Reccomendations for New Fish?

[mxg5299]

Hi,
I have a 36 gallon cichlid tank with the following inhabitants:
2 bumblebee cichlids
2 jewel cichlids
1 firemouth cichlid (young)
1 sun/eclipse catfish
I was wondering if and what I can add to my tank. It's been set up for about 6 months now, and my fish are still pretty small. Can I add anything else? My fish are really timid for some reason, and hide in the back when anyone approaches the tank. It makes the tank look empty. I heard the new addtion of fish can help with that. I really like the convict cichlids, but if not them, what can I get?

 

[Freakgecko91]

Nothing....

Bumblebees will outgrow a 55, let alone a 36 and are highly aggressive. Firemouths are central American, jewels are west African. This tank is a mess of cichlids that normally shouldn't be kept together. I'd say ditch the bees, and pick either the firemouths, jewels, or convicts, and build around that pair of fish, although there really isn't a large amount of fish that will work with any of those pair

 

[cbourg746]

Yeah......time to rethink your whole tank situation. Mr freak g has a valid point. This setup may not turn out good in the future. Mixing species from different lakes, rivers....etc from the same areas of the world in the same tank doesn't always work well so this setup might spell trouble. You have a decent size tank so I suggest doing some research and going for something that is to your liking and more compatible with each other.

 

[mxg5299]

they've been togehter for almost a year and are no where near their potential size. It'll be really hard to get rid of any of them.

 

[Freakgecko91]

Not to sound harsh or anything, but give it some time and that issue will resolve itself when the bees start to mature and kill everything else. Most cichlids are not aggressive until they start to reach maturity and a switch flips. A great example of this is Red Festae (excichlasoma festae, AKA True Red Terror.) Today at a LFS i saw some babies in a tank with chocolate cichlids (relatively peaceful, grow to be giants). If we were talking adult fish, there would be one fish left standing at the end, and 100% positive it would be a festae. Just ask HUKIT here on the forum, one of his late females killed EVERYTHING that he tried to put in with her, including several mates.

In the end, it's your decision. Firemouths would do well in the tank, a pair, along with some sturdy tetras, like bleeding heart, and maybe some cory cats for the bottom, I'm sure you could find a LFS that would be willing to do a trade in on the bees and jewels