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Anyone have a cichlid tank? These amazing fish come close to being true pets...I confess a weakness for Oscars and Jack Dempseys, those big South Americans. And I suspect some of you have the coloful African Lake Fish. Anyone breed Convicts yet?

My eventual dream tank will have 3-4 Discus, who I adore. Just need to save up the big cash outlay to buy them, but I have the 40-gallon all ready for that time. :music:

Yup, we have one in our house, the one our son overfed with algae. Our oldest son named the orange one flounder, we also have a female nicknamed Stripy, and a whole bunch of babies, although it's hard to tell how many, they hide so well.

We've had them for almost 4 years, the cats think it's TV when we turn on the light.

I have a 20 tall, and it's home to a juvenile Oscar named Xena, who rules the tank. A Smaller Jack Dempsey, Gabrielle, is forced to hide around the bottom, but she sometimes can hold her own. I always make sure she gets a few food granules that greedy Xena misses. The third inhabitant is my silly Paradise Fish, who is so obnoxious that this was my last place to put him. He's Joxer. He actually does very well here, which is good, since this was my last resort before returning him to the LFS. He adds movement to the tank and sometimes chases Gabrielle. He knows better than to mess with Xena.

Eventually I will need a bigger tank for the Oscar and Jack, but this is plenty of room now. Also, at some point they will be too big to safely keep the paradise fish in with them, so I will have to keep an eye out. When those cichlids get big enough to move, I will put a pair of convict cichlids in the 20 tall.

The 40 gall I am still reserving for the discus I am longing for. it should suffice for 3 discus.

I have added a female convict to my cichlid tank and am trying to get the paradise fish out of there. He's so fast; not even my hunny can get him out. the only way to catch this fish is to take out all the rocks, which would be a pain, since they are stacked so perfectly. I want to put the paradise fish in with the DAnio schooling tank, since he doesn't bother those fast little fishies. When I had my goldfish in there, he bothered the goldie...now that he's dead, I can put him back into the unheated tank.

Back to the convict. In this case, females are more colorful than males. I did NOT want a pair, since I have no interest in baby convicts, not with all the baby bettas all over the house. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I decided to leave the paradise fish in the cichlid tank. he's perky and keeps away from the other fish (someone took a chunk out of his tail and now he's just hanging around without pestering everyone). The convict is mean, though! Even my Oscar is looking a little ragged. Just wait til she grows up....

okay, I returned the convict and got a salvini. he's gorgeous and I had read they were not as aggro as Convicts.

Welllll, yeah, right. he ripped up my lovely Oscar worse than anyone. So off Xena (the oscar) went into the hospital tank, where she sulked for three days. At least her jaw and pelvics and pectorals are growing back, and she's starting to talk to me again ( I AM the keeper of the food, after all).

So I dedcided Xena will get her own tank with a tinfoil barb and maybe an Ancistrus catfish.

The cichlid tank is rather bare now, with only the Jack and the Salvini, plus my intrepid paradise fish (who is also looking ragged, while the timid Jack is just fine). I will look into some more South Americans. Anyone have some ideas for me? And I might put a tinfoil barb in here, too, or a huge pearl gourami.

Nannynan, what kind of cichlids do you have in that tank (ie - what are orange and stripy)? And Glo, how many Angels do you have, and tell us about breeding them.

FYI - if anyone didn't know, Angels (freshwater) are cichlids, as are Discus, which I pine away for daily.

I'll reveal my ignorance when I say that Flounder -- the orange cichlid looks a lot like a goldfish. The "stripey" is grey with verticle stripes of silver and black, and also has spots on it. The babies are variations of the two above. The cutest one has mama's eyes - Stripey and Daddy's colors - orange with pale brown stripes. His/her eyes have spots around them like Mama Fish has.

The only concern I have is that Flounder has 2 white spots on his lower fin toward the outside of it. He seems fine, has grown bigger thanks to the tank debacle, and chases everyone else around.

Right now I only have 5 adult angels. 2 femalesin a 120 with a variety of tetras and some keyholes which are cichlids and I dearly love. They supply the tank with fresh laid caviar every ten days or so LOL

A beautiful pair of silver clown veils which I am debating whether or not to raise one more spawn from. It is lots and lots of work and with my kids so far away now i need to travel to see them. Neighbors aren't much into raising bbs and feeding fry with turkey basters 4 times a day.

I have raised and sold several hundred to 4 lfs in my area though. Blacks, golds, marbles, ssunset blushers, and a pair of koi.

Glo

ooo! Do you have any pics of them? Esp the koi angels? I love the koi look - one of my bettas is a koi, and I am going to biuld a pond this summer for some of the real stuff!