How many can I fit in 55 gal..CICHLIDS?

HI, I am filling a 55 g tank. How many cichlids can I put in. I bougth 4 today. They are 2 Kenyi (4-5") and 2 auratus Same size. Any help. Store told me maybe 2-4 more. THANKS

 

Probably about 10 - 12 would be okay assuming you have plenty of caves.

-Chelle

 

answer

it all depends on the size your potential pet cichlids get. remember you want space to house them at maturity. but i suggest 1 inch of fish per gallon of WATER in your tank. also you have to remember that each cichlids needs enough room for there own territory plus extra room for mingaling during feeding time. so for a 55 id say tops is 8 cichlids.

 

Re: answer

The thing about african cichlids, though, is you can overstock them a little bit because it helps keep aggression down. The more fish you have, the less likely it is that just one will get picked on the most. I have 12 Malawi cichlids in my 55 gallon w/o any major aggression issues (just a bit of chasing occasionally). The key is to make sure you have enough filtration & keep an eye on your nitrAtes, provide lots of caves, and be prepared to return a couple fish if things don't work out.

-Chelle

 

will they kill each other

 

I have a 55g tank with African cichlids myself. In my tank, I've had 2 fish assassinated by others, but still have 10 alive and well. I have a lot of caves and am pretty good about water changes. The 4 fish you bought happen to be really aggressive. Almost all Africans are aggressive, but if your auratus are both male, you might lose one of them when the other establishes dominance.

The best way to prevent deaths are to have plenty of hiding spots and to break up lines of sight. My fish don't chase what they don't see. Set up some caves/rocks that provide areas where the less dominant fish can catch a break.

Also, the inch of fish per gallon rule is really, well... not so great. Red-tailed sharks, for example, get to be about 6" long, but need at least a 20 gallon tank. Would you keep an 10" fish in an 10 gallon tank? Yikes.

 

Good info. This avator! How did you manage to catch him/her yawning??

 

exactly....kind of like saying since silver arrowanna gets 36" they can go in a 36 gallon or since an oscar gets 12", it can go in a 12 gallon......only works with some fish, such as tetras or guppys, but not even that always works.

 

Luck and a really nice camera.

As for african cichlid aggression, I've discovered the hard way that it is very important to have at least 3 females/male in order to keep aggression down. I actually started off with my africans not knowing a thing about them (they where just pretty colors). I ended up with about 6 species and a 1:1 or a 1:2 m:f ratio. Everything was great for a long time but just in the past couple of months I've started having major aggression problems and I've lost 3 yellow labs and a kenyi. I'm currently buying/growing out fish to fix my ratio but the pickings around here are pretty slim and I have to quarantine and grow out any fish I get before I can add them to the main tank. That is taking quite a bit of time so I'm really having to monitor the fish closely and keep an eye out for even minor signs of aggression and separate & treat them before they get beat up too badly. I think if I had started out with a better m:f ratio, I wouldn't be having as many problems as I am now.

-Chelle