Many many kinds

[Newfishlover07]

We have mostly Africans, I could list every kind we have but I'm lazy and if it's not needed I won't lol. We want them to breed like two months ago but no such luck. What I can tell you is that we went out and tried our hardest to get a female for our males and visa versa. I will upload pics of one of each of our pairs after they stop their eating madness. We have upwards of 20 cichlids, two are south American deff a breeding pair as we bought them while they were breeding, we also have three convicts but they are to small to breed yet. Any help in trying to get them to breed would be great.

We are looking at a 60gal for our cichlids because we are overstocked.
7 tiger barbs
3 swordtails
Dragon goby
Black ghost knife
Dino birlich
Peacock eel
Two sharks (red tail)
5 danios
Oscar
20 cichlids

Yes we were told not to mix some of our fish but we have no problems with any of them. They are all hand fed and nibble at our hands when we clean the tank. Our hope is to turn the 75 gal into a monster tank for my husband and have the 60 gal for only cichlids and get another 75 or 120 gal for the others and to add more fish. If stress is the reason then we will buy the tank Friday. Thanks for the help

 

[gman42]

okay the oscar alone needs a 75 gallon, 20 africans for the 60 should be okay as long as it is a long tank. i wouldnt mix the danios and the sharks with the sa cichlids or the africans. if you want to add your convicts and your other sa cichlids i would reccomend the 120 gallon for just the oscars and the other sa. you may be able to keep the loaches with the africans in the 60 and a pleco. i wouldnt put the sharks in any of the tanks. umm i think that would be a good setup. i really dont believe in mixing africans with sa cichlids. it may work for a short time, but in the long run you run into trouble. they have different dietary needs, and water conditions.
i hope this helps, if you have any questions send me a message

 

[Pton46]

I would have to second on mixing the SA and African Cichlids...I had to separate them....I had a Jewel that would constantly Square off on my Tiger Oscar..andthe other African and the Convicts would fin nip. It worked for a bit then....overnight it was like watching MMA.....

 

[Newfishlover07]

Well they weren't supposed to be mixed for ever. I want a tank soley for my africans so I'm looking into a few tanks. Also the oscar is just with us till he gets ugly then I want him gone unless my husband keeps him for his monster tank. I'm still debating on what tank to get him I like the size of 150 gal but its also a little small to be a tank for monster fish like the oscar and the saber tooth tetra he likes plus some aerowana or how ever you spell it. The ones I will most likey be getting rid of are the convicts, when the one goes into its fits it doesn't mix well with anything... even the fake plants.

 

[Pton46]

You can get a Decent amount (10 ? depending) of Africans in a 30 gallon...You are are getting rid of the convicts? Really? I love convicts they are becoming one of my Favorites.
I love Oscars but the one I have is moody...My convicts are always ready to go and zip all over the place and also come to the top of the tank when I come near it. One of them lets my son pet him....

 

[Newfishlover07]

That's where our problem lies with the convict. They never come around us, my two year old loves putting his hand down in the tank to get "kisses" but the convicts ram at his hand and scare him. I love the convicts they were my choice, but I can't have more tanks then I do furniture lol. Plus the convicts are the moody ones our oscar is like some kind of stoner all chill and all lol

 

[Malawi Freak]

You absolutely need to separate those fish. You may think its ok but if someone starts to breed like you hope it's going to turn into a war zone. You need to list your types of cichlids because judging by the mix you already have I am willing to bet you have a mix of cichlids that shouldn't be together.

 

[Pton46]

Well, Good luck at least you and or husband are on the same page.....

I had to set up my African Tank under the guise of a quarantine tank and then do the switch. Using a old ten gallon for That purpose in the basement. my wife thinks i"m nuts....(Go Big or not at all)
Good Luck try to make the switch the sooner, you'll be glad you did....

 

[Alyxx]

Aside from the previously mentioned incompatabilities, the dragon goby is not a freshwater fish. It needs mid range brackish water to live a long healthy life. The ghost knife will need a very large tank also, they get over a foot long. What do you feed the fish to get everyone the type of diet they need?

