New Tank for my Green Terrors

[GreenTerrorNYC]

Hey all,

I have become sort of an aquarium junkie over the past 3 years.

Currently i have an Eclipse12 system that has served its purpose as i have been experimenting with tetras, guppies, etc.

After i moved to NY i set up my 12g with 2 green terrors, happened to be male and a female and have already spawned a fry which was totally awesome and probably added to my addiction. I know, I know, way to small for GTs, don't worry i knew this, as it was only temporary.

After a while i finally went out and purchased a larger tank to begin housing a "real" aquarium. I bought a 45g off a friend, dimensions are 36" w x 24" h x 16 - 18" deep.

I recently purchased Marineland Emperor 400 filter, 200w heater, whisper 60 with bubble wall, 40 lbs of gravel, large piece of driftwood, and i plan to migrate some plants and rocks from my 12g. This should all be set up by this weekend hopefully.

I obv, plan on moving my GTs to this new tank, i was curious on some tank mates for them. I planned on:

Convict
Oscar
Silver dollar
Some kind of bottom feeder (suggestions welcome)

I am not that worried about full size growth as this tank will be around for a while until i purchase something larger as the fish grow up.

I know all about cycling and i dont plan on adding any fish for at least a month to 6weeks, i have made that mistake in the past and i realize that fish need to be introduced gradually. As far as tank maintenance i am very good with that, i was jsut more concerned about territory and filter capacity.

Please you feedback is much appreciated, and sorry for the long post, i like i said becoming an addict.

Thanks again

:c3:

[Kayla-Bug]

Wow! What a coincidence (or however you spell it). I have 2 GT that are in a 46 gallon! They are still little tho. About 3-6 inches. How big are yours? I plan on getting a 100 for them as they mature. How big do they have to be before they spawn? But I'm not even sure of their genders. I have my 2 in with 7 feeder fish and a black molly. I thought they might eat the feeder fish since they are aggressive, but they don't even mess with them. So the feeders are now life-long pets.:19:

[GreenTerrorNYC]

Its actually funny, mine are small as well. Male is about 4 inches and the female is about 3 or so. I just noticed one day the female started digging a trench between 2 rocks and eventually exposed the bottom of the tank glass to lay her eggs on.

For them to spawn, i noticed that the female constantly tries to entice the male to lock lips, this is a form of acceptance (i guess). It was pretty neat. Also i had been doing frequent water changes, (25%) once a week. I have heard that this almost simulates rain in wild, with the sudden change in water temperature.

BTW, they are way too small to eat feeder fish, i had them on a diet of flakes, pellets, and the occasional frozen blood worm and shrimp cube. The male has grown to be an awesome fish, very colorful.

They arent to happy as of late though, need to get that 45g going.

[Kayla-Bug]

Well, the bottom of my tank is bare. I want to get something to put in the bottom of the tank. I was thinking about putting some of those river rocks (I guess) in the bottom. You know, the smaller round ones? Anyways. I can't tell if mine are male and female. I do have one that is smaller than the other and it's color is darker. I nocticed they are more active since I put more fish in. If they were trying to spawn, do you think that the molly and the feeders would eat their eggs? Or would they be too large? I don't know what they look like so i didn't know if they would be large since they are large. When I first got them I put them in my 29 planted...big mistake. I've heard that the Cichlids would eat plants, so I decided to find out and yep. They eat em. But it didn't do a lot of damage. I still have my plant...lol. Plus I thought they would like a bigger tank anyways. Ok I'll stop rambling now..LOL.

[GreenTerrorNYC]

Well i had river rocks, they need to be small enough that the GT's can fit them in their mouth, thats the beauty of Cichlids, they basically arrange the tank the way they want, don't be alarmed if they dig holes and uproot plants. Its just their behavior.

Males will be light tan and longer than females. Males are definitely the lookers as well as is with most cichlid species. You will notice males will start to get a long top fin and orange tips on their fins. Females are smaller rounder in size and more dark grayish, although both have a hint of green, hence Green Terror. The picture in my avatar is a male GT.

I must warn you if the female is preparing her nest, or lair, she will become very very very aggressive. The greatest thing about cichlids is they are excellent parents. They will protect their young from predators, which is a great thing if the other fisdh in the tank can protexct themselves. Mollies and other timid fish will not be able to handle the aggressiveness of the GTs, the female GT will most likely kill the mollies if she is forced to protect her nest, but if you have a big enough tank then the mollies will probably avoid her territory, in my 12g, this wasn't the case as 1 fish got nipped pretty bad, but wasn't killed.

To be honest, i wasn't that upset when the GT fry got eaten cause i couldn't maintain them anyways, also if you have 2 adult males they will fight over females not good.

Good luck, I have read into them a little bit as you can tell. Plenty of good info on cichlid breeding out there that can explain in further details.

Peace

[Kayla-Bug]

Yea great info! Thanks! I plan on getting the molly and feeders out anyways, just in case. My feeders will get big so I am going to put them in the pond. My molly I will put in my planted 29. I'm not going to plant my GT tank cus they done ate my other plants that one time. LOL. And one of my GTs is a darker color than the other. Like a grey or something? And it's smaller. You said that they were females if they looked like that, so she must be a female!!! YAY!:19:
O and the bigger one is always chasing the other one around too.

[Ocellatus]

I obv, plan on moving my GTs to this new tank, i was curious on some tank mates for them. I planned on:

Convict
Oscar
Silver dollar
Some kind of bottom feeder (suggestions welcome)
I have my pair of GTs with 2 female blood parrots and a male severum and a pleco in a 40g. I think thats a good combinations because they are nearly the same in aggression. I always suggest this combination ( GT,BP,severum ) to my friends that want to have some sort of american cichlids in peace in non-big tanks.
theres not absolute peace but they won't hurt each other ( at least in my and my friends experience )
also I'm agree this tank is not big enough for them. my BPs are full grown at 3" and 4" ( seems they are not pure BP ) severum is 7" , GTs are around 5" and pleco is full grown at 6"
I'm still planning on a bigger tank ( months of planning! so when you get the dam tank?????? )

and I won't recommend oscar with GTs in a 45g. there would be troubles.
also you can have a smaller kind of pleco there. but it will probabely eat the eggs if you want to leave the eggs with parents! my GTs can't get over the pleco.

[GreenTerrorNYC]

thanks for the advice, i def had a pleco in mind, i am not too concerned about the eggs, i am more concerned about extra food and waste lingering on the floor of the tank, thanks for the advice about the oscar.