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In a 125 gallon tank, do you think a Green Terror and a Jack Dempesy could work out alright? What else could I add to the tank? I had Green Terrors once before in a tank with large silver dollars. That seemed to work out pretty well. Any ideas are appreciated!
Thanks!
~Pezgurl

The both of them would work out great really, because there lots of room for territory. If you were going to add anything else to the tank it would dithers, like silver dollars or gaint danios.

not sure how well it will work, i had a texas that kept beating my green terror so i gave the texas to a friend who put it in with a jack dempsey half the size of the texas and it is beating the texas to death at the moment and it is literally half the texas's size.


crhis

First, the good news. You're starting this off with a 125 gallon aquarium. Good for you!

Next, the maybe less than good news. If you have just those two fishes in there, then two things could happen. One, they could simply stake out their own halves of the tank when they mature, and content themselves with occasional posturing, which is good, or they could decide to engage in full-blown internecine warfare, which is NOT good. However, there exist ways of mitigating against this.

If you furnish the aquarium with big pieces of bogwood, arranged so as to break up 'lines of sight' in the aquarium, so that the two fishes don't constantly see each other, then this should go a fair way toward helping to keep the peace. If they can't see each other all the time, they will be less likely to become hostile.

If they have some dither fishes to contend with, this will also keep their minds occupied. Good candidates are Astyanax mexicanus characins, which live alongside big, beefy Central American Cichlids in the wild, including juggernaut Guapotes such as Jaguar Cichlids. These characins, though not especially brilliant in the colour department, have the advantage of growing to a size that makes them less tempting as a snack for the Cichlids as the Cichlids grow up, are lightning fast swimmers (remember mexicanus share their native waters with Jaguar Cichlids, which will eat the characins if they can catch them), and are likely to be capable of withstanding most of the attentions of the Cichlids.

Other fish species that do well alongside the big Cichlids are Leporinus characoids, though as these grow to 12 inches or more, they'll place LOTS of demands on space and filtration (probably more than a 125 can cope with). However, in a big aquarium, Leporinus have the advantage that while they're normally slow moving, they're tough as old boots. They're actually capable of snapping back at the Cichlids if the Cichlids cut up rough, and the Green Terror in particular will be suitably wary, as Green Terrors and some Leporinus overlap in the wild.

If you decide to raise several Cichlids together in the 125, so that any fractiousness is spread across as wide a population as possible, then there are several possibilities. However, choice of species needs some care. You should be aiming for fishes with a broadly similar level of territorial instinct and concomitant capacity for aggression, as widely diverging temperaments may make for a bad mix. Put in something that's too docile, and the Dempesy or the Green Terror will probably make mincemeat of it. Put in something too aggressive, on the other hand, and you'll be spending your days separating the warring factions. For example, if you pop in a Salvini, though it's small, it's extremely feisty, and could actually prove to be dangerous to your bigger Cichlids if you're unlucky and acquire a specimen that turns out to be an extreme berserker! While that may sound strange, given that you've already chosen two bruisers as your initial stock (and Green Terrors in particular are hardcore aquarium criminals when the mood takes them) you'd be surprised at just HOW capable an attacker a Salvini is.

Another smaller Cichlid that you might wish to exercise caution with, if you can find it, is Neetroplus nematopus. In non breeding mode, it's fairly feisty, but none too troublesome. A breedng pair on the other hand are savage little terrorists that will make even a Green Terror look docile, and because they engage in the 'search and destroy' mode of egg and fry guardianship, they'll make life utter hell for everything else in there, because they act as a combined arms team - one launches a frontal assault while the other goes for the flanks or the rear.

However you decide to proceed, either with other Cichlids to try and spread the fractiousness so it isn't concentrated on one or two individuals, or use a good choice of dither fish to keep the big bruisers occupied, it's still a good idea to furnish the aquarium in such a manner that 'lines of sight' are broken up, and the Cichlids are not glowering at each other constantly.

Oh, and watch those big boys like a hawk. You'd be surprised what they can get up to!



Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002