Hello everyone,

I have a 250L tank that needs some colourful fish in it. I am not sure what to get and would love everyones feedback or stocking list. At the moment it has 6 E. Yellows in it (they can stay or go) but am not completely happy with the colours.

It has a medium to high turn over of water, and has sand and a rocks.

Please help me. I see these really nice tanks but not sure what the fish are called so i can order them.

So give me some ideas of some colourful fish that will live together.

Cheers people

EDIT: Forgot to say that if they get to big i will just get a bigger tank :lol:

Post up pics featuring the fish you like and we can identify them for you

lol well what colours do you want?

Did you want to go african's or other's? You have a good sized tank you could do a reasonable amount with

A single large male texas or flowerhorn would have nice colour in a 250L.

The other thing to consider would be whether you want a couple of big uns or a lot of little guys.

If sticking with your Electric yellows you could go with some Demosani spelling? which would give you yellow and blue, Jewels are a great red colour and really purty (they tend to the mid ph ranges but are pretty tolerant)

In my cichlid tank i've gone mainly new world with a texas blue (not quite as big as yr standard Texas), Nicaraguans, an oscar, gold severum and a jeweled

Lose the Oscar and the severum and youd be ok I think. i have a male Texas and he thinks the female Nicaraguans are his harem so there is no agression between them, the Jeweled keeps to it self, only real aggression is between Oscar and Tex.

The Nicaraguans would make an awesome species tank with rocks and a sandy bottom, they are really pretty for a new world cichlid

Man it is not untill you get some replys that you figure out that you have been so vague it is not funny.

So shall i start again. Here are the things i would like;

- Africans

- little guys (not oscar size), large numbers

- Blues, yellows, purples, bright colours

Will post some picks soon

Hey can we get these in NZ?

Aristochromis Red Top

Pseudotropheus polit

Labidochromis sp. "Perlmutt"

Metriaclima fainzilberi (Hongi Is.)

Would these guys be ok in the same tank?

Heres what id do

Dem's

peacocks

and some fryeri

Obviously if you wanted to keep more than one type of peacock you would have to go all male and that can be hard to make work.. Another consideration would be if you wanted this to be a tank you could take babies out of or not?

Dem's and yellow's would breed true and so would one species of peacock and you could maybe do some zebra's as well but they might be hard on peacocks..

The Nicaraguans would make an awesome species tank with rocks and a sandy bottom, they are really pretty for a new world cichlid

Whats that supposed to mean?!

Whats that supposed to mean?!

now now lets not get sensitive, after all I love New world Cichlids, you just have to look at what fish I keep to see that.

Africans are generally more colourful and have more vibrant colours, just stating a fact David. My personal feeling is that Nicaraguans give Africans a good run for their money

Its kinda hard to compete against the pics Ryan posted

Aristochromis Red Top - Otopharynx lithobates are in NZ A few different strains ask for photo's of parent fish before buying..

Pseudotropheus polit - I haven't seen them around probably not in NZ, the only ps. we get that im aware of us demasoni. Cobalt zebras are a similair colour.

Labidochromis sp. "Perlmutt" - I haven't seen these, similair colour to aurora's though..

Metriaclima fainzilberi (Hongi Is.) - I wish we had these lol You might get a similair colour out of afra..

All of the above except for the litho's are mbuna and quite aggressive.. If you did manage to get them all which im pretty confident you won't except for the litho's it would probably end up with one dominant male and the rest hiding or being subdom and not colouring up and all sorts of hybrids produced.

Its kinda hard to compete against the pics Ryan posted

Don't make me try!! I don't think africans are more colourful, I can think of many new world cichlids that would give an african a run for its money. Salvini, texas, nicaraguense, festae, umbie, red bay snooks, some geophagus, gold saum, etc. Granted we don't see all of those here. I think africans have a reputation as being more colourful as you can have a heap of small fish with different paint jobs in the same tank so its full of colour.

Anyway, sorry for the hijack, I know you weren't putting down the american cichlids!!

I myself Prefer the American Cichlids too,Much more interesting IMO.

Not that its a competition. I hope I haven't started anything... :oops:

Heres what id do

Dem's

peacocks

and some fryeri

Obviously if you wanted to keep more than one type of peacock you would have to go all male and that can be hard to make work.. Another consideration would be if you wanted this to be a tank you could take babies out of or not?

Dem's and yellow's would breed true and so would one species of peacock and you could maybe do some zebra's as well but they might be hard on peacocks..

Hey thanks ryanjury,

So if i was going to order these through the lfs what would i ask for?

have you the people in my lfs would not know what i was talking about on the best of days so if i can be more specfic it would be alot better.

Personally I would find a breeder and buy them off them, most shops don't know what they're talking about when it comes to africans and even some of the fish on the list are dodgy..

Also when you take into account the cost it would cost you 4-5times as much to stock your tank from a shop as opposed to getting them off a breeder and you would be getting better fish, even if you took into account the cost of having fish shipped to you.

As for asking for fish off the list..

You could ask for demasoni they were on there I haven't seen a list for a while but they retailed for $20ea and you would have to get 12 of these.

Peacocks the ones I have pictured are baenshi, jacob's and dragons bloods, im unsure what peacocks are on the list at the moment they are around $40-50retail.

And fryeri sometimes called electric blues on the list can be upto $80ea in a shop and usually dodgy.

I can highly recommend the peacocks with electric yellows. They are spectacular fish and i have been fortunate to procure an absolute beauty, already at about 10cms long. The colours are pretty special and a great personality... Also better to buy off fish keepers rather than the shops both for price and advice. Hehehe I was almost sold a Kango as a peacock the other day at a lfs!!! phew

Thanks ryanjury for the idea and advice and good luck fish and chips with your decisions.