Yontzfamily

I was at a local pet store last night as I needed more fish food and I also wanted to get some frozen food for something different. I was looking at the cichlids as I have been toying with setting up a cichlid tank and the guy working in that area asked me if I needed any help. I said not really, but I couldn't remember the min. size tank for most of the cichlids and asked "I would need at least a 50 gallon right?" He said you could use a 15, but a 20 would be better.
Now I thought I had read in many different spots that cichlids need a 50. Do all cichlids need at least a 50? Even angels out to be in at least a 20 right? Tell me I'm not nuts thinking that they need at least a 50.

freshwater06

20 gallon would work for the moment, unless you just kept 2 and nothing else, im kinda pushin the limit now but will be gettin rid of one since i have 4, but with a 50 you could prob have up 6-8, they like caves and plants tank setups. i would recommend a long 29 for just a few.

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Fresh water setup
20 gallon tank
-2 golden killifish
-2 small danios
-1 bichir
-2 clown loaches
-2 yellow angels
45 gallon setup
EMPTY

harley3k

It really depends on what kind of Cichlids you're going to keep. You could have say shell dwellers in a 20, a pair of convicts in a 29, dwarf mbuna in a 30, smaller mbuna in a 55, Frontosa, or the big New World Cichlids (Oscars, Jack Dempsey, Jaguars etc...) in a 125. Some of the larger ones will work as a wet pet in a 55, but I'm of the opinion that I'd like more than one fish in my tank.

Yontzfamily

thanks for the clarification. I'm in luck as I have a 55 I want to set up, and just found out my uncle wants to sell one of his 50 gal tanks and stand so I can have two, one a community tank to move my shark into, and I can get a cichlid tank going too. Now the tough part, I have to decide what to get. Does anyone have any suggestions? I really like the electric blue one (don't really care for the flower horn) and a pearl earth eater like Tweaks has, but am open to others.

twood63

I've found the blues and yellows and red zebras I have do well together.I had to separate the jewels from that tank.

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1 125 South American
1 90 gallon Discus
1 55 gallon 1 Africans

tweaks

haha soo u want a PEarl Eartheater haha yah theyre great fish a bit shy at first but warm up to ya but make sure if u do get one get other fish that wont be same size as the Eartheater wen they grow to max size cuz he is aggressive to fish same size we used to have the eartheater and our red devil together when they were same size but that changed the Red devil is like 10 or 11" my Eartheaters only like 8" i think Check out Red Zebras theyre cool Africans or White Tail cichlids theyre beautiful we have 2 males they are best looking and theyre schooling fish so they stick together

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~Pearl Earth Eater~

Tommy Gun

Tweaks,
Checked your PM's lately? If so, let one of us mods know. Thanks
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Exactly! One thing that many people might be missing here is that going above and beyond the size of the fish versus the size of the tank...territorial fish like some cichlids require more room and in almost every case, the 'footprint' of a tank is more important than the height or gallonage. This is because may cichlids will defend varying amounts of area; hence if there is not enough room, then problems may ensue.

Of course, not all cichlids are aggressive, in fact, some can do very well in a community tank (e.g. rams). To add to that, many times we might not realize that some very commonly found fish are cichlids even though they are not labeled as such; for example, angelfish.

cichlidgirl

Be very careful what you stock in the tank. Here is a story that many will find familiar. Two weeks ago 've kept south americans for more than 20 years and decided i wanted africans this time. I set up a new tank with baby fish. I bought a fish labeled as a "electric blue" , it was a blue johanni, it was slightly aggressive at first but not too bad, i had numerous other fishes in the tank(several red zebra, a ice blue, two yellow labs, a couple kenyi and a yellow and black horizontal striped african cichlid (I cant remember the name , sorry) total of 12 fish in a 65 gallon tank with tons of caves and tunnels made out of rock(1 blue johanni, 5 red zebra,2 electric yellow labs, 3 kenyi , 1 yellow black striped fish) cant be exacly sure of exact breeds for two reasons first im new to africans and second because they are all juvies and keep changing colors as they grow and get used to the tank.
Anyway, be very careful about the blue johanni, it got extremely aggressive and killed the yellow horizontal striped fish, a yellow lab , and a red zebra, plus chewed the tail completly off one of the kenyi. I had to remove him from the tank and give him my quarentine tank also one of the red zebras got more aggressive than the others and now he is in with the johanni. I hope he can stay in there. He did all that damage in 24 hours after coexisting for about 10 days to 2 weeks with no major problems. I bought a couple of replacement fish for the ones i lost, another yellow lab, and two fish that i am having trouble identifying. They seem very peacful fish so far, they were hiding in the back of the tank, kind of beat up so i hope they are less aggressive. The store said they thought one was a keyhole but unless the juvies look totally different from adults i dont think it is it. No black bars in the eye area or anywhere on the fish, more like black blotches that come and go. It is slightly less than 2 inches and a steely blueish grey color with blotches that come and go. I will try to post some pics soon and get them id'd.

Yontzfamily

All this information has been really helpful. I'm glad all are willing to share their expeirences good and bad.
I have had angels before, love them and had a really nice pair of dark marbled angels years ago. They even laid eggs, but I didn't get any fry. Those are the only type of cichlid I have had, I'll keep doing research and see what works. Trouble is, I have too little space, and want too many fish!!