FishProfiles.com Message Forums

Come This May, a friend of my Fiance who has a breeding pair of Firemouths will be giving me between 5 and 7 small ones (why the odd number?). I'd really like to end up with a breeding pair myself. Watching the mother and father first person with their precious eggs was something else - and if I were to be an egg I'd want Firemouths for my parents! lol.

These 5 to 7 will be just three months old. So I'm looking to get a setup ready for them - from the ground up. Starting with the tank itself, what would be the smallest size to start off with? I like the width of a 50 and 75 gallon.

My tap water pH is 8.0. Under the Profiles section, which hardness are they refering to in dH? GH or KH? My GH is 120 mg/L, and KH is 80 mg/L.

Thanks

FOTB

your water will be fine as firemouths are very adaptive. in the wild the waters they come from range from just slightly above neutral with moderate hardness to very alkaline and hard water such as is found in the African rift lakes. My water has a very high ph and is extremely hard and my firemouths are doing great.

as for tank size, either a 50 or 75 would be great but not necessary for a single pair of firemouths. IMO a 30 long (36" x 12" x 17" is great for a single pair along with some top dwelling dithers such as swordtails, mollies or platys. the bigger the tank you have though, the more fish you could possibly keep. in a 55 I think you should be able to keep 2 pairs along with even more dithers.

how you set up the tank will be very important because firemouths (especially when young) are among the more skittish of cichlids. I'd try to get 7 or 8 juveniles because they feel safer in numbers when young. also, make sure there are plenty of hiding places that they can retreat to if they feel scared and it is very important to have some type of shoaling mid to upper water swimmers such as the livebearers I mentioned earlier, a larger tetra species or some non-nippy barbs. having these fish swim freely in the open lets the firemouths know there are no predators around and therefore they'll feel much safer and be more active.