Can You Keep Multiple New World Cichlids Together

[pscl227]

Hi,

Absolutly love my Bolivian ram(he has just turned 3!), my favourite fish by far, but i was just wondering is it possible to keep a few of his cousins in the same tank as him, in a similar way old world cichlids are kept together?

Cheers,

Paul

 

[Wills]

Hi yeah its entirely possible to keep them together though the set up is different to african cichlids. What size tank is he in? Tank mates for rams can range quite a bit in big tanks they can go with geophagus and severums but in smaller tanks fish like laetacara and apistogramma. Cupid cichlids and festivums as well

Wills

 

[pscl227]

excellent news i was always uinder the impression they would just make mince meat of each other! (Poor advice from an LFS several years ago)

Tank is 48" x 24" x 18" = 340L with one Bolivian Ram and 7 Harlequin Rasbora

The plan for this tank would be to try and make a perfect new world biotope with a few Cichlids in it (I dont like too many fish rammed in my tanks!) Ive just moved to a new area and the LFS has a pretty incrdible choice of new worlds, this is what has inspired me to look at possibly getting more!

 

[shroob]

As long as you are sensible with what you choose there's no reason you can't have other cichlids. As Willis said, probably the most popular choice would be some type of apistogramma.

Technically the rasbora come from Asia, so you wouldn't have a 'perfect new world biotope' unless you replaced them. Common SA include dwarf cichlids (such as rams), a school of tetra (I always think 1 large school of the same species looks better than lots of small schools of different species) and a group of corydoras for the bottom.

 

[pscl227]

Technically the rasbora come from Asia, so you wouldn't have a 'perfect new world biotope' unless you replaced them.

Yeh, i know, lol! They will be going in my other tank, they are just currently in there while i sort the other tank out.

 

[Wills]

Wow talk about a blank canvas! I would probs get some more bolivian rams to be fair being geophenes they do well in groups. You could also get a nice group of Cupid Cichlids quite easily in there and like shroob says a big school would be amazing with them. Since its more of a dwarf/small fish tank even though the tank its self is pretty large your numbers could end up quite high with big shoals of tetras and the like with a few groups of gregarious cichlids

Wills