African Chiclids?

[newgirl40]

Hi, I have a 55 gallon tank, that has mollies, tetras, platys, and I wanted to remove them and add just African Chiclids.

First off, how big can they get, and how many could I put in a 55?

And are there any tank mates should I decide to add different fish?

I just always wanted Chiclids, but I don't know where to start...

Thanks, Connie

[Fishyfanatic]

Originally Posted by newgirl40

First off, how big can they get

This depends on which African Cichlid you are interested in keeping.

Originally Posted by newgirl40

and how many could I put in a 55?

This also depends on which Africans you would like to keep. I am a fan of under stocking as Africans are quite aggressive and fast moving. Some people try to cram 20 4" Africans in a 55 gal tank but IMO that is way too many.

Originally Posted by newgirl40

And are there any tank mates should I decide to add different fish?

A general rule of thumb: Africans belong with Africans. You may be able to get away with adding another specie but it is far and few between.

Check out your lfs and see which Africans are available to you. Then come back and post which ones you are interested in keeping and we'll help guide you.

[gheitman]

There are a number of ready-made 55 gallon setups over at
Cookie Cutter - 55-gallons. There are also species profiles available at Species Profiles -- Cichlid-Forum. My own inclination would be for a sandy-bottomed Lake Tanganyikan setup with Cyprichromis leptosoma with some Lamprologus ocellatus and Synodontis petricola but there are a lot of different options available to you.

[fijiwigi]

I had a 46 gallon with about 10 african cichlids they were very happy. I moved and gave them away to another aquarist turns out they had babies in a 55g and produced over 100 fish. long term they would have needed a bigger tank than what I offered but short term it was a lot of fun. I would say long term 1 african per about 10gallons of tank is a good rule of thumb IMO> The ones I had were from Lake Malawi I believe??

[gingerpissflaps]

i started off with
albino shark
angel fish ( x2)
plec
pictus catfish
2 mollies

then i really wanted some cichlids, so i decided to risk it and get 1 african milawi, i left it for a few days and watched them carefully, then i got another 1, they all seem happy with each other, i made sure they were all the same size, now i have
all of the above plus
2 ram head cichlid, 2 shark catfish, 1 flying fox, 1 torpedo barb, and a few days ago i got a figure 8 puffer he is sooooo cute!
there all living happily with each other, the black molly wont leave the blue african cichlid alone, he follows him everywhere.

[emtbmike]

I currently have 30 4 inch african cichlids in a 55 gallon aquarium with no aggression at all. The only bad side to having that many in one tank is maintainence. I have 3 filters on my tanka nd do water changes every other day. I think africans are the next best thing to salt water