all the research told me that i can have a gt or jack in a 50?
Well if you're researching here, most of us will tell you that is not an acceptable tank for a territorially aggressive, predatory cichlid of that size, much less 2 of them.

I actually started keeping cichlids in the way youre suggesting many years ago, cramming several large aggressive cichlids in small tanks. It was just poor fishkeeping and led to nothing but suffering fish and unimpressive tanks. I really didn't learn how to properly keep fish until fairly recently when I became more serious about the hobby and started learning HERE.

Personally, i wouldn't keep any cichlids larger than 6" full grown in a 50 gallon. Best of luck with your tank though.
 

duanes

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A 50 gal is a reasonable size tank for a pair of blue acaras, and dither fish (non-cichlids large enough, and fast enough not to get eaten)
Some medium size South American tetras, would be an example of good dither fish.
As an option, you could keep a trio of fire mouths, with some non-cichlid dither fish, such as the above tetras, of large live bearers, temporarily until the FMs out grow the tank, and you upgrade.
If you want more than 1 species of the cichlids you mention above, in the same tank, you need to upgrade into one at least 6ft long and over 100 gallons.
Even then, GTs and blue acaras should not be kept together in a 6ft tank, same goes for GTs and JDs, they are not often good together because they look too much alike (the blue spangles) because cichlids that look alike, see each others as competitors, even in 6 ft tanks, unless they have the ability to divide it 50/50.
Non-cichlids are usually ignored, unless bite size.
 
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