In 180 gallon aquarium how many large cichlids can you have.

[Americancichlid]

Hi all I am a new member and I keep American cichlids. How many big American cichlids do you guys think can go in a 180 gallon tank or a 682 litre tank. Thanks.

 

[Colin_T]

What are the tank dimensions (length x width x height)?
What species of cichlid did you want to keep?
Did you want to breed them?

You could have 1 managuense cichlid. Or you could have a pr of Oscars. If you get all females and the fish are smaller and more peaceful, you could have more. It comes down to the tank size, species and sex of the fish.

 

[Jacky12]

It all depends. My advice would be proceed slowly and see how things go. I tend to keep my population on the low side in my cichlid tanks, whereas some cram them in. The guy who had an accidental breeding of beautiful OBs kept 40 in a 90 g. These were African varieties. He felt the dense population reduced aggression, along with keeping them in very dim lighting. I was surprised, but later read his practices are not all that unusual.

I am getting good info from Facebook groups devoted to specific types of fish. I’m sure there’s one on American cichlids. I’m in ones for Oscars, plecos, OBs, dojo loaches, clown loaches, goldfish and Jack Dempsey cichlids.

 

[Americancichlid]

It all depends. My advice would be proceed slowly and see how things go. I tend to keep my population on the low side in my cichlid tanks, whereas some cram them in. The guy who had an accidental breeding of beautiful OBs kept 40 in a 90 g. These were African varieties. He felt the dense population reduced aggression, along with keeping them in very dim lighting. I was surprised, but later read his practices are not all that unusual.

I am getting good info from Facebook groups devoted to specific types of fish. I’m sure there’s one on American cichlids. I’m in ones for Oscars, plecos, OBs, dojo loaches, clown loaches, goldfish and Jack Dempsey cichlids.

Ok thanks a lot for the info. I am trying to complete the nitrogen cycle at the moment on the 6x2x2 it has one fx6 running on it do you think a fluival 407 which has been running for close to two years would instantly skip the cycle

 

[Jacky12]

Are you saying the fx6 is new? I have a pair of fx4’s, but both were secondhand and already cycled. The 125 tank & filters were in use until I got them. No fish. The seller worked in a pet store & sold them to customers.

I’m not sure about the 407 maintaining a good population of BB in an empty tank. I doubt it.
How are you cycling? The fishless way with ammonia as described by Dr. Tim? My guess is you have to follow the same steps. Could be that 407 may accelerate the process. I personally got tired of waiting for Dr. Tim & tossed in a big cycled sponge filter. This was for another tank, not the one with the two cycled Fluvals.

 

[Colin_T]

Ok thanks a lot for the info. I am trying to complete the nitrogen cycle at the moment on the 6x2x2 it has one fx6 running on it do you think a fluival 407 which has been running for close to two years would instantly skip the cycle

If the Fluval 407 has been running on an aquarium with fish in, and there is another filter on that tank where the filter came from, then moving it to the new tank should help speed up the cycling process and deal with any ammonia in the water within a few days. Then you could add some fish assuming ammonia is kept at 0ppm.

 

[Jacky12]

Since you’re interested in American Cichlids I just snapped a shot of the only one I own for you. He is a Texan and I call him Tex. He actually has some blue in those dots, but he was at the shady end of the tank & when I turned on the light, he swam off. He lives in a 90 G with ~20 African Cichlids and OBs.

No idea why the pic’s rotated around! He was swimming horizontally.

 

[Andy Sager]

One of the tough things with American Cichlids is that they tend to be more territorial than some of the other Cichlid families so you are going to need to keep a lot of rockwork and/or hiding places for them to make territories.
As for how many can you keep, it will all depend on how many territories you can make and which cichlids you are keeping. For some species, 1 could take up the whole tank. For others, they may take up smaller territories so you can have a lot in a long tank.
There's just no way to definitively answer your question.

 

[Jacky12]

Andy, mine hides out most of the time. Once Tex hid out so well that I didn’t see him for several days and worried the others whacked him in the still of the night, although I’ve never observed aggression among this group. I was about to do a tank shakedown (remove plants & hides) to search for him, but he eventually emerged & is fine. I wonder if he was a brooding female or what, as during this period Tex did not surface to eat. Usually he pigs down the chow. I have no idea if an American cichlid can even breed with the peacocks or OB peacocks or not, but the behavior was unusual. He/she’s my favorite fish in that tank. Someone gave me Tex & 6 peacocks about a year ago. This fish is slowly growing and very pretty.

 

[Andy Sager]

Andy, mine hides out most of the time. Once Tex hid out so well that I didn’t see him for several days and worried the others whacked him in the still of the night, although I’ve never observed aggression among this group. I was about to do a tank shakedown (remove plants & hides) to search for him, but he eventually emerged & is fine. I wonder if he was a brooding female or what, as during this period Tex did not surface to eat. Usually he pigs down the chow. I have no idea if an American cichlid can even breed with the peacocks or OB peacocks or not, but the behavior was unusual. He/she’s my favorite fish in that tank. Someone gave me Tex & 6 peacocks about a year ago. This fish is slowly growing and very pretty.

I don't believe they can successfully spawn since they are of different species coming from different waters and countries. This doesn't mean that if your Tex is a female, that she didn't lay eggs on her own and was just caring for them until they died off.

 

[Jacky12]

More likely she whipped those eggs into an omelette and didn’t need extra food. That’s what my severums have been known to do.

 

[Andy Sager]

More likely she whipped those eggs into an omelette and didn’t need extra food. That’s what my severums have been known to do.

 

[Americancichlid]

More likely she whipped those eggs into an omelette and didn’t need extra food. That’s what my severums have been known to do.

That is most likely. Texas cichlids can be very aggressive and even more so when they have fry, so you probably would have spotted Tex attacking fish away.Based on that fact alone I would say she or he did not have any fry. Another thing is that they are fish from completely different continents which means it is even more unlikely for them to breed. I would imagine that the only cichlid which can maybe cross breed with cichlids from different continents is the Convict. But if the Texas has had fry that is super strange.

 

[Americancichlid]

If the Fluval 407 has been running on an aquarium with fish in, and there is another filter on that tank where the filter came from, then moving it to the new tank should help speed up the cycling process and deal with any ammonia in the water within a few days. Then you could add some fish assuming ammonia is kept at 0ppm.

Ok that is very helpful thanks a lot.

 

[Americancichlid]

One of the tough things with American Cichlids is that they tend to be more territorial than some of the other Cichlid families so you are going to need to keep a lot of rockwork and/or hiding places for them to make territories.

As for how many can you keep, it will all depend on how many territories you can make and which cichlids you are keeping. For some species, 1 could take up the whole tank. For others, they may take up smaller territories so you can have a lot in a long tank.

There's just no way to definitively answer your question.

That is very helpful thanks a lot.

 

[Jacky12]

AmericanCichlid, here's the pic of my Texan that rotated 180 when uploaded yesterday from the iPad, so i deleted it. I'm trying on the laptop today. too bad the cam isn't picking up the iridescent blue dots.

 

[Colin_T]

AmericanCichlid, here's the pic of my Texan that rotated 180 when uploaded yesterday from the iPad, so i deleted it. I'm trying on the laptop today. too bad the cam isn't picking up the iridescent blue dots.

It's almost like a black & white photo. Still good tho.
How did you manage to get the image to be the right way up?
I notice lots of images end up sideways on here.

 

[Jacky12]

I emailed the image from the iPad to the laptop & uploaded it from there.
She sure does look grey! And she has shiny blue dots.