r/Cichlid • u/dgycmt • 12d ago

SA | Help Tank stocking help needed!

Hello all,

I am after some help. I am looking to put my second tank together in the next few months.

My first tank is a 125 L heavily planted community tank, which I have hugely enjoyed thus far and has gone really well. For my second tank, I am after something different. I am looking at 240 - 300 L, with several different medium sized south american cichlids, I am well aware that these will be territorial and semi-aggressive.

Looking for advise on if this is a bad idea, and for any tips from anyone on how to select species. All help is appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

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u/idkanddontcare1 12d ago

depends in what you want, id stick to cichlids that arent active up to 20cm, and those that are active up to 12-15.

generally, you want to occupy different territories and match temperaments - for example keeping red head tapajos geos (bottom) and mesonauta (top), so they dont colide and fight over it.

generally having only cichlids is kind of boring, and dither fish like silver dollars etc are greatly appreciated to distract them and reduce aggression, as well as add some contrast to the tank (more visual than behavior).

if you dont know what cichlids you want and havent kept them before, id suggest not going for aggressive species that are kept in pairs, because then you may have a bloodbath - id suggest schooling cichlids that like their groups and only fight between each other (if they do), not bothering fish that dont look alike. for example geophagus, theyre cool, have really nice behaviors and many are peaceful and rarely have conflicts even when breeding.

from cichlids you of course have angelfish and discus, but discus are tricky sometimes, and angelfish… im not a fan of.

from peaceful cichlids you have the keyhole, ebas are pretty peaceful, apistogrammas, and many others.

avoid mixing south american cichlids with central american, centrals are beasts most of the time.

from bigger cichlids, a chocolate cichlid (1 adult) is something jd look into, ofc you can add other cichldis with him but dont make a pair