Tropical Fish Forum

Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => General Fishkeeping advice => Topic started by: Robert on March 26, 2014, 02:32:21 PM

Title: Dave asks by email...
Post by: Robert on March 26, 2014, 02:32:21 PM
Via email today...

Quote
hi.... i recently rescued a 5" severum from a tank and set up a 5' 450L tank for it.... recently i added 2x firemouths and 3x bristlenose plecs.... i was wanting to add a green terror, a blue acara and 2x red sevs... i have researched this and get different answers all the time so now i'm asking someone ( hopefully) that has experience with these fish.... oh and i'm adding a jack dempsey next week!! any advice would be grateful
Thankyou

Title: Re: Dave asks by email...
Post by: Sue on March 26, 2014, 07:51:13 PM
I'm not sure we have anyone who posts regularly who keeps central American cichlids  ??? I know we did a while ago but not recently.
I have never kept these fish, I'm afraid. But from what I read it can be very hit and miss mixing them. Depending on the nature of the individual fish concerned, they could live together nicely or it could turn into a blood bath.

Not very helpful, I know.....
Title: Re: Dave asks by email...
Post by: Robert on March 26, 2014, 08:18:37 PM
Thanks Sue! I replied to his email with a link to this thread and suggested he sign up, hopefully he will!

Looks like he has a quandary for sure!
Title: Re: Dave asks by email...
Post by: SteveS on March 26, 2014, 08:39:46 PM
Most of the cichlids that he is considering, the Severums, Firemouths and Acaras, are considered to be reasonably peaceful. At least as far as these large C. American cichlids do "peaceful". But they do appear to get a bit friskier when breeding,  so I wouldn't be inclined to keep breeding colonies of them.

The exception to this is the Green Terror. It is variously described in the literature as being "violent", "territorial", "aggressive". These terms are very often prefixed with terms like "highly" or "very" or even, occasionally "extremely"! It would probably need to be isolated.
Title: Re: Dave asks by email...
Post by: Robert on March 26, 2014, 08:52:47 PM
 :cheers: SteveS
Title: Re: Dave asks by email...
Post by: daveyng on October 24, 2018, 04:00:58 PM
I had a Green Terror (Female). It laid eggs once and everything else was forced to live in 1/2 of the tank.
They are extremely aggressive.
Severums are usually placid.
Title: Re: Dave asks by email...
Post by: Hampalong on October 25, 2018, 03:50:28 PM
There are a few concerns here. The Central Americans (Firemouths and Jack Dempsey) need hard alkaline water while all the others want soft water, so mixing them is not advisable.

Firemouths should really be kept as a group of 5-6 or more.

The Green Terror is the oddball, being highly aggressive...

Title: Re: Dave asks by email...
Post by: daveyng on October 25, 2018, 04:07:26 PM
Sorry, I started replying to an old thread which cropped up in my view for some reason.
Title: Re: Dave asks by email...
Post by: Hampalong on October 25, 2018, 11:16:12 PM
D’oh

 :rotfl: