Masked julie tank mates.

[rebelyeller89]

I have asked this question before, but it been a pretty good while. I'm looking for some tank mates for my J. Transcriptus. It's a 75 gallon tank and I have ten Julies, rock work, drift wood, shells, and one Pleco that I'm looking to re-home.
Basically, I don't have any fish stores near me with any other tang. cichlids available to me. I was wondering about neon tetras? They're a pretty fast fish, think a school of them would be ok? Or any other suggestions?

 

[garfy]

I love Julie's I have 3 masked and 2 dickfields and they are in my Malawi cichlid tank with no problems.For the most part they stick to the rockwork but they mix happily with the others at feeding time.
Perhaps you could add yellow labs.They are reasonably peaceful and I think they would work well.

 

[rebelyeller89]

I love labs, but I love my Julie's more. I just want to make sure they won't get eaten or anything. The aren't very aggressive, they don't bother my Pleco, but they are very fast little guys.

 

[garfy]

I have 1 dominant male lab about 4 1/2" and 3 females at 3" with no problems.
Your tank is certainly big enough.
Have your Julie's bred yet?

 

[rebelyeller89]

:cries: no! I think we've had to move so much it's ruined their chances. That and I'm afraid my Pleco might eat any eggs, if there were any.

 

[garfy]

Yes the pleco would eat them if he got the chance.At my lfs they have a 6 foot tank with larger Malawi and tanganyikan cichlids including a giant tanganyikan cichlid of about 15" and in the middle of the tank is a pair of rocks forming a crude cave.The inhabitants of this cave were a pair of Julie's about 4" long with maybe 20 fry of about 1.5 cm and they fiercely chased off all comers.It was amazing to see.
Auratus,red zebra,Kenyi and tropheus adults.All were rebuffed by the plucky Julie's

 

[rebelyeller89]

Really?! Wow maybe they're a little tougher than I thought. I have heard labs are a less aggressive Cichlid, but that doesn't always mean much. Lol. Talked to a guy at a lfs once and said he had a frontosa in there with some, I really like those guys too.

 

[garfy]

Yeah frontosa are nice looking fish but they get big like 14"
Yellow labs max out at about 5" and they are less aggressive than say the zebra's.
Sounds like you have plenty of rockwork for the Julie's if they need to hide and they would lay their eggs amongst the rocks.
I really hope mine breed.I'd love to see baby Julie's in my tank
I also have a 6 1/2" male eye biter in my tank and a 4 1/2" male auratus and they don't seem to bother the Julie's at all so maybe yellow labs will work for you and they look great