Changing tank concept - South American cichlids

[zenkatydid]

Hey guys,

I used to post on here 3 or 4 years ago and loved the site, but I found a local (Australian) forum that took over. Now I have a question that I thought you guys could help me with

I have had my planted 4 ft tank with the same stock for about 4 years. Now my beautiful odessa barbs are starting to look a bit old - I looked up their lifespan, and apparently 3-4 years is all I should expect.

So, this got me thinking about what to do next. I have grown fond of some of the South American cichlids - specifically severums, festivums, and convicts. These guys would have to go with the remainder of the occupants - loaches, bns and giant danios. I would probably have to remove most of the plants, too, replace them with more anubias and java fern, but that's ok - I have other plant-focused tanks.

What do you guys think? Is a pair from each species too much to add to a tank that already has 3 giant danios, 4 yoyo loaches, 4 dario loaches, and 2 bristlenoses?

Can you make any other species suggestions that I might like for this sort of tank?

[mattrox]

I'm a little biased, but I'd say Malawi mbuna!

[zenkatydid]

thanks for the suggestion i actually don't like african cichlids - i'll stick to the americans

[HN1]

Welcome back!

What size tank? 4 ft leaves quite a bit of variance. If 75+, a pair of festivum or severum should work. I personally wouldn't choose cons because they will reproduce and they get mean. I wouldn't try more than one pair.

[zenkatydid]

it's a standrd 4ft (or at least what is considered standard here) - 55g. so that's too small for a pair of each? what about 1 of each, then? or would they be happier in a pair?

[zenkatydid]

any help?

[CA_BroncoFan]

Festivums will be great in groups, severums are great by themselves oe as pairs but they will breed and be aggressive when they do.

[zenkatydid]

ok, that helps, thanks. it looks like a single severum with a group of 3 or 4 festivums might be the way to go.

[mattrox]

That would look awesome. Are there any apistos that would complement the tank or would they eventually become severum food?

[zenkatydid]

yeah, i thought about a nice pair of apistos, but they're hard to find here at the moment. might be a long term plan. i hope to have a fair number of places the smaller fish could hide. if the severum ends up getting too big and too aggressive for a fish that size, he might have to be rehomed. i hope it doesn;t come to that, though.