my 48g

[leck85]

ive been having problems with fin nippers when i had a ''community tank''... so i decided to try my cichlids in the tank and see how they do..

i left a red tail black shark (2inches) a black shark (3inches) a rainbow shark(3inches) and 6 ID sharks (bout 3-4inches each)...

the tank is 4 feet long.. bout 1 foot wide.. maybe 15''..

i donno.. anyways here is what i am adding today..

2 small parrot cichlids.. theyre about 1.5 inches long each, a turquoise severum thats bout 1.5 inches, and a 7 inch brown knife.. i had the severum and the brown knife in a 20g overnight and the sev was attacking him a bit.. i hope in the bigger tank they will be ok together...

they were both impulse buys.. never seen knife fish here so cheap so i had to pick one up($8), and the sev was in a tank with 5 inch sevs, and a 4 inch jack dempsey.. he was stuck in the top corner of the tank almost sideways trying to stay out of everyones way.. he was only $5 so i thought i might as well buy him.. i also bought some weird little dinosaur eel or something.. grows to be 12'' and i guess will end up eating smaller fish which i guess is cool LOL... the eel is about 2.5/3 inches long, and im gonna put him in my 20g with my 3 1.5/2 inch convicts...

anyone foresee problems in my 48 with the 2 parrots, the sev, the brown knife, and the sharks ? oh yea.. i do have 6 gold killifish... i think i know the answer, but would it be a mistake to put them in there?.. 2 of the killis are bout 3 inches long, the other 4 are about 2..

thanks

 

[CAPSLOCK]

I don't have a clue about your 48 gallon, but I think you'll have a major problem with your convicts and the eel. I imagine the convicts will harrass it to death. You can always try it, and just watch it like a hawk for a few days. Actually, I think that the knife will continue to be beaten up... they aren't aggressive or fast enough to handle cichlids.

 

[leck85]

yea 1/2 way through i decided to scrap that idea... the parrot cichlids were attacking EVERYTHING.. i tried one of my large fast tetra just to see if it would be ok, i went up to eat, came down 10 mins later, it had no eye and the parrots were ripping apart his dead body.. i took the parrots out and put them in with the severum in a 10g.. they are all fine together.. i was surprised... i thought they would fight with the sev but i guess since the sev is larger they dont mess wit him.. i put the eel in a 5g by himself for now... he looks psycho and has a large mouth for such a small fish... i think i will leave him by himself for now.. i might buy some feeder guppies and see if he eats em... the brown knife is the coolest fish probably that ive ever owned... it is huge... sometimes it thinks its an ID shark and tries to swim with them, but the IDs prob think hes gonna eat em so they freak and run away... the rtb and black shark both flare like crazy at him.. but hes not even interested in them.. hes not aggressive at all hes one of the coolest fish ive ever seen.. i would get more if i had the chance... too bad nowhere around here sells them... we get ghost knifes but they are very expensive...

the 48 right now has the following

6 id sharks
some weird shark that looks like an ID shark but is white and has a black blotch on both sides of it...
1 rtb shark
1 black shark
1 albino rainbow shark
2 silver dollars
6 gold killies
4 skirt tetra
1 columbian tetra
the brown knife
and 1 silver tip rasbora (his friend was the one eaten by parrots)..

the tank looks pretty empty right now.. im probably gonna add the 2 croaking gouramis back in, and maybe 5 more fish, then thats it..

turns out the angelfish were the ones nipping... i put them in a 20g and 2 of the bigger angelfish were attacking the other angelfish.. i guess they have paired off sorta... im gonna put them in a 10g by themselves and maybe one day spawn them

 

[Managuense]

i would venture a guess that your unidentified cat is a "midnight" catfish -

http://www.planetcatfish.com/core/index.php

people who keep blood parrots often recommend severums as good tankmates, so i would expect few problems there....

i would probably put the angels in a larger tank than a 10 gallon, owing to their extensive deep-body growth.

as for the big tank - i would probably call it a day, since a few of those fish grow fairly big, but that being said i would add more silver dollars or columbians before anything else.

HTH
M

 

[f8fan]

A hiding tube for your knife fish would be a good idea...I used to have one a long time back (it was an impulse buy, too) and altho they aren't technically "blind" like black knifes are, they like to have a tube to "escape" to and feel safe.

 

[leck85]

there are i think 4 pvc thingies in there... most of the day he swims from tube to tube... chilling with the albino ID sharks who spend a lot of their day in the tubes... the silver dollars school with the 4 skirt tetra and the columbian, and the killies stay at the surface... i love the parrots and the severum.. im surprised how well they get along.. 2 days and no nips out of any of them... hopefully it will stay that way

 

[leck85]

im wondering about tankmates for 2 parrot cichlids and a green severum.. could a put another parrot in there?

they in a 10g tank

 

[Managuense]

both severums and bp's grow FAR too large to even be kept even singly in a 10 gallon tank.

you could use the 10 for a very short period of time (probably no more than a month or two) as a grow-out before moving them to something larger........

 

[leck85]

yea i dont plan on keeping them in there forever... im going to get rid of 3 of my smaller tanks to make room for another large tank.. probably a 55... that is where the sev and the parrots will go... they are sooo cool i love em... cant wait till they get big... i heard that parrots are a hybrid between a sev and a red devil... im assuming that is true.. im wondering what else i could put with them when they get bigger... i want to raise them up when they are small to minimize aggression when they are larger... ive got convicts... i tried the cons with the parrots but the cons attacked them so i guess even when they are larger they wont be compatible... any suggestions?