75 Gallon African Cichlid Tank

HI everyone,

New to the site so I figured I’d post my set up and see what everyone thought. First a caveat though, I have 2 small kids, and they helped with a lot of the tank design, so it’s a little more colorful than most cichlid tanks I think. We currently have 6 African Cichlids (1 electric blue johanni, 1 electric yellow, 1 bumblebee, 1 duboisi, 1 Kenyi, and 1 Auratus) plus a red tail shark. They are all small and roughly the same size. So far they all seem to be getting along well, although the RTS has some fin issues (posted about in another thread). I’m hoping we aren’t in for too much trouble with fish aggression, but I guess only time will tell. We’re hoping that with the tank size they’ll each be able to claim some of their own space. We’re nit really interested in over-stocking the tank, as that seems to be too chaotic.

Thoughts?

 

On the contrary, if you get about 20 in there it’ll spread out aggression that’s basically guaranteed at some point or another.

 

Sorry. I should’ve clarified what I meant by chaotic. I know overstocking helps with aggression, but my wife thinks it’s just too much going on in the tank to be enjoyable to watch. It may be inevitable that we need to overstock it though.

 

Seems like a colorful community tank would be much more enjoyable for you and your family.

Welcome to the forum by the way!

 

Well, after spending some time at the LFS (rather than a big store), we ended up with some more fish. We’re currently at 16 fish now and I can definitely see how having more fish helps spread the aggression. We rescaped before adding the last batch of 6 and it’s been interesting watching the different fish “battle” for different spots.