American Cichlid 55 Gallon Idea

so it is a basic 55 gallon with the fluval 306 canister filter as filtration
My plan was to buy all the following fish as about 1 inch juveniles to grow into the tank, so here’s my proposed stock. All from Imperial Tropicals
1x Red Shoulder Severum
1x Firemouth
1x Rainbow Cichlid
1x Electric Blue Acara
1x Honduran Red Point
Dither fish maybe?
And two small bristlenose pleco
Will this be okay? Thanks in advance
Tank is currently in a rock setup for Mbuna but most were killed off until there’s only 4 left os looking to try something new

 

a Severum may get a little on the big side for a 55g. Especially males. So I'd maybe look for something a little smaller. Otherwise looks pretty good to me.

 

What about keyholes?

 

I agree with the severum thing. I have a Green Severum in a 75 Gal. I think it's a female, but she's gotten huge, I had her in a 45 to start but she grew out of that...shes about 4in in diameter and 5in long, but she'll get the size of a dinner plate eventually.

The hard thing about keeping S/A's and Central Cichlids, they get much bigger than the malawI types, so it's hard to find fish that go well together w/o getting too big.

I don't know a ton about them, but have you considered texas cichlids? Keyholes are a good addition, I have a salvinI whose colors are gorgeous, but he's S/A not Central (they'd still go okay together though)...I have a firemouth, mine has been a slow grower, not sure if that's common or not.

 

I agree, severums will be too big for a 55g. How about a festivum instead?

 

I agree with the severum thing. I have a Green Severum in a 75 Gal. I think it's a female, but she's gotten huge, I had her in a 45 to start but she grew out of that...shes about 4in in diameter and 5in long, but she'll get the size of a dinner plate eventually.

The hard thing about keeping S/A's and Central Cichlids, they get much bigger than the malawI types, so it's hard to find fish that go well together w/o getting too big.

I don't know a ton about them, but have you considered texas cichlids? Keyholes are a good addition, I have a salvinI whose colors are gorgeous, but he's S/A not Central (they'd still go okay together though)...I have a firemouth, mine has been a slow grower, not sure if that's common or not.

Texas cichlids get even bigger than Severums. Like 10-12". Definitely not good for a 55g, with smaller cichlids. They're aggressive too.

 

I’m open to options as long as they’re very colorful, also hoping I can get them from Imperial Tropicals so I can order them at the same time. Thank you for all the help! Mike1995 FishGirl38 Sarah73
I’ll have to look into keyholes and Salvini

 

In my opinion that is way too many personalities for a 4 foot tank of any kind. Severum will likely get to large for the 55 but having 4 additional cichlids in there on to of that is probably not something that will work out long term or even short term.

Personally I would lose the severum and narrow down the other cichlids to a max of three