GREEN TERROR TANKMATES

First when deciding on tankmates for any fish the size of the tank should be taken into consideration. A male g/t will claim an entire 55 gallon as his at adult size. If a female you could keep a small pike or a few silver dollars with her in a 55. I am a bit of a nazi when it comes to geographic region, so I will give a list of suitible tankmates from south america pretending size of tank is is a 180 gallon.

Any kind of pike (ecception dwarfs)
Oscar
Red terror (festea)
Silver dollar
Any pleco

These are all fish I have kept with g/t's hope it helps.

Well right now my g/t is only about 4 or 5 inches long, its in a 50 gallon tank with just a pleco.
he/she seems very shy and always hiding maybe I would get a red terror or an oscar

Thanks for advice

For a 50 I would do like 2 to 4 silver dollars and call it good. The reson is most silver dollars only get about 6 inches and oscars and red terrors can hit the 12-14 inch mark and I don't think they would be to comfy in such a small tank. When you add fish to your setup your g/t will become more active. I think the s/d's would really bring it out because they are really active.

Ok awesome thanks
One thing more how can I tell the difference between a female and a male g/t

As a general rule of thumb the Males will have trailing fins and head hump, Females anal fin will be rounded off as well not coming to a point like the males.. Gt's are very much need tank mates or they become very docile and shy.. Apparently they need friends.. But you would definelty be pushing it adding anymore fish, Silver dollars are a good idea but because they are so active that adding them now to the Gt's tank may stress him/her out even more.. If you can tell if its male or female I would try to find another Gt or Blue acara of opposite sex
then I would pull original gt and rearrange the tank deco and put him/her back into the tank at same time..
Or the Pike and Festae is an even better idea if your not into haveing gt babies cause like convict gt's are another Rabbit of the fish world.. I do have a female thats about 3" inches right now if your interested?

Well I have say sorry but I disagree with kingstature on the festea. Two fish that have the capability of the aggresion level that both terrors have might be a bad mix in such a small tank. Although if you have mild mannered festea and g/t it would probably be fine. One of the smaller pikes like lucias, sveni, bellycrawler would be great. And I dident even think about a second g/t that's the best one yet.

Btw if you add silver dollars follow the rearange and reintroduce method metioned above it will help the g/t be cool with the "new" tank.

Uum I think i will just get another g/t it soundsd, like the best thing to do.
I wasn't able to tell if my g/t is female or male. I think its still kinda young for to see any deifferences

Hey Kingstature this is my email [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
it would be awsome if you could send a pic and a price of the g/t you have for sale

fish_n_vw wrote:Well I have say sorry but I disagree with kingstature on the festea. Two fish that have the capability of the aggresion level that both terrors have might be a bad mix in such a small tank. Although if you have mild mannered festea and g/t it would probably be fine. One of the smaller pikes like lucias, sveni, bellycrawler would be great. And I dident even think about a second g/t that's the best one yet.

Btw if you add silver dollars follow the rearange and reintroduce method metioned above it will help the g/t be cool with the "new" tank.

I have to say my bad I agree with VW Festae is bad Idea I was writing that while I was reading a different posting and got mixed up...Slow down dammit...LOL

Funny. I still stand by it being possible because anything is with fish..... but would I try it. Probably not.

Everytime I try to put another of the same species fish in with a new world cichlid they always end up fighting so much and one always gets beaten up so badly I cant bare it, or dies.... I wouldnt recommend another gt, but thats just with my personal exp.... I know some people have no problem with having a bunch of new world cichlids together.

Hey sidekicking the now that I think about, my opinion on your current situation for a good tankmate would have to be a pike cichlid. You have a really nice shop just a few minutes away from you (a place for pets) go in there and talk to one of the staff, I would say the young kinda bigger dude or kevin and tell them what you are looking for I wouldent go with anything that gets over 10 inches but there are some really cool pikes that stay smaller then that. Look up lucius pike and sveni pike they are a couple pretty common and really good candidtates. And I think they would feel comfy and happy and fit right in to your setup. Do a little research on them first but personaly that's the route I would go. And I have a 10 inch sveni pike that is really cool looking and has loads of personality.

