Firemouth pair and tank mates

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Caveman4684

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 18, 2014
19
0
0
Gresham, OR
So the current plan is to have a pair of firemouth's in a 55 gallon aquarium. But having just those 2 fish seems like the tank would be a little boring. Help me out with ideas of what could mingle with them, dithers, catfish, another cichlid, whatever. I'm just looking for ideas.
 
Another cichlid will probably not work if the meeki are a true pair in a tank as small as a 55.
In nature they share waters with many types live bearers, such as swordtails and velifora mollies, which would inhabit the upper portion of the tank leaving the lower portion for the Thorchthys. They are also found in nature with Astyanax tetras, which are not usually available, but serpae or lemon, or many other tetras could be substituted as long as they were large enough to not be thought of a food, by the cichlids.
 
I agree duanes, another cichlid would get tortured by the pair. It takes a while but Firemouth can attain a decent size and a pair would fill a 55

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I would go with something armored like a cool looking pleco and a small doridid catfish like a striped rapheal or a white spotted and couple of clown loachs

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small cat and (or ) giant danios would be safe
 
A CA community would look pretty cool. Like somebody said: something like Firemouths and a nice cat on the bottom with swordtails at the top would look pretty awesome. Thing is if you're going for a biotope there aren't many CA catfish readily available in the hobby, lot of SAs though.
 
I'm not going for a biotope. I have 6 firemouths all around 2/2.5 inches, once I get a pair maybe two, the rest will go back to the store. I also just put in 10 tiger barbs to help with aggression and it helped a lot but I do think I would rather have swordtails to free up space in the bottom. I really like the idea of a striped rapheal cat. I'll consider loaches but they have never really been something that interested me. Any other catfish suggestions?
 
Here's a quick phone pic, I just did a water change so its a little cloudy.

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