Firemouth tank mates

[PetRanch6892]

i have 6 baby firemouths in my 55g along with 3 3" pictus cats. i was thinking of getting some clown loaches, and some fiddler crabs, i didnt think the loaches would go well, but i thought i would check.

[Nautilus291]

clown loaches get too big for a 55g tank. you could go for somethign smaller like yoyos.

[cocoa_pleco]

it would work, but fiddler crabs dont get along with large fish and need 75% land

[jbeining75]

fiddler crabs need land and when those 6 firemouths are 6 inches big they will dominate that tank. I would stay right where you are at right now. They look small now but in a year you may have some agression problems.... Especially if they mate. They are relatively non aggressive otherwise though...

The clown loaches I would also say no.. Not enough room.

[Lady Hobbs]

I had clowns with mine and they were fine and also had gourami's, tetra's and silver dollars with all. The only thing that didn't work was my blood parrots and featherfins.

[Lady Hobbs]

You could use a few giant danio's as dithers.

[NickFish]

Once those firemouths get to full size, your tank will be pretty well stocked.

I'd go with a school of smaller fish, also known as dithers.
Giant danios, like Hobbs suggested, would be good. You could keep 6 or 8 of them. I've heard that black skirt and serpae tetras work also, but danios would be the best.

[PetRanch6892]

dither? is that a fish or just a term. i didnt think clown loaches got that big, guess they do. ill look into some giant danios. also my firemouths wont eat the pellets. they eat the sinking wafers. should i get some sinking pellets for them? what do they like for a treat? i was thinking about getting them blood worms once a week.

[Eric James]

man you can mix their food up as much as you want. they love their protien
brine shrimp
blood worms
tubifex worms
guppies
I used to get beef heart even
you have quite a few for your tank but they go well with most south american cichlids I've kept them with oscars, convicts and even a juvinile jaguar cichlid.

[cocoa_pleco]

dither fish are fast, open fish, and when scared fish see the dither fish they see there are no predators and will come out more

[PetRanch6892]

ok, ill look into getting some this week