They gave me two cichlids for all the trouble :shrug:

Hopefully they don't eat eachother. Havent checked on them since before bed..

 

Ok, I'm pretty versed in cichlids (aftrican and american).

The first problem, the afrcians will kill ALL of those w/o question b/c of territory. How big is the tank?

Africans are very aggressive, but don't get huge. If you decide to add more (assuming the tank is atleast 20 gallons) do so immediately, and move everything around in the tank. Also, make sure you have more caves / placed to hide than you have fish.

Central and S. American cichlids are even MORE aggressive, but it usually doesnt show until they outgrow the Africans.

American cichlids (angel fish) will destroy any common fish if you get aggressive ones.....and will grow to a decent size. I had 1 angel that reached 10 inches top to bottom.

 

Oh God, mine are the South American ones. 20 gallon tank, saving up for a bigger one. The store wouldnt give me a credit towards other, less aggressive fish, just the two replacements. This sucks, I want more fish .

Thanks for the input!

 

I say put in 10 more and watch them fight/eat each other. h:

 

throw a siamese fighting fish in there

 

What kind of SA? Some are much less aggressive. For example, Firemouth, convicts and Jack Dempsys are much less aggressive than Flowerhorns, Midas, or Green Terrors (those can be considered south or central american)

I've kept a JD and a FM in a 20 gal for over a year w/ no issue....where the I have an Oscar and Flowerhorn in a 55 gallon, which they'll eventually outgrow.

 

My lord, you seriously put 21 fish in a 20 gallon tank. If they weren't killed by the cichlids, they would have died within a week anyway.

 

not necessarily. I have 10 africans in my 20 right now (5 jewel fry and 5 mixed africans). The 'over populating' and the fact that they're all less than 1/2 an inch stunts them and forces down the aggressiveness. (They'll go into my spare 55 gal within a year though). Most of the fish he had grow to their environment. It was inevitable that the cichlids would feel cramped, kill weaker species, grow to accommodate new space and so on.

 

Yea, but $20 says he didn't bother to cycle his tank.

And there's a difference between 10 cichlids (which you almost have to over populate in small tanks) and 21 fish in an unstable 20 gallon takn.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqWzUQ8lp3M