I saw Victorian cichlids at BlueGrass Aquatics...

[CallMeAsh]

...and my goodness they were beautiful! They're some of the prettiest freshwater fish I've seen. I recently bought a 29g tank. I haven't looked many up but the ones I did seem to max out at around 4-5". Would I be able to get some of these beauties?

[mommy1]

If you are talking about cichlids from Lake Victoria they would not work in a 29g since you have to get a good number of them because of aggression issues. I do agree some of them are quite beautiful, but I wouldn't put them in anything less than a 75g.

[CallMeAsh]

Ahh, good to know. I guess I could look into getting a Apistogramma instead. Maybe. Those are pretty too. Good chance I'll change my mind a hundred times before my tank is cycled though.

[CallMeAsh]

But I think my pH might be too high for apistogramma at 7.4.

I'm pretty sure I want a cichlid, whether it's a single mid-sized cichlid who has the entire tank to itself or a smaller centerpiece fish who I'll build the rest of my stock around.

[talldutchie]

7.4 so that's probably medium hard. Look into west Africans, Kribensis for example.

a 29g would also make a nice shell dweller colony.

[CallMeAsh]

I wouldn't mind trying to breed cichlids, especially something uncommon like shell dwellers but I don't know what I'd do with the fry. There's no mom-and-pop LFS around here that will take them. All I got is Petsmart/petco.

[talldutchie]

Most cichlids breed quite easily. No chance of giving the fry away via craigslist?

[CallMeAsh]

I don't know. I honestly never tried or thought about using craigslist for selling fish. Do you have good experience selling fry there?

But what about the idea of a 1 mid-sized cichlid? Like a Firemouth or a convict?

[korith]

I don't know. I honestly never tried or thought about using craigslist for selling fish. Do you have good experience selling fry there?

But what about the idea of a 1 mid-sized cichlid? Like a Firemouth or a convict?

Could try aquabid for trading/selling fish. It's like an ebay version for fish stuff. If you can find a store, some will give you store credit for fry once you got them up to a certain age/size. The best would be to see if there is a fish club in your area. I trade/buy/sell almost all my fish, plants, etc.. with folks in the fish club I'm in.

By the way bluegrass aquatics, if the website www.bluegrassaquatics.com is theirs, they posted a coupon code on a cichlid forum for 10% off. Toss me a pm if you want a link to it.

[talldutchie]

I don't know. I honestly never tried or thought about using craigslist for selling fish. Do you have good experience selling fry there?

But what about the idea of a 1 mid-sized cichlid? Like a Firemouth or a convict?

Your tank isn't that big. An adult firemouth is 5 inches and it's an almost fanatic digger. Most convicts tend to be antisocial **** when they grow to adults. A single ram could work or a single apisto if you've got soft to neutral water.