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Hey guys, I have one freshwater fish tank and planning to add another one to separate the agressive ones from the peaceful ones. I just want to know if I'm putting the right fish in the right tank. I've had some deaths and I need help. By the way, my fishes are the small ones.

Here's my plan:

Aggressive Tank:
Some cichlids, a group of tiger barbs, and a lot of other barbs...My mollies and velvet swordtails also seem to have gotten along with this group so guess I'll put them here.

Peaceful Tank:
Angel Fish, Goldfish variations such as the shinbunkin, guppies, and some platies.

So what do you think, guys?
Do you also have other "affordable" recommendations?
I'm from the Philippines, by the way.

Hi, first question is how big are these tanks ? It will help people help you a lot if we know the size and the filter size as well.

The aggressive tank - what kind of cichlids are they? there are hundreds if not thousands of different speicies.

The peaceful tank - goldfish and tropicals are a big no no, shubinkins get huge and need around 20 gallons of water per fish, more as an adult. They aslo have totaly different temparature needs to angels, angels need it in the tropical region with a heated tank where as a shubinkins need much cooler tank around 18 c this is becaus ethere is more oxygen in cooler water rather than warm water. The goldfish will also produce far to much waste for the other fish to cope with. You really need to separate the goldfish from the tropicals asap.

My first question other than tank sizes and how many fish each, is have you done any research on the fish you want to keep. You said that you have one tank right now with community fish and traditional non-community fish and they are all small. Most likely the cichlids you have are small because from reading your post you have barb and mollies sharing the tank. This is not going to last, yes right now they are gettng along only because the cichlids are not big enough to eat the others but as they grow those barbs and mollies will make a nice snack and YOU WILL end up with just a cichlid tank, so if you want a cichlid tank do one with just cichilds. Most of these fish are aggressive, and it really will start to show when they are breeding. You need to research what cichlids you have and to see what size they grow to and the behavior, this will help you to see what size tank you will need to have to house them in and see if you have room for more. In what you call your community tank the Angel Fish is all you should go with. If you have a big enough tank for them, as they grow quite large. I will repeat this one more time: DO THE RESEARCH ON ANY FISH YOU WANT TO CARE FOR. With the Internet and I know you have it you can research almost any fish you want and get specs. on their care.

Djrichie
"So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish" Douglas Adams

The others have a point, mollies and velvet swordtails arent in the aggressive leagues, not even close, even a small acara or apisto could kill one, and anything like a jewel cichlid or bigger and the big boys would slaughter them, possibly make a meal of them. The same with the tigerbarbs. Tigerbarbs are nippy, but in the tiny leagues of aggression, a blue acara for example, could when moody dispatch an entire shoal in an afternoon, a convict cichlid could dispatch a shoal of about 30 in an hour if it thought its fry were threatened. If a tiger barb fin nips a cichlid, (as they are sometimes e to do), it will probably be killed outright, or given a bite so severe that it could die in hours or days.

The only cichlids Ive known to be truly peaceful are rams , severums, and keyholes, and even they might take a fin nip personally. They all have a temper.

People new to cichlids are often completely unprepared for the level of aggression they encounter, to put it in perspective, I've had to move 40 fish out of a 120gal when the acaras start breeding, its either that or watch them become mutilated and die. Even my old krib still has it in him to kill a tigerbarb or two if he gets fin nipped,and can you imagine a molly getting that irresistable urge to go for an acara egg or fry? Dead as toast! A lot of cichlids, even the small ones may simply deliver a single bite that could pop a mollys belly in one, and thats when theyre being nice!

You cant rely on other fish to keep out of the way of aggressive species , even in large tanks. Mix small peaceful fish like mollies with cichlids over 3 inches long, and what youll get is some dead fish. In anything less than a 55 gal, I wouldt even remotely try it.