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cichild to go with my saratoga leichardti


Richard#86

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Hi all

hope the below isn't to confusing and hard to answer

i have a Toga at 15cm in size currently in a 4ftx2ftx2ft or so tank, upgrading to 6ftx2ftx2ft real soon.

Wanting to get tank mates for my Toga because the 4ft tank is plain, the 6 ft will be even more plain and empty.

what is the best way to go about with this? like how would i introduce the fish to each other?

My Toga has never been with any other free swimming fish besides a small pleco it lives with so i do not know its personallity towards other fish.

im looking at getting an electric blue Jack Dempsy, maybe a Jaguar cichild if i can source one locally and others if i can confirm they will all live together in a 6ft tank..peacfully enough

My Toga is pretty wild, ive had him since 4cm and it's still very scared of anything and anyone getting close to the tank, ive been trying to spend "quality time" with my Toga by just sitting close and watching it like a stalker trying to get it more use to me being around the tank etc but it isn't turning out to well. Fast movement or vibration such as foot steps while walking into the room will scare it. Any thoughts on what else i could try?

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Hi Richard :raisehand:

welcome to ACE

having other fish may be what it needs to calm it done

I have had natives like Archers, Mangrove Jack & Snakehead

Gudgeons with a Saratoga and all was good

for cichlids consider Americans like Pearsii, Bocourti, Oscar or Geophagus species

Africans consider Rostratus, Frontosa or Polleni (Madagascan)

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i have a jardini, and with it i have polleni, a synspilum, 5 severum, 3 oscars, 4 s leucostictas, 2 jack dempseys, a trimac and some convicts. the toga rules the tank. be warned though that if the toga has even the slightest idea that something will fit in its mouth, it gives it a hell of a go. i have rescued a couple of smaller fish over time that have been mauled, as well as lost a couple.

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I have a 6x2 with a jardini (still smaller than Gav's at only around 25cm) and have with it (mostly adult tankmates) - an oscar, 2 uaru, 2 severum, a convict, 2 plecos, a bristlenose, 4 hoplo cats, 1 geophagus rio branco, 9 silver dollars, some Corydoras sterbai, and one big mean as heck angelfish...

Apart from the angelfish and the cory's - which I've only left in there because every day it baffles me more that nobody bothers them - I would recommend all those species or anything similar. Previous suggestions have been good too.

Like Chris said, I think tankmates will settle your toga down. Like Gav said, there is a fair chance your toga will dominate any cichlid tankmates. In my case I hope the number of tankmates sort of balances everything out. My toga is fairly relaxed. He sort of rules but doesn't really bully anyone. But he also makes sure they all know who is boss when they are tussling between themselves.

I've recently started enjoying dropping fishing lures (sans hooks) in to my tank to piss my toga off and get him riled up and predatory. Quality entertainment - and I hope safer than feeders :-D

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Yeah i'll post a picture of my toga soon

Question and im sure you guys see this a lot

Im thinking of getting two eheim 2217 for my 6x2x2..is this an overkill for my tank size? its actually 190cm in length to be exact and have calculated to hold 680L of water or close to it.

It will house my Toga and hope to have 4-5 other American Cichild with him and even maybe a peakcock bass, but not sure if im willing to care for such a big beast knowing it will be one of the largest fish in the tank in 6months..but thats roughly the monsters im looking to care for.

im going to start feeding my Toga fresh food like white bait and prawns to mix up the diet a bit where as its only ever been on a hikari diet since a free swimming fry + the cichids and their waste also.

So will two eheim 2217 be an over kill or will it'll be fine?..

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sorry but i would have to STRONGLY disagree with you gillsysyd. i have a 1600 litre tank with two eheims on it. assuming your 25% overhead i would be turning over a similar amount of water as richard, ie under 2 times. i have no doubt that my tank is overfiltered. in 4 years i have cleaned each filter 2 times, and both times it seemed quite unnecessary. the only deficiency in my water quality is nitrates, the end product of filtration. i believe that the high quality eheim filters with quality ehiem filter material do not need anywhere near 6 times turn over.

