Chichlid Owners Help

Been an aquarium owner a while now and I absolutely love the hobby. I have always gone with easier fish to handle, your typical mollies, platies, neon tetra etc.... Recently have drawn a huge interest in chichlids because of their colors, personalities, and size. I currently thinking of making the switch to a cichlid focused tank. I currently have a 50 gallon tank and know all the basics of housing the type of fish mentioned above... What cichlids do you love and why?.. What's would be a good cichlid(s) for me to start with? Maybe something around 5in max where I could house a 3-4 in my 50 gallon tank?... any help, guidance, info is very appreciated.

 

Been an aquarium owner a while now and I absolutely love the hobby. I have always gone with easier fish to handle, your typical mollies, platies, neon tetra etc.... Recently have drawn a huge interest in chichlids because of their colors, personalities, and size. I currently thinking of making the switch to a cichlid focused tank. I currently have a 50 gallon tank and know all the basics of housing the type of fish mentioned above... What cichlids do you love and why?.. What's would be a good cichlid(s) for me to start with? Maybe something around 5in max where I could house a 3-4 in my 50 gallon tank?... any help, guidance, info is very appreciated.

You're not going to put them with those tetra are you?

 

in a 50, I'd stick to rams, acaras, angel fish, apistos, firemouth, convicts etc as far as American cichlids go. (obviously not all in one tank, just giving ideas).

as far as Africans go, maybe shell dwellers?

 

You're not going to put them with those tetra are you?

Not at all.... I would completely restart the tank

 

in a 50, I'd stick to rams, acaras, angel fish, apistos, firemouth, convicts etc as far as American cichlids go. (obviously not all in one tank, just giving ideas).

as far as Africans go, maybe shell dwellers?

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Can you house multiple of the same kind of any of those you suggested? Or are there two different kinds that do ok together? I'd like a little variety of at all possible and the web doesn't seem to give much detail... Thanks for the response btw

 

you could do rams and acaras together or convicts and firemouths or angels and rams/acaras. Or a pair of convicts. However once a pair begins to breed, they won't tolerate other fish. Same with firemouths.
rams and acaras tend to be more peaceful so I wouldn't mix them with anything aggresive.
there is many other smaller cichlids I just don't know the names of all. Just look around online. Of you find some, list them here and me or someone else can help you

 

Mike1995 is absolutely right. Convicts are cool bu my sons mates pair wiped out the tank once they spawned.

 

you could do rams and acaras together or convicts and firemouths or angels and rams/acaras. Or a pair of convicts. However once a pair begins to breed, they won't tolerate other fish. Same with firemouths.
rams and acaras tend to be more peaceful so I wouldn't mix them with anything aggresive.
there is many other smaller cichlids I just don't know the names of all. Just look around online. Of you find some, list them here and me or someone else can help you

Thanks for the great info... I'll do so more research and post some fish here that I'm interested in.

 

Mike1995 is absolutely right. Convicts are cool bu my sons mates pair wiped out the tank once they spawned.

Is it better to either get all males/females when housing multiple cichlids than?

 

Is it better to either get all males/females when housing multiple cichlids than?

I've had the best success with either all females, or a 2:1, or 3:1 ratio females to males to keep aggression at bay. All males generally isn't a good idea

 

Convicts were my first cichild! They are fun, but keep in mind they won’t stop breeding.

 

As far as gender numbers it is really a species dependent thing. As a rule of thumb have more females than males. I have a fully grown Jack Dempsey and Green Terror males that actually live in the same tank but they were raised together and they "hang out" together. When its mating time though they stay away from each other cause they get vicious