[predator84]

alright my fellow members , ive searched and searched but i cant find any info on the care and tankmate selection for pbass . i found plenty of pics but no info . help a brother out .

[MKStL]

What size tank? Current size of Pbass?

[predator84]

i dont have either . i wanna get all the info i can first , but the tank will probobly be at least 250 gal. any and all info will be appreciated .

[predator84]

what else can i put in a tank full of cichla ?

This post has been edited by predator84: 27 July 2011 - 06:31 PM

[MKStL]

As long as you don't choose an overly aggressive tankmate, and they can't fit in each other's mouth, then you have a lot of choices. I've kept mine with similar sized gar, bichirs, arowana, catfish, and several others. They tend to do better in groups so you should think about getting more then 1 pbass. 3+. No particular theme for the tank?

[Morledzep]

with my cichla.. because i have cichla in ALL of my tanks, i keep or have kept a black ghost knife, a clown knife, various silver arowana, red bay snooks, many and varied bichers, several different sizes and species of pleco, angelfish, oscars, and a few different SA catfish.

i feed them a mixture of hikari cichlid gold (usually a couple times a week), and market shrimp, tiliapia fillets, krill in whatever form i can get it (they seem to like the freeze dried krill the best), catfish chunks, swai fillet, red snapper fillet (when i thaw it out to cook and forget to cook it for myself), chicken breast, chicken hearts. i give them some kind of fish/shrimp/meat usually once, sometimes, twice a week.

fry and young fish i feed twice a day, usually "fish food" at one feeding and frozen bloodworms, brine shrimp or chopped frozen krill at the other. i usually leave off the frozen cubes when they get to be about 4" and reduce their feedings to once a day. then i start with the larger foods, only chopped up more than i do for the fish over 8". once they get up to about 8" i move to my current feeding schedule, they eat 4 out of any given 7 day period.

as for tank maintenance.. i do weekly water changes. i seriously over filter my tanks (2 FX5's on my 210, one FX5 on the 180) and run foam filters on air stones and at least one powerhead on a foam filter (the 210 has 2).

if they grow up together.. or are all added to the tank around the same time your cichla will get along with almost anything. becareful of very toothy fish, and overly aggressive fish. and remember that anything that will fit in their mouths WILL become dinner.

And 250 gallons is a great size for the smaller species of cichla like orinocensis. you are going to need something larger eventually, especially if you get some of the larger cichla like Temensis and Pinima.

This post has been edited by Morledzep: 28 July 2011 - 02:31 AM