55 gallon firemouth?

[Cichlidnewbie23]

I'm kinda new to cichlid keeping. Have kept community fish for a while, and I have a pair of Bolivian rams. I'm really interested in firemouths for a new 55 gallon I'm getting. But I'm not sure how many could go in there. Any suggestions? I would also appreciate suggestions for dithers or for different cichlids I could keep in the 55 for life.
Thanks- Andy

[Cichlidnewbie23]

Well thanks for the suggestions guys.....really make me feel welcome to the forum.

[afrabat]

Long suffering my friend. I cannot help as I do not know the answer to your question. I focus on Africans sorry. Most likely the same reason others didn't answer. This is a great forum but many from different places so people have different things going at different times. I'm sorry you feel like your being ignored as you aren't. No one wants to give you bad advise so please don't take it personally. I'm sure somone will chime in and help out soon! Good luck!

[Cichlidnewbie23]

Sorry bout sounding needy. Just kidna frustrated cuz i have a big empty tank in my room haha. thanks tho. i had a small tank of mbuna a while ago. great fish

[bobrfish]

Well thanks for the suggestions guys.....really make me feel welcome to the forum.

You posted at 11 am. Where you on the way out the door to LFS?

First decorate your tank to approriately house firemouths. This may require some reading, but in short caves for each pair to spawn in.
Obtain a 10 firemouth juvies and wait until a pair or two develop. At that point, pull any leftovers and sell them.

Firemouths like to show aggressiveness to each other but rarely harm conspecifics unless tank is too small. Bolivian rams like planted tanks and firemouths like to dig substrate where they spawn. May need to anchor plants to rocks and driftwood it you plan on keeping rams with firemouths.

Most cichlids prefer real estate and a 55 gal tank has limited real estate but lot of show space. Perhaps a few angels with rams and firemouths in a well decorated tank would be sufficent in terms of cichlids in this tank.

[Cichlidnewbie23]

Thanks for the advice. And actually I was on the way to petsmart to pick up toys for my dog so not to far off haha. I'm def gonna get some driftwood and rocks for caves and get a nice sand substrate. But I'm prob gonna keep my bolivians intheir 20 long cuz they're still juveniles. I was kinda looking at catfish options. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna pickup a bristlenose pleco. And I was lookin at maybe a Rafael. Somethin peaceful but somewhat decent sized.

[bobrfish]

Many catfish are nocturnal, whereas cichlids go into a sleep like state after lights are out. This allows many catfish to find eggs, wigglers and fry to consume undisturbed as parents cannot defend their offspring.
When egg laying cichlids spawn, it maybe a good idea to leave a night light on until fry are larger or harvested.

[Cichlidnewbie23]

I'm not to determined to breed successfully. Any tankmate suggestions?

[bobrfish]

rams, angels

[Cichlidnewbie23]

Ok thanks. Last real question. Are there any other types of cihlids I could keep in a 55 with lots of color in place of the firemouths? Just some other options I guess? Sorry if I'm being redundant here

[bobrfish]

55s are best suited to angel fish, IMO.

Rams and firemouths are not all that territorial and with limited space on bottom of tank, it is this type of cichlid (low aggression) that will do better here than many others.

Bite the bullet, obtain the cichlids you want to keep, place them in tank and see what happens.

[slimbolen99]

I would caution against adding cichlids which take up the same zones as each other. Firemouths and rams are both bottom dwelling cichlids. There are bound to be territorial issues, especially as the firemouths get larger. If you are set on rams, I would nix the firemouths and go with rams and angelfish, or something like that. If you're set on firemouths, personally, I wouldn't go with any other cichlids, but rather some larger dither fish (such as blind cave fish, or giant danios). Just a thought. Good luck.

[afrabat]

Once again, sorry to reference another site guys. Here is a website that has a ton of ideas for different fish you can do in a 55; if you want more info than that we have archived forums where you can just type it in the search box. Or go through the old forums there have been a lot of people asking this same question hope this helps.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/cookie_cutter_55g.php.

[Cichlidnewbie23]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I've read the cookie cutter article MAANY times haha. Probably to many to count. I was wondering if I could keep a pair of green terrors or a pair of jack dempseys just with a pleco and or a catfish? If not I'd prob just stick with fm's. And I'm not putting rams in with fm's I like my bolivians too much haha. And they're waay to young. They're both like an inch long.

[Cichlidnewbie23]

Ok so here's my stocking plan. The only one that's variable is a pair of fm's or some yellow convicts ( if I can find em Of course.)
1 or 2 pairs of fm's or yellow convicts.
1 striped raphael cat.
1 bristlenose plec.
5 to 8 dithers. ( whatever large schooling tetra I can find)
Are there any problems you guys see in that? I'm not too big into breeding hence the catfish and the plec. And would 2 EB JDs work in a 55 in place of the fm's or the cons? Finally starting to close down the stocking plan and focus on tank set up and such

[Mrfiremouth]

The 2 EBJD's would work for a while, then get bigger and give you a reason to get a new tank!(240g!)

