Catfish suggestions for very large American Cichlid tank?

PeacockBass · Post by **PeacockBass** » 03 Mar 2003, 09:17

lol...

dont worry rex.. ive had Many cichlids... hell man check out my name

in a large tank most cichlids are Very Docile... ive PACKED my 180 gallon with Many Agresive cichlids and there was NO prob.... and a 700 gallon will defenatly have no prob with the fish listed....

i like your list of fish...

there was one cichlid that was agresive even in a large tank.. cichlasoma salvini... ahah.. pound or pound is the most agresive fish on earth!!! lol

damnet.. i need to get you some pics... here hold on rex. ill get ya some on a couple of hours..

Rex Karr · Post by **Rex Karr** » 03 Mar 2003, 20:53

PeacockBass wrote:lol...

dont worry rex.. ive had Many c*****ds... hell man check out my name

in a large tank most c*****ds are Very Docile... ive PACKED my 180 gallon with Many Agresive c*****ds and there was NO prob.... and a 700 gallon will defenatly have no prob with the fish listed....

i like your list of fish...

there was one c*****d that was agresive even in a large tank.. cichlasoma salvini... ahah.. pound or pound is the most agresive fish on earth!!! lol

damnet.. i need to get you some pics... here hold on rex. ill get ya some on a couple of hours..

Yeah I know you have a lot of cicklids. That big Severum you had was one of the nicest ones I'd ever seen. I'll be waiting for those pics. Thanks man

nolan · Post by **nolan** » 05 Mar 2003, 12:33

I have kept may of the cichlidae you listed, they will extermenate each other evetually because the are extremely agressive.
they may be peace full for a while but it will not remain this way for long.
as far as suitable catfish go you really need the large solid catfish. if they are even slightly delicate they may get harassed.
i do not keep catfish with my cichlids as a rule because they fight far too much if the cichlids spawn. and on of my larger catfish took on a breeding pair of sysnpilum and nearly ate the adult male because the male synspilum tried to setup a spawning pit in its end of the tank.
if you want catfish you may be resticted to the large robust plecotomus species.
just my opinion.

Rex Karr · Post by **Rex Karr** » 05 Mar 2003, 13:51

Nolan, please don't try to tell me how to keep my cicklids. I didn't come here asking if my selection of cicklids will work. Those particular species are already together in a 500g, and have been there for over a year. All are mature adults and all are doing great. Like I said before, cicklid aggression is a result having to small of a tank. Try keeping your cicklids in something over 300g and you'll see a dramatic decrease in aggression.

Sid Guppy · Post by **Sid Guppy** » 05 Mar 2003, 14:50

I definitely think you're on to something here, Rex.
but the tanksize you're having is very rare for the usual hometrade; it's more like a zoo-tank! Got any pics??
But it sure explains why I've seen (like many here, probably) fishspecies co-existing in tanks wich sure as heck cannot be kept together at home.
Like for example, Pseudoplatystoma tigrinum, Phractocephalus, Arowana's, Cichla ocellaris (or at least a similar species), Pacu's, Pseudodoras niger and dwarf Caimans.....in that tank, one could snorkle at leisure (given permission and a lot of spunk of course!

) That tank was at Blijdorp Zoo in the Netherlands many years ago.
What are the dimensions of your tank; and how did you fix the problem of it not going through the floor, for example?

Post by **Silurus** » 05 Mar 2003, 14:57

But it sure explains why I've seen (like many here, probably) fishspecies co-existing in tanks wich sure as heck cannot be kept together at home.

Of course, all of these fish coexist in the largest tank of all...their natural habitat.
Sorry, couldn't resist.

Post by **Dinyar** » 05 Mar 2003, 15:09

And it doesn't fall through the floor either! (Sorry, couldn't resist!)

But seriously, any fish tank is a highly artificial environment, very, very far from natural habitats. Although large tanks allow fish to behave somewhat more naturally than they would in small tanks ("large" and "small" all relative to the size of the fish, of course), they're STILL far from natural habitats.

Personally, I feel that those of us who are interested in fish should also be interested in doing our part to preserve their natural habitats.

Dinyar

Sid Guppy · Post by **Sid Guppy** » 05 Mar 2003, 16:54

That's why my current tankfurniture is made of plywood from European eco-forest trees; unlike in the distant past where I used -unknowingly- plywood with a reddish color wich was called 'mehani or something. It was advised as very resistent to moisture. (and it was most liklely a piece of probably Indonesian rainforest....)
ps I build my own tankfurniture; but you might have guessed already.

And like many people here, there are things I don't buy at all: endangered species, painted fish, balloonfish, Czech hybrids etc.

Sorry for me going off topic; Rex can you post us the size of your tank?

