a 29 gallon tank & unwisely bought cichlids

[gino]

hello, everyone.

i recently made what seems to be an unwise purchase of some cichlids. i found them fascinating, but after perusing this site, i see they weren't necessarily the best fit for me. because of size, mainly.

i own a 29 gallon tank with a 40 gallon external filter by regent or something. probably crap by your standards, but it was enough for a tropical fish tank, which was what i was planning on. but the guy convinced me on cichlids and the tanks been up and running successfully with a pleco and some catfish for a while. so i bought a convict, a jack dempsey and a firemouth. now after reading people's comments on here, it seems this wasn't a good idea. the employee told me they got big but that with my size tank it should be fine. misinformed, i suppose. at any rate, what would you guys suggest?

keep or trade in? i would really love a cichlid tank, so what would be the most feasible species/combination to have in this size a tank? thanks in advance for any help.

[JB wind]

Well first of all welcome to the forum :D


Well you could keep them in that tank for awhile but only for a grow out tank. But if you plan on just keeping this tank i would trade them in now. and maybe get some dwarf cichlids, the only dwarf cichlid that i have kept is the Rams. but I'm sure someone else here will fill in that blank. keep in mind that you could do african cichlids as well. some julidochromis or tropheus from lake tanganyika will do well, so if you want you could go that route. another helpful hint in keeping any cichlids, the bigger the filter the better, I would throw a penguin 330 or a aquaclear 300 on there, you can buy them online for around 20bucks. I like to have 10 times the filtration that i am supposed to have. I have never used regent filters, so I have no idea how it stacks up.

[fish-eyed-fool]

Well, you could just leave them all in there and eventually they'll all become lunch for the Jack Dempsey. Problem solved.

[gino]

thanks alot for your help guys. i liked the african cichlids they had but the guy there said that with my size tank to go for the others. it says on their site that they are Haplachromis and Aulonacaras. would those be fine?

[Rex Karr]

Welcome. Thats not such a big mistake. Your aquarium is large enough to house 2 medium sized cichlids and some other fish. You could keep the Convict and Fiemouth, or either a pair of Convicts or a pair of Firemouths. Any of those combos should work well. Fish-eyed-fool, I don't realy understand your comment. How do you expect a Dempsey (at 8-9") to eat a Convict and Firemouth (both at 5-6")? I currently have two 8" Midas with fish as small as 2". In a slightly larger tank, all 3 of your fish could be kept just fine. I hope you decide to stick with Americans.


There's probably 150 species that fall into the Haplochromis and Aulonocara categories. Many of the Haps reach 7-10" while the Aulonocara typically reach 5-6".

Good luck,
Rex

[surfdude660]

I would keep a firemouth and a convict. Although jd is one of my favorite fish (if not the favorite) i would hate to see one kept in a 29 gal. He will get too big, take the jd back, and you will have a nice tank!!!!!!!!

[thmandan22]

i agre e the way you have or had it was/is too much and you need/did to take back that JD.

[JDSalem,OR]

U SHOULD GET DWARF CICHLIDS THEY ONLY GROW TO ABOUT 41/2 INCHES:)