What Won't Work?

[Vengeful Silence]

I have a 100 gallon aquarium from which I recently removed all mbuna. No offense to those who love mbuna, but I prefer a more tranquil aquarium, and having a bunch of scrappy little misfits darting around pestering one another does not a peaceful aquarium make.

I am completely restocking the tank and I would like to know if you see any problems with any of these fish going together. I am an experienced fish-keeper, but I have no experience with these particular fish. Below are all the choices. Please note I am not necessarily planning to include all of these; but I would like to know if any fish from the list would not be compatible. Thank you in advance for your help.

pair of gold severum (these are the centerpiece fish and WILL be going in the tank)
dwarf rainbows
congo tetras
serpae tetras
zebra loaches (I have concerns with these interfering with breeding, so I may opt for a school of corydoras instead)
firemouths or geophagus (while I would prefer some type of geophagus, the only species typically available in my area are g. jurupari, which grow to such a size that they would compete with the severum as centerpieces, so I will probably be going with the firemouths)

I appreciate any comments and welcome any suggestions you may have.

 

[minxfishy]

All sounds ok, I would drop the congo/serpae's, congo's because they are very skittish IME, serpae's because they are extremely nippy.

Firemouths work ok with severums, I have one, nasty little booger he is too, so I persoanlly would have another one, are you sure its a breeding pair of severums? In which case, I wouldnt add any other cichlid to the tank, Sev's are very aggressive when breeding.

 

[Vengeful Silence]

Thank you for the reply, minxfishy. Is that your tank in the signature line? I love the aquascape and your gold severum is stunning. I never see them so yellow. In my area they look like they were white and got thrown in the wash machine with the yellow fish.

Right now the tank is empty, save for one rubber pleco. My plan was to purchase 6 severum and let them pair off. Come to think of it, I don't even know that it works that way with severum. lol That's just what I've always done with angelfish.

I was planning to get about five firemouths, or geophagus, if I'm lucky enough to find some I would want.

Thank you for the heads up on the tetra species. All I know of them is what I've seen in the pet stores and I always got that congos were very active. I didn't see skittish in them, so that's good to know.

Do you have any recommendations for a colorful fish that would occupy the middle to bottom-middle of the tank since the serpaes are out? I presume from what I've observed that the firemouths will be in that region, but in case I can't find them (have I mentioned fish availability sucks in my area?), I'd like a backup plan.

 

[england]

As stated if your going for a pair dont have any other cichlid's....Just like you said get a group of five or six and wait for a apir to form naturally, then rehome the rest, senegal bichir's are great fun bottom dweller's, then you have thing's like silver dollar's/colombian tetra's/for shoaling fish,hoplo catfish make another great addition to the bottom of the tank, do very well in group's...I think getting a group of firemouths will cause problem's, if you want other cichlids look at keyhole cichlids/jade eyed cichlids along those peaceful lines

 

[minxfishy]

Thank you for the reply, minxfishy. Is that your tank in the signature line? I love the aquascape and your gold severum is stunning. I never see them so yellow. In my area they look like they were white and got thrown in the wash machine with the yellow fish.

Right now the tank is empty, save for one rubber pleco. My plan was to purchase 6 severum and let them pair off. Come to think of it, I don't even know that it works that way with severum. lol That's just what I've always done with angelfish.

I was planning to get about five firemouths, or geophagus, if I'm lucky enough to find some I would want.

Thank you for the heads up on the tetra species. All I know of them is what I've seen in the pet stores and I always got that congos were very active. I didn't see skittish in them, so that's good to know.

Do you have any recommendations for a colorful fish that would occupy the middle to bottom-middle of the tank since the serpaes are out? I presume from what I've observed that the firemouths will be in that region, but in case I can't find them (have I mentioned fish availability sucks in my area?), I'd like a backup plan.

It is indeed my tank, bit of change since that pic was taken, the severum is actually a red spotted gold, colours dont show well in that pic

Your best bet for a pair as Nelly mentioned, is to get a group of juvenilles and let them pair up, but you will need to rehome the others once this happens as aggression from a pair will be pretty bad.

If you do want a pair, as already mentioned, you wont want any other cichlids in the tank as there will be war and casualties probably on both sides, plus any chance of fry surviving is minimal.

Birchirs are great tank mates, shoaling species, I would silver dollars, giant danios and rainbowfish, boesemani are great with severums.

 

[Vengeful Silence]

Thank you both for the replies. I'm sorry to have taken so long to respond. For some reason when I checked new posts this one didn't get pulled up. Oh well...

That's really unfortunate about the pair not being compatible with any other cichlids. I didn't realize that was an issue. I will definitely return the non-paired fish the moment the pair is formed.

I think some keyholes would look pretty nice in there. I've always liked them, but never really had a place to put them. I like the colombian tetras, too, but I'm not sure how they'll look with the dwarf rainbows since they're so similar. How would you feel about paradise fish or dwarf gouramis?

I LOVE your suggestion of the senegal bichir. This tank was originally home to an oscar and a senegal bichir. The reason I had to return them both was the time it took to feed. Not that the Oscar took any time at all to eat, but having to prepare his food was time consuming. The bichir had the issue of both preparation and taking FOREVER to eat. There are few fish that I like better than a senegal bichir, but they are more maintenance than I have time for. I was thinking of getting some ropefish for the tank, but eliminated them for the same reason.

Thank you again for your continuing help.

minxfishy - Ooooo I love the red spotted gold severum. Magnificent specimen you have there. I'd love to see your tank since the changes if you have any updated pictures.