A couple of questions

[Danielle88]

Now that my fish are getting back to normal, I'm getting ready to add a few new cichlids to my tank in the next few weeks. I have always liked to have a bunch of different kinds of africans together in my tank, this time I had 7 of them, and each of them was a different kind, now, after the disease or behavior problems, I'm down to only 4. Would it be better to do the same thing again and get a few different kinds, or should I throw a few of the same together (for example instead of just one electric yellow, have 2 or 3)

I've been a bit reluctant to have any females because the last time I did they ALL decided to have babies at the same time, every time, and started killing eachother off.

Second question, I was wondering if electric yellows had a history of being more aggressive than most other cichlids? I've had 3 of them, and with the exception of the female, the males were always the "big dog" in the tank, chasing all the other fish, all the time. Is it just mine?

And last question, I have a "rope eel" with my cichlids, I wanted to add maybe one or two more. That would probably be ok right? I was just told no more puffer fish, (I had one, but he didn't make it anyway) so I just wanted to double check with the rope eels before I got anymore.

Oh I have a 55 gal. tank with just 4 cichlids in it now.


Thanks!

 

[spoonman]

I can tell you the puffer is a brackish fish and wont survive with the cichlids because of that. They usually start out being sold as freshwater, but have to be raised brackish then eventually totally marine. As for the cichlids, in my limited experience, overstocking and keeping more than one female of each kind keeps the aggression down. But, unfortunately the down side of that is them breeding. So, basically you are trading one for the other. I'm sure others have differing opinions. As I said, I haven't been keeping cichlids long but that is what I have learned in my research. Good luck!