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Are any of these a good fit for the lima sorimba shovelnose?

Hoplosternum?

Angel fish?

Plecos?

Pimodelus Pictus?

Pimoledae?

except for the last (wich is probably a typo) all are well-suited for the lima-tank, given that those companions are bought and introduced as (sub)adults, or the lima's are very small yet.

baby angels, baby Hoplo's etc can and will be eaten by adult lima's.

adults of all mentioned species make excellent companions.

the one drawback is that Angels might get spooked in the dark, once the Lima's start to tickle around with those long upperjaw whiskers!

you might think about another docile, but less easily spooked cichlid, like Geophagus or something.

The plecos should be fine. However, P.pictus is something you might want to think twice about?
Over the years I've lost a few of those to fish not that much bigger. ALthough they can lock their fins, they are not big or powerful enough to make this feature really effective against bigger predators (such as a 16 inch lima)

on the other hand, they're smart enough to evade a lima, and that works the other way around as well; lima's will not bother pim pictus at all.
lima's are great ambushers, especially adept at hunting characins and the like.

at lima's 'happy hunting hour', pim pictus is up and running too.....

Yes that is a good point. However, pimellodus pictus - particularly in a shoal will be active most of the daytime, so do not seem to 'switch on' the same as perhaps a S.Lima does. They are also inclined to stick to their territories quite fiercely even if that involves risk or danger.They will leave their territory but continually return regardless of who might have 'moved in ' and be lurking there. However, I can only speak for the ones I have kept. Anyway better to be safe than sorry!

Cheers

Steve

but surely the pictus cats would be stressed and on there guard all the time so what would be the point u want ur fish to be happy and relaxed dont you?