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Theory about introducing baby Texas Cichlids to Comm Tank


LoveArowanas

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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 :)

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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?

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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

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  • 3 weeks later...

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!

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