Cichlid Tank Mates and other questions (I'm new to this)

[batson325]

Hi, I setup a 58 gallon tank about 5 weeks ago with cichlids. I am new to all of this, so I pretty much just ask the guys at the fish store which fish I can add together, and if one gets agressive, I take him back and trade him in. Right now they seem to be fairly peaceful. I have 2 small Geophagus, a few peacocks, 2 German Reds, 2 small flowerhorns (which from what I understand I will have to remove when they get older), 2 Green Terrors, a parrotfish, and 2 small greenish cichlid with white lines on its body, i think it might be some kind of peacock. I recently added 2 Knight Gobies and they are doing very well, none of the cichlids pick on them. I am trying to figure out if there are any other cool non-cichlid fish like the gobies (Congo Tetras? Crawfish? Pufferfish? any suggestions?) that I could add. Everything is pretty small now, when they all get bigger, I'll either invest in a larger tank, or trade them in.

Also, I have one peacock that is agressive, but I have not seen any damaged fins yet, so Im keeping an eye on him, if he gets too aggressive, I'll probably have to take him out. I heard that you can put a 'target fish' in the tank that are non-cichlids and fast so that the cichlids chase it instead of each other. Has Anyone ever heard of that?

Also, I have a piece of driftwood in the aquarium that i bought and it is leaching tannins into the water. THe water is greenish-brown. The fish store sold me a bag of small white granules that is supposed to absorb nitrates and the brown color that I put in my filer. I just put it in this morning, so Im not sure if it will work yet. Any other ideas to get rid of the color in the water?

Thanks for your help!

[batson325]

I also have a small electric blue Jack Dempsey

[eklikewhoa]

Wow... very poor advice from the LFS. A lot of those fish do not work that great together, possible but slim chances

[R_sustaita]

i think by the sounds of it they gave him purigen to remove the tannis. and man if you guys say my tanks had a weird mixture, they sure told him to place some bad combination. and really they will trade your fish, if they are aggresive or when they wrog out? it kind of sounds like Ultimate Fish. thats what Alex would tell me, you show up with the fish nice and big and he offers you 25% of what you paid him.

[moganman]

Dude, you have a bunch of fish from different regions of the world. And seems to me that your tank hasn't cycled. Too much stuff going on. My advice would be to take the fish back, slap the guy who sold them to you and never go there again. To pass on bad advice tells me they are probably not that good at keeping their fish healthy. There's a chance that the fish can live together, but you want your fish to be beautiful. Geophagus probably wont get killed, but the peacocks will nip the fins and that's the geos beauty right there. The geos feed primarily on the bottom as opposed to the peacocks who feed aggresively as the food falls so you also have to consider if the geos will get neglected. Central and South Americans claim their territories alot differently and africans are mouth brooders while central and south americans are egg layers. Possible to work, but I wouldn't recommend it at all.

[R_sustaita]

Dude, you have a bunch of fish from different regions of the world. And seems to me that your tank hasn't cycled. Too much stuff going on. My advice would be to take the fish back, slap the guy who sold them to you and never go there again. To pass on bad advice tells me they are probably not that good at keeping their fish healthy. There's a chance that the fish can live together, but you want your fish to be beautiful. Geophagus probably wont get killed, but the peacocks will nip the fins and that's the geos beauty right there. The geos feed primarily on the bottom as opposed to the peacocks who feed aggresively as the food falls so you also have to consider if the geos will get neglected. Central and South Americans claim their territories alot differently and africans are mouth brooders while central and south americans are egg layers. Possible to work, but I wouldn't recommend it at all.

+1 but 1st let us know what store you went. so we dont go there. yeah 5 week old tank and has so many things going on.

[batson325]

So what should I take out? Everything is relatively small right now. There are only 2 that act aggressively. The most aggressive is a pinkinsh peacock with blue spots all over and a small blue peacock acts aggressively sometimes. Everything else is peaceful now, not to say that couldnt change later.

[R_sustaita]

i would remove the region you dont like the most. or which ever you have less of. if your tank is dominant on the peacock side then remove everything else that is not from their region. either sale it or take it back to them. you can google the fish name and it will tall you from which lake/ river or part of the world that fish is original from, then start playing the elimination game.

please tell me what LFS it was.

[moganman]

Peacocks will get worse as they get older and more comfortable with the tank.

[eklikewhoa]

R_fishwhisperer to the rescue!

[troy tucker]

You have some nice fish on that list. All would be great showcase fish. On there own. Together? Its all up to you. Me. I would get another tank and brake them up. A 55g would do. Have South American in one and Africans in the other. The Flowerhorns will need there own tank too. Big Tank...
Good luck Please post pictures.

