SAChichlidLover
Fishaholic
Hello! I thought I'd share this update for you all as I know many people could use my experience as a guide to keeping these certain fish overall.
So 6 weeks ago is when the firemouths were first introduced into my aquarium which at the time was housing two gold severums, six rosy tetras, a large synodontis, two heckelii and two bolivian rams... This setup was quite peaceful and did not have any significant problems.. Then I took a plunge and added two firemouth cichlids. I thought because I have two years prior of experience with this fish I'd be able to pull this off however a common misconception is that Firemouth cichlids are actually often reffered to as peaceful for cichlids which is very incorrect. These fish have fiesty personalities and are alot more predatory than people including me thought. The first time I owned them they terrorised my smaller community tank but somehow I managed to get a grip of the aggression and ended up with harmony. Note that this setup did not include any other cichlids and the firemouths still at first were terrors. So with this in mind I thought because my tank now is so large and now full of sight blockers and bigger cichlids they won't bother the other fish and oh how wrong was I? The male who bearing in mind is still classed as a juvinile and smaller than most of the cichlids is already king of the tank and will display his warning gill extentions to any fish that even came close to the far left corner of the tank and chase away even my female gold severum which was unreal to see! But he settled down since then and will still occaisionally chase away every other fish he can and especially during feeding time.. My advice to any new cichlid keepers is do not mix central and south american cichlids! I am taking so much time and effort still to make this work and I just got lucky with my firemouths being alot more docile as if they continued how they were I'd have to take them straight back which I would hate to do as I really do love firemouths! Second word of advice.. Even a 75 gallon tank Isn't enough to stop firemouth aggression. These fish really should not be kept in community tanks unless you can put in alot of effort into the tank and using trial and error with the tank to disperse aggression, I got extremely lucky with my fish and I know unfortunately alot of other people have not. Firemouth cichlids are truly stunning fish and have great personalities but in the right conditions they have the capabilities of destroying balanced tanks overnight! Biotopes are the best way to go and I really would advise against mixing them as even though I somehow stopped alot of aggression, I'm still having a few minor issues which could have been avoided all together with just properly thinking every possible scenario through. I hope my experience has helped anyone wondering why people say do not mix cichlids from different biotopes! The final answer is because of the different conditions, the fish are better adapted to those exact conditions for example south american cichlids are alot more docile with each other (there are exceptions) and seem to form better boundaries with each other. Meanwhile central american cichlids are more rough with each other and seem to heavily defend they're boundaries at all costs breeding or not and I've learned a lot from keeping them
So 6 weeks ago is when the firemouths were first introduced into my aquarium which at the time was housing two gold severums, six rosy tetras, a large synodontis, two heckelii and two bolivian rams... This setup was quite peaceful and did not have any significant problems.. Then I took a plunge and added two firemouth cichlids. I thought because I have two years prior of experience with this fish I'd be able to pull this off however a common misconception is that Firemouth cichlids are actually often reffered to as peaceful for cichlids which is very incorrect. These fish have fiesty personalities and are alot more predatory than people including me thought. The first time I owned them they terrorised my smaller community tank but somehow I managed to get a grip of the aggression and ended up with harmony. Note that this setup did not include any other cichlids and the firemouths still at first were terrors. So with this in mind I thought because my tank now is so large and now full of sight blockers and bigger cichlids they won't bother the other fish and oh how wrong was I? The male who bearing in mind is still classed as a juvinile and smaller than most of the cichlids is already king of the tank and will display his warning gill extentions to any fish that even came close to the far left corner of the tank and chase away even my female gold severum which was unreal to see! But he settled down since then and will still occaisionally chase away every other fish he can and especially during feeding time.. My advice to any new cichlid keepers is do not mix central and south american cichlids! I am taking so much time and effort still to make this work and I just got lucky with my firemouths being alot more docile as if they continued how they were I'd have to take them straight back which I would hate to do as I really do love firemouths! Second word of advice.. Even a 75 gallon tank Isn't enough to stop firemouth aggression. These fish really should not be kept in community tanks unless you can put in alot of effort into the tank and using trial and error with the tank to disperse aggression, I got extremely lucky with my fish and I know unfortunately alot of other people have not. Firemouth cichlids are truly stunning fish and have great personalities but in the right conditions they have the capabilities of destroying balanced tanks overnight! Biotopes are the best way to go and I really would advise against mixing them as even though I somehow stopped alot of aggression, I'm still having a few minor issues which could have been avoided all together with just properly thinking every possible scenario through. I hope my experience has helped anyone wondering why people say do not mix cichlids from different biotopes! The final answer is because of the different conditions, the fish are better adapted to those exact conditions for example south american cichlids are alot more docile with each other (there are exceptions) and seem to form better boundaries with each other. Meanwhile central american cichlids are more rough with each other and seem to heavily defend they're boundaries at all costs breeding or not and I've learned a lot from keeping them
