Freshwaterpredators;3290384; said:
I second the comment about being able to keep so many together. what size tank is that? and do you have any advice on what i migh be able to do, to achieve some of the same luck with combining guapotes.
The tank is a 360g (8'x3'x25") with a 50g wet/dry sump. The only advice I can give is don't do it, lol.
But what I do is try to keep the fishes happy. Overkill filtration and disease prevention, frequent large water changes, warm temps, lots of food and a large variety including live, lots of seperate "houses" so every fish or pair can have it's own territory, leave the lights on when there's fry, a lot of wood and decor so they don't have to stare each other down all day, choose fishes with the right individual personality, and a big tank. That, and you need a lot of luck. Let's not forget luck.
Let's be honest, this is not something that will always work for anybody who tries. It's not even a setup I recommend trying unless you have a huge tank, are willing to put in huge amounts of work, and you're willing to accept fish losses. Each fish has their own individual personality. Some will be stone cold killers intolerant of tankmates while others will be laid back. At the end of the day, these are big fishes with large teeth that are capable of killing just from ramming. They're very territorial. They're piscavores. It's in their nature to kill and eat prey. Sometimes they kill for no other reason than "just because they can". Proceed with caution.
***EDITED TO ADD***
There's way more to what I do and why to condense into a single post. Search my threads here or check out my big thread on cichlid-forum. I'm not on there much anymore (MFK is waaaay better), but I still update the thread. It's like a diary from the beginning when I started some of these out in a 55g.