[eklikewhoa]

Hi, I setup a 58 gallon tank about 5 weeks ago with cichlids. I am new to all of this, so I pretty much just ask the guys at the fish store which fish I can add together, and if one gets agressive, I take him back and trade him in. Right now they seem to be fairly peaceful. I have 2 small Geophagus, a few peacocks, 2 German Reds, 2 small flowerhorns (which from what I understand I will have to remove when they get older), 2 Green Terrors, a parrotfish, and 2 small greenish cichlid with white lines on its body, i think it might be some kind of peacock. I recently added 2 Knight Gobies and they are doing very well, none of the cichlids pick on them. I am trying to figure out if there are any other cool non-cichlid fish like the gobies (Congo Tetras? Crawfish? Pufferfish? any suggestions?) that I could add. Everything is pretty small now, when they all get bigger, I'll either invest in a larger tank, or trade them in.

Also, I have one peacock that is agressive, but I have not seen any damaged fins yet, so Im keeping an eye on him, if he gets too aggressive, I'll probably have to take him out. I heard that you can put a 'target fish' in the tank that are non-cichlids and fast so that the cichlids chase it instead of each other. Has Anyone ever heard of that?

Also, I have a piece of driftwood in the aquarium that i bought and it is leaching tannins into the water. THe water is greenish-brown. The fish store sold me a bag of small white granules that is supposed to absorb nitrates and the brown color that I put in my filer. I just put it in this morning, so Im not sure if it will work yet. Any other ideas to get rid of the color in the water?

Thanks for your help!

The main problem you have, although I have seen this combo or even more bizarre combo work it's far from many, there are too many fish that get really aggressive and end up in a tank by themselves normally. The green terrors, flowerhorns, peacocks, german reds all get pretty nasty which would go to town on the geos, knight goby, congo tetras and even a puffer. A crawfish would be tormented by a few of those fish too once they gain size on the crays.

The small granules is probably purigen, cupri-sorb or something to that nature, that should be spot on as far as removing tannins from the water. A water change would levy the workload off the media some. If you could get a picture of vid of the tank it would greatly be of help cause you state "green-brown" which could mean other things beside the driftwood leaching tannins.

"target fish", Normally people use "dithers" which are fish that help bring out shy fish and make them more comfortable or in a sense, deter them from being aggressive to a specific but most of the time the ones the aggressor picks on is usually gonna be the only one.

I really hate saying this since I wouldn't listen to it myself but I think the best option right now is to pick one of the fish out of the group that you like the best and absolutely can't do without and return the rest. From there build around that one fish that would better co-exist. Do a bit of research and read up on the particulars.

As the others have stated, the info from that LFS was severely skewed and and not in the best interest of their customer.

[eklikewhoa]

i think by the sounds of it they gave him purigen to remove the tannis. and man if you guys say my tanks had a weird mixture, they sure told him to place some bad combination. and really they will trade your fish, if they are aggresive or when they wrog out? it kind of sounds like Ultimate Fish. thats what Alex would tell me, you show up with the fish nice and big and he offers you 25% of what you paid him.

Giving benefit of the doubt, this person relied solely on the LFS' suggestions, you on the other hand have asked here, searched here, read here yet still come out with the same end results.

)

[mnemenoi]

We all started somewhere and you've certainly found a great site that can give you a trove of personal experiance from devoted aquarists.

That said, you've got a collection of different species from very different locations. Occasionally a few mixed can work for a bit, but the more that are mixed usually become problematic far faster. Some of yours can grow quite large just by themselves and can get very aggressive with anything that shares any space with them. I applaud you on the different types you have, now its just a case of determining what you'd like to do with them all. I see 3 or 4 different tanks here going on what most here would do and each has its own likes/dislikes...

1. South American semi aggressive - Geos, they are a earth eater that really like pristine water conditions and sand as their substrate. They come from a soft water (lower Ph and low TDS)

2. South American Aggressive - Green Terrors and Peacock, All are very aggressive and will be quite rambunctious tankmates. Should the terrors decide to breed they will terrorize the entire tank. All get large, but the peacock gets HUGE. Big filtration needs here, water is not very important as far as chemistry goes. Lots of water changes in the future tank

3. Malawi - all your africans will be in here. Hard water and tons of rocks will make them happy. Hopefully you have a lot of males as they crossbreed regularly and there is no market for hybrids usually. Our tap in Houston is crazy hard, so your good on that regard. Lots of filtration and you'll be golden, water changes should be done regularly as they are messy eaters

4. Hybrids tank - Parrot and Flowerhorns - these are hybrid cichlids that were bred to have deformed body shapes. They do grow large and are usually aggressive, but with their odd and distended bodies can often be harassed by less hybridized cichlids. Kept in bare bottomed tanks with good filtration and large water change routines they can be nice looking if that is what you desire in fish.

Just my thoughts on your tanks and possibilities, just let us know what you are thinking and we can try and help with whatever you choose to do.

[R_sustaita]

Giving benefit of the doubt, this person relied solely on the LFS' suggestions, you on the other hand have asked here, searched here, read here yet still come out with the same end results.

)

yes i have, but i never had a problem with my mix. and right now i have slip everything up. my show tank has the Angels and the Discus with the tetra and about to add the Endlers there. i placed my yellow labs on my bros tank. so i dont have a bad combo any longer. and yes i have asked, and read. and i have done stupid things but everyone learns from their mistakes.