Transitioning to a 125 gallon cichlid tank from a smaller semi-aggressive community

[duanes]

I agree with Tolletcar that most Central Americans would work great in your hard water, and the Thorichthys and Cribroheros genera are relatively peaceful groups.
They do best in shoals, if kept individually they sometimes get hyper-dominant and can make life miserable for other species in tanks.
I prefer shoals of 6 or more of a species.Cribroheros rostratum below.


I kept a group of about a dozen + rostratum in a 6 ft tank, and it worked well.
Cribroheros longimanus " lake Nicaragua" below.

and below Cribroheros robertsoni

 

[Rocksor]

For a 125g, 1 male firemouth and 3-4 female firemouths would do fine with either 8+ mollies/swordtails as dithers. These should be easy to get at Petsmart. If they don't have it, they can typically order the FM for you if you ask.

I would suggest pool filter sand or #20 mesh size silica sand as the substrate.

 

[JesB]

Thank you! Just as an FYI, I don't intend to buy the new fish at Petsmart - I only mentioned them because they're the only show around locally. I'll be ordering from an online store that is located fairly close to me since it's definitely starting to get cold here.

Since it looks like the Acara are hardy and my KH is around 180-200 (several things I read said 20 was their high end), I think I may get a small group and see how those do in the quarantine 29 breeder until the new tank gets here. The ones on sale that I mentioned in my first post are tank raised, and the online shop I use is only about 1.5 hours from my house. I was able to pull up the store's water report and it looks nearly identical to mine, so it shouldn't be too much of a shock unless they're remineralizing ro/di water.

The eartheaters look interesting, especially the sveni which I found on a list of higher hardness tolerating eartheaters. I'm having a hard time finding solid information on their hardness range though. I may give them a try too, unless any of you don't think they would work (the quarantine tank has black fluorite sand and is planted in places, but I don't care if they tear it up). I love the look of a lot of the other fish, especially the Cribroheros robertsoni, but I'm not seeing any for sale online around here at the moment. If I can get into a city with a lfs I'll keep my eye out for sure!

Thanks again, everyone. I really appreciate all of your help. It's so useful to get advice from experienced people before starting a new project, especially one this expensive. Any other advise or correction is very welcome.

 

[JesB]

I couldn't find a way to edit my above post (if it's even possible) but I wanted to add that the second hardness testing product I bought came in last night and it reads my water hardness around 150-160 in 2 of my tanks, and it was the one with the most reviews claiming accuracy, but who knows? I guess we'll see how they do.

 

[Toiletcar]

Thanks so much for everyone's replies! Toiletcar, your fish are beautiful! I would absolutely not be mad about a stocking list that looked like that.

I'm not really interested in breeding, looking for more of a show tank. With that in mind, are CA cichlids good singly or do they need a group of their own species to spread their aggression around? I know you can do single mbunas if you overstock. I'm not really looking to overstock, I just want them to be comfortable and preferably not pick on my other fish (especially my 10 yr old RTS) either until I can fully convert over to cichlids. My stocking choices may be limited right now by the cold weather and therefore stock in the stores in close enough proximity to ship to me, but I'll keep all of your advice in mind as I shop around and see what I can find.

Thanks!

It depends on the species with CA cichlids. Some species live in groups in nature. They are more social than spreading aggression around. Like firemouths for example. They might seem like they are fighting a lot, but it’s their way of communicating. Bigger the group, the happier they are. It’s best to keep them slightly overstocked IMO. Luckily they are 6” fish, so it’s more doable than say a large species in an aquarium. I’ve also had luck with keeping HRPs in groups, even having 3 pairs spawn at the same time in a 150g with little to no aggression.