Tankmates for Sajica pair?

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RyanM

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Oct 13, 2016
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Canton, OH
I have my 3" pair of Sajica's in a 75g with lots of rocks, driftwood and plants (plastic). Want to stay with CA's since my water is on the hard side. Some ideas I had were Nic, JD, Salvini, or GT.
 
My experience with sajica is that they aren't very aggressive. Our current group is in a harem situation (1 male, 3 females) with no breeding activity... the females fight with each other a little bit, displays mainly, occassionaly a lip-locked... the male takes great interest when they fight.

Personally, I wouldn't go GT or JD with sajica given their typical size/aggression. I've had good luck with salvini in cichlid communities, but I've heard lots of aggression horror stories with them as well. I've also had mixed success with nics.

Keeping to CA, rainbow cichlids would probably be OK if you size-match... the bigger the rainbows the better in this case. Thorichthys might work really well. IME T. pasionis are pretty laid back, ditto T. aureus... T. meeki can be pretty aggressive sometimes... depends on the individual.

Our group is currently living in a 90 with lots of catfish, geos, and a group of Aequidens diadema.

All bets go out the window if breeding starts.
 
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Nics would be my choice. Rainbows, HRP..smaller less aggressive.

I would avoid convicts, salvini or JD.
 
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Nics or Thorichthys would be my choice, but I am having trouble finding any with a little size. Everywhere I find them they are much smaller than the Sajica's, in the 1" range.
 
With 3 pair in that size tank, I personally would not add more cichlids.
Maybe some surface dwelling geographically correct live bearers.
At adult size I would have considered my sajica pair alone as topping out the volume of that tank, with some dithers. Notice the comparison to the sugar bowl in the back ground
My male, in the shot below was @ 7" and almost as tall.
And the pair bumped off a slightly smaller size pair when spawning was eminent, in a similar size tank.

 
With 3 pair in that size tank, I personally would not add more cichlids.
Maybe some surface dwelling geographically correct live bearers.
At adult size I would have considered my sajica pair alone as topping out the volume of that tank, with some dithers. Notice the comparison to the sugar bowl in the back ground
My male, in the shot below was @ 7" and almost as tall.
And the pair bumped off a slightly smaller size pair when spawning was eminent, in a similar size tank.


Beautiful pair! Not sure what you meant by three pair...the Sajica's are the only fish in the tank right now.
 
A established breeding pair will make it very hard for any new cichlid to settle into this tank. I'd go with dither fish like duanes recommended.
 
Maybe non-cichlid tankmates would be better. Like a decent school of tetras or livebarers.
 
A established breeding pair will make it very hard for any new cichlid to settle into this tank. I'd go with dither fish like duanes recommended.

They aren't established by any means, I am just calling them a pair based on coloration and that one has a nuchal hump developing. I may try to find some more females to make a harem, or try to add a group or Nics or Thorichthys. Crazy?
 
I'd go with Thorichthys since a male Nic gets rather large for a 75 gallon tank and they like to be in harems as well I believe.
 
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