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Hi everyone,

I am relatively new to all this and i have a few questions. Currently i have a 200 litre tank (51US gallons approx) with 2 blue acaras and 2 Synodontis (featherfin) cats. I used to also have 2 gold Gourami and 2 angle fish, these are now dead They died of finrot but i have been told that this was caused by the cats (bashing up on them at night) - i have also noticed that the smallest acara is now not looking the greatest.

Which fish is the mean one??? Both are meant to be relatively peaceful!!!

I would like to restock my tank but am unsure of what to put in. Any suggestions (i like fish that have the potential to reach around 20cm size and relatively aggressive/interesting)

Appreciate any help. Thanks

Welcome to FP!

Odds on its the blue acaras,probably the biggest specimen if they are same sex. Same sex fighting is common.Mine are mean as hell, and if they are a pair and thinking about breeding they may decide to eliminate every fish they can. The synos may be too big to kill but all the other fish will be fair game. They start breeding from two and a half inches in length at only 4-5 months old. Heres a video of my acaras being "peaceful" LOL Theres lots of different literature about acara aggression, the aggression level may vary in different regional populations, but if yours are anything like mine, they can be as evil as a convict cichlid. The "relatively peaceful" quotes you see on the net and in poorer literature are a little bit too cavalier for my liking.Notably a lot of it comes from recirculated information from a lot of people who have never actually kept them.

http://s12.photobucket.com/albums/a245/longhairedgit/?action=view&current=blueacrafightseperation.flv



That finrot set in after the bites were inflicted also means you might need to check your water perameters are acceptable , to recap , thats ammonia 0, nitrite 0 and nitrate under 40 ppm. Being a newbie, you might not have a test kit yet, but I would strongly advise that you get one if you havent already got one. If you want to be keeping fish like acaras and angels , its kind of essential to keep tabs on your water quality.

Fungus and finrot is easily treated by off the shelf meds, but if you have left it untreated so far, the first sick fish will have raised the presence of pathogens to the point all fish become infected, so treat it you must, you cant leave things as is.

Synos will night hunt, but unless they are much bigger than your other fish they wont try to predate upon them. Bashing them doesnt really cover it, it might cause the odd bruise, but theres no reason it should cause fin damage. My bet is the acaras taking a shot whenever you are out of the room.They often wait until unobserved to start the worst of the fighting. I think what youre seeing is fin nipping from the acaras.

Angels and gouramies should not be kept with blue acaras , they dont stand a chance, they will be most likely attacked over territory, and if your acaras arent compatible, the same goes for the smaller of the two.Although it probably will work out with the synos, as long as they stay bigger than the acaras, even then a syno will probably get bitten from time to time, and in theory that will heighten their aggression and cause them to bomb around the tank.

When synos are calm and unharried, they are no real threat to other fish they cant actually swallow, apart from other synodontis species they may choose to be territorial with themselves. They typically ignore non catfish species that are not valid prey.

If your acaras are being aggressive, then that pretty much leaves you options that include only well armoured fish, or fish that can outgun them, like green terrors and doradid catfish.A dominant blue acara is easily capable of excluding fish from half of a 55 gallon tank.

Hope this helps

Thanks heaps for your advice. I thought that it was the acara/s. I have a feeling that they are both males which is a problem in itself!!! The biggest one (approx 10cm in lenght) has a serious attitude problem

In says this though - he does not seem to attack the Synos as all. One of the synos is the same size as the big acara, the little one tends to hind alot more!!

As for test kits, i have a very simple one at the moment, tests only acitic and akline water levels. I will invest in some more i think.

I am quite happy to add more "robust" fish into the mix as they are the ones i like!! Would it be fine to add a pair of green terrors or similiar? Also what about 2 female acaras?

Thanks

In a 55 like yours, id probably sell or exchange the weaker male and get only one female, preferably as large as you can find. Get two GT's one of each sex of at least comparable size to your acaras. Cichlids pair up to defend themselves and females fight females and males fight males in both species. Unpaired specimens usually get persecuted when a pair is present.

If you have one pair of each species they will have paired defenses,males and females will be monogamous and back each other up in repelling interlopers from nest areas, and it also means no fish has to fight alone against a pair, thusly creating a reasonable stand off.As long as you have suitable laying surfaces at either end of the tank there should be distance enough for them not to come to blows too often.

In a 50 us gal, even two pairs is pushing it a little but it can be done. That will be however the absolute limit of SA cichlids you can keep in that tank, any more and the fighting will be unhandleable, and the syno's will get caught in the crossfire too. Four medium sized cichlids and two syno's would really be it for that tank. Even then you have to go heavy on bogwood to give them places to lay and put some low caves in for the syno's so that they can avoid persecution, and things should work out ok.

thanks so much for you help. Your suggestion sounds like a plan to me!!!

Just one more question - are the GT a good option or is there another fish that you would suggest (i like ones with colour).

Again thanks for the help

GT's are good with acaras becuase they are very similar fish, they communicate clearly and are roughly of the same ability, they have even been known to try hybridising together. People have kept acaras with firemouth cichlids too, but mine beat the hell out of the firemouths when I tried it. Ive also seen blue acaras beat up on severums too, although I did see one setup where a dempsey kept beating up the acara, so mixing them is obviously tricky. I did once see a nice large setup where they got on ok with large twin spot flag cichlids, but your tank might be a bit small for that. Oddly enough I saw some parrot cichlid/blue acara hybrids not long ago, but I think in general a parrot cichlid would be savaged by an acara.

Out of the commonly available species I think GT's would be best, but aside from that you can bypass compatability problems with catfish. Its probably the safest option.

Thanks - i think that is my best option. Time for some new fish