New 50 gal stocking.

[Big Ben]

Hi, I'm setting up a 50 gal and I'm going to be stocking within a week as my fishless cycle is going quite fast because I added some stuff from my current tank to it and put gravel from it as filter media in my emp 400.

I already know I want to add 1 Dempsey, 1 Firemouth, 1 oscar and 2 convicts. I'm not sure what other types of cichlids would be suitable for this type of tank. I'm getting most of them young except for the 2 female convicts that I'm getting from my sisters bf. I will be putting them all in at once once my fishless cycle is complete. I'm including a pic of my aquarium, driftwood to be added soon. The pic was taken b4 the other stuff was added from my other tank.

I will be adding more decoration, but to my understanding plants will just get eaten or uprooted? I want to get some lava rock and driftwood.

I understand that an oscar would outgrow the tank eventually but I was planning on getting a younger one once it would reach 8-9 inches. There is alot of swimming room in the tank because the dimensions are different 36" wide, by 24" deep, by 13" high.

If this is a bad idea I'll skip the oscar.

What I'm really wondering is what other species could be suitable with these fish? Severums?


Thanks again
Ben

 

[lyquidphyre]

I can't help you with your stocking list, but I did want to ask if you glued those pieces of slate together?? If not, you want to be careful because if one falls it could not only hurt a fish, but it could crack the glass underneath.

 

[Big Ben]

Ah thank you for bringing that problem to my attention. How would you recommend glueing them? Would a normal glue gun be fine?

 

[rich311k]

Use aquarium safe silicone. All-Glass makes it and you can get it at Petco.

 

[Big Ben]

bought some aquarium sealant and it worked excellently . Now can anyone give me any input on what other species could be suitable with the cichlids I'm interested in? Thanks

Ben

 

[DeFeKt]

I think ur pretty much maxed out mate
even with that list you will be doing constant pwc and checking your parameters.
The main issue here is all these fish are aggressive and very territorial. They may grow up together nicely, they may not.
I'd recommend skipping the oscar as well.
HTH

Matt.

 

[talloulou]

I'd skip the oscar and go with a severum instead.

 

[BrianNY]

Not really a good mix of species Big Ben. The oscar and fire mouth will eventually lose out to the dempsey. The oscar because it does not hae teeth to defend itself and the fire mouth will not get large enough. I'm sure others have had success in combining these species but the odds are stacked against it.

Better mix with the dempsey are green terrors and managuense.

 

[Big Ben]

Really, well I didn't think it would get that bad with just 1 jack, I like the look of the green terror although I don't think I've ever seen one in any local fish stores. It looks like we'll need to find someone to replace the Jack.

My sisters bf must have a really calm jack then cause it's with a bunch of types of cichlids and it doesn't bother anyone.

I'm on day 9 of my fishless cycle and the ammonias been 0 since day 6 ( I add half of what it took to get 5 ppm before nitrite showed up, each day). Any ideas or predictions when the nitrites should cycle? Thanks

 

[ksfishguy]

How has your tank stocking worked out?

 

[Big Ben]

How has your tank stocking worked out?

Well things are much different in the tank now. I have a green terror, jack dempsey, jurupari, 2 severums a turquoise i think and green, 1/2 inch baby convict and 1 & 1/2 inch juvenile convict (bred by myslef of course ), small clown loach, 4 bronze corys and a pleco.

Had to get rid of oscar just as i predicted wud happen eventually. I didn't think he'd go so soon, he went in september. He had to tho before he got too large for anyone to want him. It sucked for him to go cause he was one of my favs. Ill never forget his crashing around the tank late at night... . I will definitely get a few oscars once I finish school and move out.

Before I had 2 electric yellows in there , but I traded them because of fish incompatability, and i thought one stopped eating cause i didnt feed them algae. Now that I know more about them the one that didn't eat was probably holding :x . Well i traded the oscar and yellows for my 2 severums, some food and 3 neon tetras for my gfs tank.


All and all things have been good but in the past week one of the severums has tried to kill the other. So ones in my other tank for a bit. Also, the jack dempsey is terrified by the green terror. Im really surprised, this jack dempsey has never been aggressive to any fish and he actually gets pushed around by the severums and the green terror. Im going to try adding more deco to cut down the field of vision.

Bio load might sound heavy but the biggest of them is probly 4 inch terror or a severum thats bigger but is the one in a dif tank. I also do a water change at least once every 7-10 days, and water seems to be good 8)

 

[ksfishguy]

Looks like an Emperor 400 on the back, you gotta love that filter?!