Rethinking this convict cichlid

[ProtegeRacer]

I am starting to think I dont like these dumb convicts, although they probly arent dumb he is ticking me off. I cannot put anything in the tank with him, it is a 20 gallon tank, I heard they needed 20 or bigger. He just wont leave anything alone in there. I put in some shrimp, no more shrimp, I put in goldfish, he tore them up. I took him out rearranged and still the same thing over and over. What do I do to make him nicer? I want a community tank but cichlids are looking to me to be more of a prettier fish.

 

[Vip]

just about all cichlids will re-arange your tank to how they like it dude, you can put tank mates with them but in a bigger tank, i use them as dither fish so my larger cichlids have somthing to chase around.

 

[ProtegeRacer]

no no no I tried the rearranging thing, some people say to rearrange and let them get their new territory so the other fish can also get a spot.

 

[sushi]

I bought a Red Devil cichlid a while ago. THe lfs didn't tell me it was vicious. I didn't know what Cichlids were. I had it in the tank for 2 days b4 taking it back. In that time, it ate one tiger barb. Bit the head off another. Pulled scales out of most of my fish - even ones bigger than itself - and chased everything that came within about 10 cm of it. And that's in a 3 foot/200L tank.
I bought an oscar that was about 2". within about 1 month, it was 4 1/2"
It ate about 20 neons, some of my tiger barbs, it chased my fish when it was hungry and I had to go and catch fish out of rock pools at the beach to feed it. It was kinda cool feeding it the fish though.
So yeah. If you want a pretty tank with lots of little fishies, ditch the cichlids. They are angry little critters, they grow fast and being fed meat, they make the tank absolutely filthy. They're cool yeah, but not good with other fish.

 

[Lorelei]

Cichlids are notoriously territorial and convicts, not matter how "cute", are no exception. I've seen a pair completely take over a 50gallon and push all the other tankmates to one side. No other fish were allowed to MOVE into their space. They then began breeding! Cichlids are wonderful fish, great parents and definetly one of the more interesting species, but they are NOT for a community tank at all. (in my opinion) Consider either breeding them, (very rewarding!) or taking them back in favour of a more sociable species.

 

[Vip]

in my mixed cichlid community tank, i have about 30 fish in there
(28 are cichlids) most of them are africans who just fight fight fight all day, the other one in there is my very agressive red devil/midas mix (pic in my signature) he has one side of this tank to him self, where as all the other fish are pushed up against the window on the other side of the tank, mind you its not small, its about 150g, and when he wants to go for a swim he will just swim over to there side and you see all the other fish swim for there lives, and then they are all pushed up against the window on the other side of the tank. It makes everyone laugh who ever see's it. They all know who's territorial in the tank

 

[Vip]

@ sushi hard lol lol!!