Roomate bought fish as a "surprise"

[reberly]

Ok, so I got home today to find out that my roomate had gone to the LFS and bought two african cichlids without telling me about his plans at all. Our tank was empty so there's no other fish to harass and the guy at the store said our water sample was good for cichlids. We now have a red and a blue Zebra. They seem to be doing well but we only have a 12 gallon tank! Are they going to be miserable in here? Are we going to be able to put ANYTHING else in there? I'm kinda ticked cause I was shooting for a more peaceful tank but... oh well. Comments? Suggestions?

Ryan

 

[cdawson]

I'm not experienced that much with cichlids, but that will eventually end up in death for one of those fish. A 12g is WAY too small for any cichlids. It's pretty too small for most fish, other than 5 totally peaceful tetras.

 

[lashilia]

When the cichlids grow up, you might want to separate them. When they are little a twelve should be okay...
Put in lots of plants and they will be less likely to harass each other. It obstructs their view or something...

 

[reberly]

We read that they need places to hide and territorialize, so we bought a nice cave structure. The red zebra OWNS that cave now. Ol' Blue can only sneak through if Red's not watching. I'm starting to like these guys.

Ryan

 

[TankGirl]

If these are the zebras I am thinking of, they will require about a 75-gal tank, as they are very aggressive. Do some research at cichlid.com and see if you can find the ones you have, and decide accordingly. Now you can justify that bigger tank!

Liz