Rex Karr · Post by **Rex Karr** » 06 Mar 2003, 02:57

My current 500g was a DIY project. It is more a of a tropical indoor pond in dimensions and shape. It started as a plastic water tank. The top was cut out, and window where placed for viewing. Because of these large windows I never view it from the top, and thus consider it more of an "aquarium" than a "pond". It is round in shape. Nearly 6 ft. wide and over 2.5 ft. tall. Thats around about 183 cm wide and 77 cm high, or those of you outside the US. The tank is on the basement level and thus on a concrete slab which is directly over the ground, so no problems with it breaking the floor.

My new tank will be all acrylic, which will have better dimensions for houseing cicklids and for viewing. It should be around 10 ft wide, 3 ft tall and 3 ft wide.

And Silurus is right. Fish that swim together peacefully in the wild will kill each other in all but the largest of home aquariums. Red Devils, for example, swim in loose shoals in the wild. I actually saw this once on a fishing show. The fishermen were actually in Florida fishing for the introduced Cichla ocellaris (Peacock bass) in the canals, when they came across a school of 30 or more individuals, both of the Yellow and Striped variantes. This was an awsome site, considering these fish are usually killers in home aquariums.

Eurystomus, how do you make tank decorations out of plywood? I have never heard of this. And what is a Czech hybrid? I've never heard this term either.

Thanks

Oh, and I'll try to get a pic within a couple of days.

PeacockBass · Post by **PeacockBass** » 06 Mar 2003, 04:07

guys... Rex knows his stuff about cichlids...

they WILL be fine in such a large tank.. you can seriuosly mix any cichlid with each other in a large tank...

nolan · Post by **nolan** » 06 Mar 2003, 11:34

firstly to clear things up i wanst telling anyone how to keep there fish. i am a catfish keeper and i have found that mixing large catfish with large cichlids can be problematic because a lot of the large cichlids are substrate spawners and the catfish are territorial. i have several large tank and a pond so i can hardly be accused of not having large enough tanks.
i do realise that it is perefectly possible to mix large cichlids but i personally dont do this because i have had problems with crossbreed fry in the past. it just my preference not to mix large cichlids.
as far as catfish go i have kept quite a few different large species.
peacock bass you mention c. salvini have you kept c.umbriferum mine was given to me as a c. pearsi. its was extremely aggressive ive never experinenced a fish like it. it gave my permanant scares on my kunckles.

Sid Guppy · Post by **Sid Guppy** » 06 Mar 2003, 13:04

Not the decorations

The tank is a 125G on a big wooden "table" with ten legs (!) that wood is 5cm x 7 cm crosswise. Everything around this "skeleton" is made of plywood; wich means you see a big white piece of furniture with a huge window full of fish. That's it. Everything is hidden....
The top can open (wich shows the lights), the 'panes' of plywood can be removed (then you can see the trafo's for the lights wich heat up the filter (100 liter biofilter DIY) etc etc.
The tank is your average glasstank siliconed together. Except for the 10-legged 'table' everything else is plywood; hiding all tubes, pipes, cables etc. There's not even a heater in the tank; only an inlet (behind a rock) and an outlet (above the water) the heater is in the filer.

Rex Karr · Post by **Rex Karr** » 09 Mar 2003, 20:36

SG_Eurystomus wrote:Not the decorations
The tank is a 125G on a big wooden "table" with ten legs (!) that wood is 5cm x 7 cm crosswise. Everything around this "skeleton" is made of plywood; wich means you see a big white piece of furniture with a huge window full of fish. That's it. Everything is hidden....
The top can open (wich shows the lights), the 'panes' of plywood can be removed (then you can see the trafo's for the lights wich heat up the filter (100 liter biofilter DIY) etc etc.
The tank is your average glasstank siliconed together. Except for the 10-legged 'table' everything else is plywood; hiding all tubes, pipes, cables etc. There's not even a heater in the tank; only an inlet (behind a rock) and an outlet (above the water) the heater is in the filer.

Oops. Over here, tank furniture is not a common term. But when it is used, it means the decoration inside the tank. We always call them "stands" and "canopies" over here. Sorry for the mix up. Sounds like a nice setup you have. Got pics?

And what is that Czech Hybrid, by the way?

Post by **Silurus** » 09 Mar 2003, 20:39

And what is that Czech Hybrid, by the way?

Interspecific hybrids of <i>Corydoras</i> and <i>Synodontis</i> (mostly) bred in the Czech Republic for the aquarium trade.
A good topic to start some of us ranting.

Chrysichthys · Post by **Chrysichthys** » 26 Mar 2003, 14:27

I would go with Sorubim lima (Common shovelnose). They're a bit slow to catch on to feeding, but they learn. They aren't aggressive to each other. And I've seen a 15" one in a tank with a pair of full-grown Oscars with no apparent problems.

They also accept a range of water conditions, within reason. For most
Central American cichlids you probably want things a bit on the hard and alkaline side.

Note that pleco is also a censored word. You can get around this by calling them 'corroncho.'