South American Cichlid Help!

[1willd1]

I am going to keep some south american cichldsin my 220l tank. I was planning on getting a pair of festive cichlids, maybe some rams or apistogramma and perhaps some blue acaras. Im just looking for advice on other copatible species, water parameters and would it be possible to keep a severum? Ive seen a minimum tank volume of 170l on some sites but surely this cant be big enough for a 20 cm fish?? Any help is welcome!

 

[KittyKat]

You are right that the average tank is not big enough for a 20 cm fish, but custom shaped ones may be, in some cases.

Is it a 3 ft or 4 ft tank?

If 3 ft, I would recommend something like..
* trio Apistogramma
* pair blue rams

If 4 ft, then something like..
* pair festivums
* two pairs blue rams / 2m 6f Apistogramma

Also, for a 4 ft tank, this might work as an alternative, but I would want a larger tank, myself..
* pair blue acaras

Then on top of any of the options, you would be wanting a group of 15-30 mid-water schoolers and plecos or Corys.

Water wise, you should be aiming at pH 7.0 or under and water soft to medium. I advise against using pH down products, instead add bogwood.

 

[MBOU]

I think the biggest thing to remember is you dont want too many cichlids, even in a cichlid tank, they are all territorial, some more so than others but having lots of territorial fish will only cause problems. I would chose 2-3 nice species of cichlids (rams/apisto pair, angel pair and festivum pair) and base your tank round them, have an algae eater like a bristlenose, maybe a fancy L number plec? some cory catfish? maybe a shoal of something not too small (larger tetras like rosys, phantoms, congs etc) and or maybe a surface dweller (hatchets, panchax or larger danios).

Mix it up a bit.

 

[1willd1]

Im used to malawis so im used to aggression but with the africans they are mostly all as bad as each other and they tend to leave each other alone, the idea being you overstock slightly (and overfilter of course) and that way each fish recieves less aggression (Sort of anyway).

The tank is a aqua one 980. I scrapped its in built filter in favor of a larger external with a uv lamp in it.
215L capacity
1m long about fourty cm high and about the same front to back.

Anyone know if blue acaras are suitable for a peaceful south american community??

 

[AmazonFTW]

My Blue Acara is peaceful and he's a boy. Saying that, he is only 2.5" at the moment. I think generally the smaller the cichlid the less aggressive (from my own experience). My worst cichlid is my Ellioti, but only because he this the tank is his. My Keyhole is my most peaceful and a cichlid I'd recommend to everyone who has a tank suitable to house one.

Many people think Festive Cichlids are peaceful - but mine isn't, he won't tolerate my Angels (and he's half their size - and they're a pair) in 'his space' but he's not even half as aggressive as my Ellioti. I think to house Blue Acaras you should either keep a pair and no other cichlids OR keep 3-4 single cichlids. E.g 1 Blue Acara, 1 Keyhole, 1 Festive. Less is more with SA and CA cichlids, you'll get more personality if they're not subject to a crazy individual.

AmazonFTW

(I agree with MBOU and Kitty Kat)

 

[KittyKat]

The tank is a aqua one 980. I scrapped its in built filter in favor of a larger external with a uv lamp in it.
215L capacity
1m long about fourty cm high and about the same front to back.

It's the tank I used to keep an SA community in. Go for the first option, Apistos and rams. My other SA cichlids outgrew the tank. Luckily I had a number of tanks so was able to move them to a 4 fter and find new homes for others. (Some of the large cichlids came with the tank, I used it as a grow-out tank for others.)

I also used external filters on these tanks, but I would not normally even consider UV.