Full-Grown Parrot Fish in Large Tank with Neons

[SwampeastMike]

I'm setting up a large (160-gallon) tank to be a true community.

Experimented by putting a few small female and one vivid male guppy into to 75-gallon tank with 5 full-grown blood-red parrot fish, a full-grown firemouth cichlid and a foot-long pleco. I expected the guppies to be snacks but they grew for months with zero loss.

I've now put the cichlids and 40 or so mixed guppies into the 160-gallon. They've been there a few days now and as far as I can tell they all love the greatly increased space and currents from the underwater circulators. Zero sign of aggression by the cichlids.

Do you think I can add a good-sized (50+) school of neon tetras? I know they're pedestrian but I've always loved neons despite the way a few of them always seem to "disappear" in a modest sized community tank.

 

[bill.marshall]

Don't the cichlids require different water conditions? I have a cichlid tank ph @ 8.0, with sand. I put a 1" firemouth in my tank and seen it sticking out of my ob cichlid mouth.

 

[SwampeastMike]

Good question and I looked it up. The ph in the tank with the blood red (hybrid) parrot fish (still cichlids) and one firemouth was kept around what we get from the tap here--about 8.2 yet the parrot fish seemed to do very well despite the higher-than-ideal ph.

The parrot fish actually prefer slightly acid water just like neons. Yes, the firemouth prefers alkaline like other African cichlids but I suspect it will be OK with about 7.5 when I intend to keep the tank after introducing the school of neons. Not that I want to loose the firemouth but I care more for the parrot fish. If the firemouth seems unhappy I'll move him back to the tank he came from and make it the African cichlid tank.

 

[SwampeastMike]

I've done some more research and some claim that smaller but full-grown cichlids actually prefer being around far smaller fish because they think it is an area free from carnivores.

Any confirmation before I put out upwards of $200 for school of neons?

 

[bill.marshall]

I wouldn't do it, just to small of a fish for a tank with cichlids...

 

[SwampeastMike]

I wouldn't do it, just to small of a fish for a tank with cichlids...

So why are they ignoring the gupples? Again I initially put a few sub-adult guppies into their previous tank as "treats" but to my great surprise every one of them lasted for months. Now they're in the very large tank with easily 40 guppies of every size beyond just birthed with all [seeming] to live in harmony for about a week.