The Rapheal cat might be too busy for tehm, the plec will be fine.

[Cichlidnewbie23]

Well then if i can find them i greatly look forward to the 200 gal. haha. I think im gonna go with either fm's or standard convicts because i cant find yellow cons ANYWHERE near where i live. i think i may just get some cories for clean up crew instead of the raphael.

[Cichlidnewbie23]

i should prob add this to a new thread but in the interest of time im just gonna post here. my friend just got a new set up with a 20 gallon and 2 40 gallon breeders. he was lookin for stocking options for those? he likes GBRs and likes medium sized cichlids. any ideas?

[Dean Hougen]

This reply isn't exactly timely but one (somewhat unorthodox) combination that I have seen work well is firemouths with festivum in a 55. Because the firemouths are bottom oriented and the festivum like the middle and upper reaches of the tank, they largely stay out of each others' way. However, if they do come to breeding, their aggression levels are such that a firemouth pair could easily protect one end of a 55 from festivum and vice versa.


Dean

[Cichlidnewbie23]

Hmm... Never thought about festivums. I'll have to check if they're locally available. Btw could I keep a pair of gbr's in a 20 long? I'm gonna fill it with already cycled water and then let the filter cycle. There are some BEAUTIFUL gbr's at my lfs.

[Dean Hougen]

GBRs? German blue rams? I've never put rams and firemouths together, so I can't say for sure, but I have kept plenty of each with other tankmates and I think the firemouths would be too rough for the rams.

Another option you might consider is the flyer cichlid (Archocentrus centrarchus), if you can find it.


Dean

[Cichlidnewbie23]

the Gbrs would go in their own tank btw. i have a 20 long layin around my garage somewhere. I think festivums would be interesting but i need to do more research. Would rainbow cichlids work? I have a store near me that have some nice ones in stock. How many would i be able to keep? would 1 pair of rainbows and 1 pair of fm's work in a 55? cuz if that would i would definitly just use that as my stocking with some dithers and some cories

[Dean Hougen]

Sorry, I should have realized the GBRs were going elsewhere. As for rainbow cichlids, they would probably work too, although perhaps not quite as well because they are not as surface oriented as the festivums or even the flyers. Still, a 55 is long and these fish are not that large or territorial, so it should work well, particularly if you have plenty of driftwood to break the tank space into easily recognizable territories.


Dean

[Cichlidnewbie23]

Thank you so much! Well looks like I finally found my stocking list =). I'm probably gonna get some cories and some beunos aires tetras for dithers. Thanks a lot guys!

[Dean Hougen]

Good luck! Keep us posted.


Dean

[blusue2]

I have 3 firemouths, 2 rainbow cichlids, a rainbow shark, and 3 silver dollars in my 55 gallon.

[blaciarmd]

What kind of filtration do you have?

[Cichlidmaster]

I perfere go big or go home~~

Lol do whatever you want, its your tank. Trial and error is how I learn!

However I would get like 4 Firemouths, and maybe 2 to 4 convicts. I don't really care for small Cichlids like rams. I think they are useless to big tanks?

Sorry I just like big fish!! However any route you do decide to take good luck, and do whatever make's YOU happy!! Good luck and good hunting.

[chc]

I perfere go big or go home~~

Lol do whatever you want, its your tank. Trial and error is how I learn!

However I would get like 4 Firemouths, and maybe 2 to 4 convicts. I don't really care for small Cichlids like rams. I think they are useless to big tanks?

Sorry I just like big fish!! However any route you do decide to take good luck, and do whatever make's YOU happy!! Good luck and good hunting.

I used to think that way too (and I still have some really big fish!). Now, after studying and seeing photos and videos of native environments all over the world I really like the idea of small fish in a big tank. You can really replicate a natural environment, with several different species living as they would in the wild, if you keep small fish in very large tanks. Not many of us can do the same for large fish, even in tanks of several thousand gallons.

Big or small, there's something to be said for both preferences!

[Cichlidmaster]

The lure for me is watching the fish grow. With the fish that top out at 3 inch's kinda just doesnt do it for me like it used to.

I also like watching my babies eat little fish's too. Well when you love to go fishing like I do your always looking for the big one, so that mentallity will always stay with me, and drives my curiosity for big fish.

Little one's just seem to dissapoint me with the lack of growth, and abilities to eat live food.

Like you said differant strokes for differant folks. In my 125 I have a beautiful assortment of American Cichlids, one jack, and a gold jack, a jag, 3 oscars one green terror, two firemouths, 2 midas, and one texas, and one large mouth bass, two channel catfish, one albino and one small cichlid kinda looks like a ram, however has two solid black stripes running from top to bottom on its head, and upper back, no idea what it was when bought because it was wrongfully labeled.

When the large mouth, Jag, jacks, and oscars get big enough then they will head into my 180 gallon with my other texas, and Jack and my black crappie and two blue gills and of course my big catfish.

I know I collect alot of differant species, however they do well with my tanks?

I don't have any issues with fightning, or fish being to aggressive.

I don't know lucky I guess?