cichlid community.

rich

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Aug 26, 2003
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so in the next couple days i pan on getting a 55 gal and setting up a home for a community of south american cichlids. so far im kindof leaning towards the following fish

blue acara
jurupari
red hump earth eaters
mabye a firemouth
possibly a school of tiger barbs which i figured could acts as dither/target fish yet be able to hold their own against some possibly belligerant tankmates.
and mabye a royal pleco for some cleanup duties

im looking for things that get sub 10"(preferably around 6) and dont want to get more than mabye 5 cichlids for the tank. now the question is would it be advisable to get a pair of somthing? would that cause to much aggresion if the pair were in the mood for love? would id be better to get solos of each individual fish? males? females?

all of the fish will be young when added and will have time to grow into the tank and get territories set up. ill have lots of pot caves, logs, and fake plants ( would dop real but figure the eartheaters would move em) for the fish to hide in.
 
hehe, and getting a 250 would make me even happier :). but, alas the tank size is now set... as is a couple of the fish it houses.
in the paper when we woke we found a classified listing for a 55 with tank, stand, hood, lights, gravel, filters, heaters, bogwood, fake plants, foods, and timer for ..... 150$!$!. needless to say i went and got it.

it was a great deal, i moved the fish using 6 five gal buckets so i would use as much of the tanks current water as i could. no probs, no fish have died. only thing is i dont want most of the fish so i plan on taking them to the lfs and giving them away. this person had concocted the most oddball tank ive seen. a single large rainbow, large chinese algae eater, whiptail cat, a single skunk loach, and about 10 various unmatching large bodied tetra. i plan on dropping all the tetra and rainbow fish to make way for my previous tank plan. im also dropping the idea for the firemouth as the more i read the more ominous he begins to sound.

so the question is the same. i plan on adding 4 "peacefull" south american cichlids to this tank. blue acara is definate as is a jurapari. i would like to add 2 more geophagus but they dont seem to be very common or available. should i try and find a pair of somthing else? should i just pair the acara and jurupari? should i look for a couple other solos? is there a specific cichlid that you think would make a great addition?
 
since there wasnt much advice around here i read a bunch and went and bought some fish. ive now got

a 55 gal

1 blue acara
1 jurupari
1 firemouth
1 keyhole ( will add another when store stocks it)
1 striped raphael cat
1 clown pleco
1 skunk loach

may add a few dither type fish, but not so sure if i need them ... or want them
 
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