Richard, i dont think you need to change your filtration at all, what you have is more than sufficient based on my experience with 20 odd large americans and a toga.

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I have a 6x2 with a growing toga but otherwise heavily stocked with med-big cichlids and cats.

For bio filtration I have 1x 1500lph cannister (Eheim 3e Pro)

Like Gav said - bio filtration can be easily maintained with much less flow than is *usually* recommended.

The trick is to use excellent quality bio materials. The Eheim media packs are expensive - but completely worth it. (I would definitely not have said it was worth spending $$$ on Eheim media a few years ago.)

For mechanical filtration I have a pre filter on my cannister to avoid having to clean/disturb the bio media.

I get some detritus settling under the intake (too heavy to lift for the filter) but this is actually a good thing as I can siphon it, which is easier than cleaning the prefilter more often.

Personally, I now think 'turnover' is a bit of a furphy. "Filtration" occurs when the water is in contact with the bacteria/media. I think the bacteria probably does a better job when it is not in a level 9 rapid.

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update

bought 2x 2217 and they work great!

also now its housing a dovii, red terror, firemouth, salvini, EB jack dempsy

Toga is still in the 4ft tank until the above grow at least 7cm each or fat enough to not fit the toga's mouth.

might need some catfish to sweep the bottom floor too so might visit the LFS again.

i only have an iphone so its not worth putting up any photos, they take the worst pictures indoors, though i did record a short footage so will load that up soon

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  • 2 weeks later...

well well well

the first victim to find piece in the tank was the smallest, most expensive out of the 5, the little EB Jack Dempsy. i found it half eaten yesterday, no eyeball, no fins, just the body..i was not too impressed since that was one fish i wanted to stay alive..R.I.P young fin

Now im not pointing any fingers at any of the other fish just yet though because i did not see any fish picking on the Dempsy.

if anything i thought it would of had been the Dovii killing the Salvini since its always the first one to be chased.

the Red terror is basically top dog of the tank and no one bothers it and it doesn't really bother anyone besides the Dovii when it tries to pick a fight

the Fire mouth if anything was the Dempsy rival being similar size, and the only one i witness to have a competition with when it came to feeding time..

other then that the dempsy was a lone wolf, it did not swim with the pack and lived solo and was actually not bothered by any of the fish 99% of the time, which makes me wonder which of the fish is the MOLL.

now i also bought 2x featherfin cat fish for the tank about 2 weeks ago now, but i dont think they have anything to do with it...or do they?

my LFS wont have any EB JD for sale anymore so i might have to settle for a normal JD if he has any left.

My " hunger game" continues..

on the other hand my Saratoga has claimed 3 common lizard as a treat, they are the common house lizard you find around the garden, you know the one im talking about. Nature was so real in the tank, creeping up to the play dead lizard, the toga aiming for the lizards head, next thing it gets sucked up and gone...was expecting it to be so much more dramatic but o well, a treat is a treat.

i'll get my GoPro in the tank and take a short video when im bothered, maybe when they grow a little more so its a little more exciting

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Don't underestimate Featherfin catfish. They are very teritorial and don't like to share hiding spots. they will kill by barging and butting their victims. free swimmers are safe. Catfish and hiding cfichlids need to be able to hold their own with these strong and tank like catfish.

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  • 1 year later...

Wow crazy, it's been 1 year since i had this setup and sadly only now the female dovi lives in the tank with the two feather fin catfish.

The dovi started to pick on the salvini after the last water change which i did only 2 days ago and the salvini died the day after.

my Toga sadly passed away just last weekend or so, it was fine one day then the next it was already too late to save it. they really do show almost no signs until its too late.

Anyway I'm contemplating about staring again because buying big fish to suit the dovii is normally more expensive then buying the younger ones.. That and I'm pretty sad my favourite of the bunch died.

Just thought I'll update since I'm passing by on the forum.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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