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hi guys,i just finished reading one of the other posts about jag chiclids,and from that i take it that these guys are MEAN well i was thinking maybe one of these guys in a male would be able to survive in with my flowerhorn,because so far every fish that i have tryed with my flowerhorn,she has just smashed them up real fast.what do you guys rekon.

How large is your tank? Size should be taken into account because if the tank is too small, the flowerhorn will just claim the whole thing and attack all other fish. Also note that each of these cichlids gets pretty large, so you don't want to add a jaguar to a tank when just the flowerhorn takes up all of the space.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

at present she(flowerhorn) is in a standard 4 footer,but i already have a 4x2x2,set up but its needs to be filled up and cycled,would this be big enuf for the two.

at present she(flowerhorn) is in a standard 4 footer,but i already have a 4x2x2,set up but its needs to be filled up and cycled,would this be big enuf for the two.

in my opinion...no even that size tank wouldn't be big enough. jags are amongst the most territorial of all larger cichlids and require a lot of space. I had a jag that decided once it reached about 8" in size, it needed about 3/4 of the 125 gallon tank it was in as its own territory. the other 3-4 cichlids that had been sharing the tank up to that point were all crammed in a little corner until I removed the jag. I'd hate to think how much more space the jag would have needed as it got even bigger.

ok,what size tank would you go for jason rs,for me to house these to fish,and do you think that a jag would be ok with my flowerhorn,shes pretty big now and has had a tank to herself for most of her life(shes one nasty fish with sharp teeth to boot).ive red and heard that jags can get pretty big and mean,but we are talking about a large flowerhorn.cause a would hate to fork out for ANOTHER BIG TANK,just to have her smash him up in ten mins like the last fish i tryed.

from the sounds of it, your flowerhorn probably won't accept any tankmates unless it's somethink like silver dollars or rainbowfish which are too quick to get injured from her. I personally wouldn't risk putting anything else with the flowerhorn and I'd just give her a 55 or preferably 75 gallon tank all to herself. the thing is, any fish that will get big enough and aggressive enough to stand up to her would get killed the first time it tried to stand up to her. anything else would not be strong enough to fight back. either way, chances are any other cichlid you put in her tank will be killed. you can try putting her in a small tank for a week or even up to a month and see if that helps when you reintroduce her, but the fact is she's had a tank all to herself her whole life. that's what she's used to and imo anything else that gets put in her tank will be seen as an intruder and will eventually be killed.

thanx heaps jason,i sort of come that conclusion,a few months ago.(that she wants the tank to herself)i just got excited when i thought a jag mite be able to survive with her,oh well looks like ill just have to face it that its her tank.its such a shame that the most aggresive fish have the best personalitys,i mean my flowerhorn is mental but she loves me,i play around with her all the time.one more thing,for a flowerhorn she is NOT destructive at all,wouldnt she get bored all by herself(thats the main reason i was tryin to give her a tankmate)i thought thats why most fish get destructive.boredom.

I had sort of the same problem with my talapia Buttrkoferi, he was in with a red devil a little larger and meaner than him for a long time, and i thoght he was just a big baby so i took the red devil bully out and put in a red terror and a sun catfish both about his size, (7-8) in and he proceded to kill them. But ive found that two convicts will work if you have a large tank cause they keep to their corner and are mean enough to fight him off if he gets to close to them. Also he doesnt seem to mind giant dianos or larger fresh water puffers.

convicts were one of the first fish that i tryed. the male was ok but a bit ruffed up the next morn, but the female had been near beaten to death,i did manage to save her but after that i kept a much closer eye on her,and realised that any fish i tryed, it was on within minutes,from memory,the only fish that she didnt really hurt bad was a red devil,but everytime he attempted to move or have a look around,she would just chase him back to the corner,but thanx anyway.