For breeding purposes, a ratio of 4 females per 1 male of each species of African is recommended.

 

[Koikid88]

That is a horrible stock list. Especially depending on what cichlids you have, in which I guess you didn't see the importance of us knowing. With them being Africans, I can almost guarantee you, you will wake up one day to fish parts on the bottom. Doesn't matter how well they co-exist now. Those fish all require different water parameters, some of them out side of the stretch zone. Greatly reducing their health and lifespan. Just because they look fine, doesn't mean they are. Fish don't breed on command, like it sounds like you tried, but if they do eventually spawn, goodbye to most of the community fish.
Yet another bad idea is to house 2 redtailed sharks together. In a community, they are aggressive chasers, but will rarely bite or nip.
Put in another red tailed shark, and the second they hit maturity, the stronger one will harass the weaker one to death. Almost imminent.
I don't even have enough time to help you out with everything that isn't ideal here.

 

[Labenator65000]

You absolutely need to separate those fish. You may think its ok but if someone starts to breed like you hope it's going to turn into a war zone. You need to list your types of cichlids because judging by the mix you already have I am willing to bet you have a mix of cichlids that shouldn't be together.

Agreed. List them all out, if you can. You will get plenty of recommendations. Sounds like you are willing to purchase extra tanks so you can likely sort most of it out and keep most of your fish, if not all.

 

[Newfishlover07]

We plan to make our 75 strictly African, with that being said we have not gotten the needed ratio for proper breeding because we don't want to start them breeding until it is safe for all fish. The sharks I did not know we're a redtail and a rainbow, one of which will be going in my sons tank when we get it cycled. We are also looking at a 23 gal hexagon tank for the swords, danios, and birchir (sp). Most of the fish my husband loves but the swordtails are my favorite, if they breed they breed I do seperate them and replace them once they are done. The goby we got was housed in a freshwater tank for three months so we don't want to shock him by making a brackish tank and just throwing him in there.

I know not all pet stores are correct in what they say but we buy from a private owner and he suggested the cichlids we have for one tank, except the dempseys which I got for my tank and they share space with a deformed guppy because they are still too small for their own tank. I just wanted to be sure everything is in place or that we are doing the right steps before we take the leap into breeding he cichlids. Below is the list we made up, some maybe wrong because we get them from one African tank so have really no clue what we have until we get them home.

Two cobalt blue zebras
Two bumblebees
Two demasoni
Two melanochromis auratus
One metriaclima estherae
Two melanochromis johanni
That's what we have in the 75, we have two sa we believe are German something's in a tank and two elec blue jack dempseys in a different tank. I can upload pictures if wanted, we are willing to make what ever changes needed for our fish tank to be stocked correctly. We had to put all the fish together because of a ich problem we had and just recently got our other tanks restarted. This is why I asked for help on this site and not in store. Thank you sooooooo much, and understand that if we need five more tanks we will get five more tanks, We want our fish happy and healthy. Again this is why we are asking for help and do not want a lot of criticism for what's wrong, a simple suggestion of good change is enough. We want to be able to be better informed about our fish and at least we are asking for help and willing to do what it takes.

 

[Alyxx]

As for the goby, you can either set up a brackish tank at low salinity, drip acclimate him, and then up the salinity over a couple months til it is where he needs it or set up a freshwater tank for him and slowly add the salt. Remember that you need marine salt not freshwater aquarium salt, and you should get a hydrometer. The longer he is kept in freshwater the worse off he will be. Have you ever had a brackish tank before? They aren't any more challenging as fresh and they are really fun. Just remember he needs a big tank with a large footprint. I think a 75 is recommended. Since you like breeding fish, get an even bigger tank and a couple more, apparently they aren't too hard to breed as long as you have a couple females to each male.

I'm very happy to hear that you are intending to get whatever tanks you need for the fish. Haha, I wish I had room for all those tanks you will be needing!