Wasn't sure what the best spot for this post was, so went with the general aquaria 
I had a similar thread up but was tucked away in the American cichlid forum and so I'm hoping I'll get more experiences in the general group. I have an 8ft long tank (135gal) that I'm trying to find a "secondary" feature fish for. The tank currently has five 2" O. heterospila, which are entirely the focus. End plan is to get a pair formed from the group and have the pair be the main focus. There is also currently one 4" marbled fenestratus, one 2" rainbow, and five 2.5" SAE for algae control. There's technically at the moment two 2" T. maculipinnis that were the only survivors after my 11 shipped a month and a half ago caught bloat and were wiped out, but I've decided the maculipinnis are not suited to my tank and will be finding homes for the two left, so count them out.
The hets are slow, slow growers. My 8ft tank looks pretty empty right now, and even when they're grown I'd like to have a bit more to fill the tank out with. I don't really want to just add another pair of some CA cichlid, and was hoping for something more schooling (hence the maculipinnis, since they like to live in a colony) but nothing is really fitting the bill. So I started to think outside of the cichlid world, which is a very gray area for me - cichlids have been almost the only kind of fish I've kept in 30 years lol.
Tetras and barbs came to mind; given tetras are closer to being geographically correct to my CA cichlids than Asian barbs are, I've been trying to lean that way. However, the species in either group that I actually physically like the look of, is a very small group. When it comes to tetras, the ones I actually really DO like are very small as adults. Think neons, golds, cardinals, etc. I know hunting fish as prey isn't exactly a natural instinct for the cichlid species I have, but I'm still worried that when they get big, something that's only 1.5" or less in size might be a little too tempting to not eat. So I'm trying to branch out and find something I don't mind the look of, with an adult size of at least 2". Keep in mind these fish are meant to be there for aesthetic reasons, NOT to act as dithers (ie: current residents are happy and active and not at all shy, so I don't need dithers in the sense of reducing stress or providing security and drawing the cichlids out). So my liking the look of them is important
I originally was convinced I would do Emperor tetras, because I'm SURE I read somewhere they matured at 2". But going over a number of reference sites now, everything I see says 1.5" max, so I think they fall under the category of too small to be safe long term. Too bad, I actually quite like the look of a big school of Emperors.
So today I've gone back to the drawing board, and after hours of checking my supplier's list for what's available and researching species, I've come up with two more possibilities: white skirt tetras or serpae tetras. Both get a bit larger once mature, around 2" at minimum, so more likely to be safe from the cichlids. I was leaning towards serpae, because I like their shape much better than the white skirts and they're just prettier in general, but everything I'm reading is "can be very nippy if you don't stock properly or with the wrong fish" yadda yadda.
Does anyone have any experiences or feedback in keeping EITHER serpae or white skirts with CA cichlids? I've also read that the fin nipping is greatly reduced or eliminated completely by having a larger school and obviously a larger tank. For the serpae, I was thinking of a group of 24 in my 8ft tank. Am I likely to have fin nipping issues with them?
I had a similar thread up but was tucked away in the American cichlid forum and so I'm hoping I'll get more experiences in the general group. I have an 8ft long tank (135gal) that I'm trying to find a "secondary" feature fish for. The tank currently has five 2" O. heterospila, which are entirely the focus. End plan is to get a pair formed from the group and have the pair be the main focus. There is also currently one 4" marbled fenestratus, one 2" rainbow, and five 2.5" SAE for algae control. There's technically at the moment two 2" T. maculipinnis that were the only survivors after my 11 shipped a month and a half ago caught bloat and were wiped out, but I've decided the maculipinnis are not suited to my tank and will be finding homes for the two left, so count them out.
The hets are slow, slow growers. My 8ft tank looks pretty empty right now, and even when they're grown I'd like to have a bit more to fill the tank out with. I don't really want to just add another pair of some CA cichlid, and was hoping for something more schooling (hence the maculipinnis, since they like to live in a colony) but nothing is really fitting the bill. So I started to think outside of the cichlid world, which is a very gray area for me - cichlids have been almost the only kind of fish I've kept in 30 years lol.
Tetras and barbs came to mind; given tetras are closer to being geographically correct to my CA cichlids than Asian barbs are, I've been trying to lean that way. However, the species in either group that I actually physically like the look of, is a very small group. When it comes to tetras, the ones I actually really DO like are very small as adults. Think neons, golds, cardinals, etc. I know hunting fish as prey isn't exactly a natural instinct for the cichlid species I have, but I'm still worried that when they get big, something that's only 1.5" or less in size might be a little too tempting to not eat. So I'm trying to branch out and find something I don't mind the look of, with an adult size of at least 2". Keep in mind these fish are meant to be there for aesthetic reasons, NOT to act as dithers (ie: current residents are happy and active and not at all shy, so I don't need dithers in the sense of reducing stress or providing security and drawing the cichlids out). So my liking the look of them is important
I originally was convinced I would do Emperor tetras, because I'm SURE I read somewhere they matured at 2". But going over a number of reference sites now, everything I see says 1.5" max, so I think they fall under the category of too small to be safe long term. Too bad, I actually quite like the look of a big school of Emperors.
So today I've gone back to the drawing board, and after hours of checking my supplier's list for what's available and researching species, I've come up with two more possibilities: white skirt tetras or serpae tetras. Both get a bit larger once mature, around 2" at minimum, so more likely to be safe from the cichlids. I was leaning towards serpae, because I like their shape much better than the white skirts and they're just prettier in general, but everything I'm reading is "can be very nippy if you don't stock properly or with the wrong fish" yadda yadda.
Does anyone have any experiences or feedback in keeping EITHER serpae or white skirts with CA cichlids? I've also read that the fin nipping is greatly reduced or eliminated completely by having a larger school and obviously a larger tank. For the serpae, I was thinking of a group of 24 in my 8ft tank. Am I likely to have fin nipping issues with them?
...that behaviour pretty much vanishes.