Diagnosing the bully

[huntery18]

To me, you have two separate groups of fish that don't belong together, reguardless of who did what at the moment, and that in the future may cause grief..

There are the South American soft water, low pH species (pH 7 or below).
The sveni(?) which do best a shoal.
The Cichla
The SDs and Arowana.

On the other hand, you have the Central Americans, all hard water, high pH species (pH around 8,
the FM (which belongs in a shoal of their own kind (4 or more FMs), and tends to be aggressive if kept as a lone individual)
the Herichthys (also volatile)
The salvini (another volatile cichlid especially as it matures.

And of course tha others that (to me) don't go in either cichlid biotopes at all.

My choices ultimate would be based on the type tap water I have.

Thank you for taking the time to respond duanes , I have been keeping fish for quite some time but have been experimenting with my current setups, almost all these fish are movable as I have 4 tanks I can rearrange at my disposal, with that being said, I want to keep the arowana, clown knife and some more aggressive cichlids with them. My LFS has been my number one stop for information as they have helped me set these tanks, however there knowledge is proving to be unhelpful. What cichlids do you recommend keeping with them? I have a green terror, Texas, eba, albino Oscar, and geo balzani growing out, as well as a gold sevrum, I don’t mind splitting them ca and sa just struggling on finding companions that at hardy enough but not too agressive that share the same water condition requirements.
That “sveni” i think is actually a Acarichthys heckelii sold incorrectly

I wasn’t aware firemouth did better in a shoal, I thought they were like most of the others I best keep as just 1 so they don’t pair up and get worse, good to know, I don’t have room to keep 4 in this 150 should I pull him out? He isn’t bad yet

I have looked at chocolate cichlids, vejas, Dempseys etc, as far as I was aware the aggression is very situational, you may have a chill one or he may be the devil with most of the groups I’m after.

 

[huntery18]

In addition to different water requirements, that is a lot of fish in a 150g. They may be small now and seem ok, but they are not, and things will get hairier, not easier. Even after having removed the Texas.
Just relating to the stocking levels I prefer, I have 7 adult Metynnis silver dollars in a 6” 125g, together with a few cories and Otto’s. The tank is heavily planted (yes, with silver dollars!). I consider that fully stocked. A 150g is not much larger.

I agree the tank is over capacity, a lot of this tank is growing out before moving to the 200 gallon, the only thing staying will be the arowana knife and peacock bass, I would like to keep a few cichlids with them in addition but weeding out there personality’s to see what fits. I am all for recommendations as we can all learn every day.

 

[duanes]

Here are a couple Acarichthys heckelli to compare.

Adults

 

[huntery18]

Here are a couple Acarichthys heckelli to compare.
View attachment 1551293View attachment 1551294
Adults
View attachment 1551296View attachment 1551295View attachment 1551297

 

[Milingu]

The Geophagus on the third picture shows a hole on its nose wich can be a sign of hith.
The wound on the cichla doesn't look like a typical bite mark from a cichlid. Either the bichir bit it or it had a smaller bite wound which got so big due to an infection.

 

[huntery18]

Milingu i see how you could get that from the picture, it’s his nostril, he has an identical one on the other side same spot, the bite is very odd and large, my bichir is super shy but I reckon who knows when the lights are off right, the peacock has mad a full recovery in another tank, as well as the bichir healing quite well, haven’t had any fin nipping or aggression since removing Alexis Texas, my firemouth will flare his gills at my salvini but he’s a big scaredy