rileyrk190

I have a fifty five gallon community tank, and was wondering if there are any types of cichlids that i could add to my aquarium? I have mostly larger fish in my aquarium. I have three silver dollars, two blue gourami, a rubber nosed pleco, a banjo catfish, and four albino cory cats. So if i figure about six inches per fish with the exception of my cory cats and pleco, i have 36 inches of fish in my tank. Then i have an inch for each cory cat and four inches for my pleco. So i have 44 inches of fish in my tank ( are my calculations correct?) I may have figured a bit much saying six for my dollars, and gouramis, but i wanted to make sure. I plan on taking out all of my plants in my tank, because they are becoming a pain to clean. I will just have lava rock and drift wood along the back of the tank,so there are plenty of hiding spots. If cichlids wont work, other suggestions would be great too. I guess, i just want something with lots of color. I have guppies, but i removed the remaining three, because something has been eating them..so i feel it best to stick with larger fish.

FL CommunityFans

There are several peaceful cichlids that actually do very well in comm. tanks. DOn't have time tonight to search and list them tonight, but I will for sure tomorrow morning. The Cichlid Forum has tons of articles on cichlids and a great cichlid database with lots of good info. If you want to tonight, give that DB a browse and you'll find quite a few that work great with community fish.

rileyrk190

thank you very much!

Barbrella

Keyhole cichilds are one of the most peaceful of all the species. They're actually quite shy and need good cover in the tank, along with plants (which they usually won't rip up).

I've kept them in a community tank they were fine. In fact, they're one of my favorite fish.

rileyrk190

i'm sort of limited on my selection, so i really need to find out what types my pet store has. The problem i'm having is their cichlids are really small, and look nothing like the photos i've seen online. They have blue, yellow and a striped kind ( i know thats vague..lol). They also have angel fish. I am really looking to turn my fish tank into a reef like set up..except freshwater. I have silver dollars, which are like locusts. They strip live plants down to nothing in seconds. Silk plants are proving difficult to clean, so i think just rocks would be an interesting effect ( lava rocks from lowes, and silicone make for a cheap reef). So the cichlids will have PLENTY of hiding spots. My gouramis and silver dollars love hiding in the rocks too.
My fish store troubles me a bit in the fact that their cichlids are just labeled cichlids( ie. blue dwarf cichlid). I'm apprehensive about buying because i'm not sure what i'm getting. I think even if i end up with a slightly more aggressive cichlid, the fish that i'm worried about would be my cories. I really love those little guys and would hate to see them get hurt. I have had two of them for five years!