Hey all...Had this one put to me by the LFS

"Getting them as babies means they will be ok to put in a community tank because they will learn to act less aggressively and more like community fish, by virtue of not being top dog in the tank in their formative years"

They were so damn cute that I fell for it despite some misgivings, and introduced 4 off them to a 180L tank which has; 3 clown loaches, 2 Dwarf Gournamis, one rainbow shark, 5/6 kuhli loaches, 2 Kribensis and 4 head n tail lights. All of whom are considerably bigger ...or at least slightly bigger.... than the Texas Cichlids.

Told myself I would offload them if this turned out to be a bad idea, whaddaya reckon

Teach your dwarf gouramis karate and they will be OK.

It is a good theory but I have found it doesn't work. I add juvvies of bigger fish in with my other adults and they just grow until they are big enough to take various positions in the tank, my giraffes grew from 2cm to 15cm and took over my 540L mixed african tank.

I would say it is a matter of time before they get bigger and aggressive. But there is only one way to find out, how lucky are you feeling?

I think it will end in tears.

i have seen this theory work once before (not sure whos tank but remeber think wow) so one had itroduced young baby oscars to a tank with a copple of juwels chiclids , then even when the oscars were full grown(35cm) the juwel would chase them :bounce:

4 off them to a 180L tank

Yeah.... you will / the fish will almost certainly have a lot of problems later on.

IMO.. Bad theory.. bad idea..

If you grow out those 4 Texas and keep the current fish in there I'm predicting chaos and death in your 180L tank.

It is a good theory but I have found it doesn't work.

How can a theory be good if it doesn't work Ryan? :lol:

heh kind of expected these reponses, I actually got them ~ 6 weeks ago ago and all is well for now. They are feeding aggressively but dont chase anyone and if anything tend to get chased quite a bit by the purple bellied Kribensis and Rainbow Shark

how lucky are you feeling?

I definetly feel lucky...but Im aware the odds are not stacked in my favour so Im not about to gamble with my fishes lives. Is an acceptable strategy to watch closely and take them out as soon as I detect any signs of aggression? Or shall I just start hunting them a good new home straight away? The biggest one is about 30mm and Id love to keep them for a wee while yet

How can a theory be good if it doesn't work Ryan? :lol:

Clearly what he meant is it's good in theory but in practice it doesn't work.

UPDATE

They never got particulary aggro that i could see but at about 40mm I did introduce a largish 60mm rainbow shark which i noticed started looking a bit harrassed/unhealthy quite quickly. Then a few days later I found him dead with his eyes gone and big hole in his stomach. If it was the Texas's...weird how they targeted him when there were much smaller fish to go for?

Anyways...decided to ship them out and sold them on TE to a nice lady who said she was a FNZAS member..sorry didnt catch your log in though. Hope my boys do well with you!

they are doing great in a 4ft tank and only other tank mates at this stage are 3 angels and no fighting again thank u for these