Alright so yesterday I went to a couple of stores looking for a tank mate for my g/t
I ask around to see what would be the best fit....I ended up getting another g/t a bit smaller than the one I have right now. when I got home I re-arrange the tank and introduce the new guy into the tank. Everything was fine until I woke this morning and saw that the new guy was all beat up and kinda swimming sideways an I can see that it had a couple of bite marks all over its body
I don't think his going to make it

I think my g/t likes no one

Green terrors are extremely violent toward same species especially same sex, make sure they are not same sex.. Also take the aggressor out of tank for a day or two rearrange and add him back to tank only after beat up gt has healed and become comfortable... Hopefully if opposite sex they not fight anymore this way.

I can't recall ever being able to keep just two of any cichlid together unless there was a deal of diffrence between them. (Or they were a pair) And they do not see eachother as compitition. The times that I did get two to work togther is when a few fish from a community of several have "paired" up and become chum with another fish. Like in the case of my 7 inch festea female who has taken to my 9 inch sveni pike they are best buds and had to be sepperated from there community because they had eachothers backs so other fish in the tank dident stand a chance. But they show no signs of wanting to mate. I would say to follow the advice of kingstature and try to reintroduce when the new gt is healed. If that dosent work then I would go and get like 4 or 5 convicts or firemouths or even better g/t's and introduce them at the same time as the g/t that way aggresion will not all be targeted at one fish. And then in timewhen you get a pair of buddies or a breeding pair just over time pull out the remaining fish.

Well the new g/t is very young so is hard to tell whether is a male or female...but Micheal the guy at aquarist world said he was 85% sure that its a female g/t....Yeah I will try separating them today, hopefully my new g/t will still be alive by the time i get home from work.

thanks

I was to late
by the time i got home my other g/t was already belly up

That's to bad. Sorry for the loss. If you are going to try again I would get at least two and add them at the same time. I try to never introduce single cichlids to an established tank. Even if I don't plan on keeping as many as I put in. I found if you buy 3 or 4 fish all at the same time you usually end up with all the fish living through it. Then pulling out what you don't want to keep. The other option is buying fish singely and often times buying more then 3 or 4 before you find a tank mate that your original cichlid feels is "worthy" enough to share its tank. I hope it works out for you if you plan on adding to your setup.

Yep, that is exactly what I expected to happen... I really dont see you being able to add anything to that tank.... Your cichlid has been in there alone for too long, and it sounds like he owns that place... any fish added will meet his doom soon enough.....
On the other hand, I did like the idea of adding a bunch of convicts in there..... spread the hate a lil'.... maybe give him enough time to adjust to them before he kills any.

well i have 9 gt that r all 4-7 inches and 19 fire mouths3-7inchers , one 10 inch midas , 1 11 inck pike , 6 jd 4-8 inchers , 1 texas 3 incher, 1 4 inch jag and a 11 inch dovii all in my 240 and they all love each other .... lol ,,,, and when one starts acting up[ i put em in the 55 with a tea spoon of mellafix ... 4 hrs and then back in the tank ...trust me it does the trick ... oh and theres 2 sets of breeding convicts ... ya know they produce lots of valueable food ...lol

I too have several fish in one tank. 4 red devils 6-7", 3 jd 5-10", 2 fire mouths 4", breeding pair of cons 4", grammode 4", 12" pleco, 4" tiger loach, 3" flowerhorn, 2 - 3" xiloaensis, 4" red tail shark, 4" rainbow shark, 5" cray fish, 2 - 3" jags, all in a 135gal. They too get along well. I have found that if I add several at a time, it works well. But I have also noticed that if I add smaller fish, say about 2-3", the larger fish don't feel threatened. And they leave them alone.
I still get some occasional head butting, but nothing serious.

But in your case, I would find at least 4 or 5 fish that your like, and introduce them all at once. A Place For Pets, has a great selection of new world cichlids. It is now my favorite place to buy fish.

Hell, if it were me, I would add a Trimac. I am still thinking of adding one of those to my collection. I like a variety, so I try to keep several different types.

I would do what endangered suggested. If you add a few and your GT is still an ass. Pull him out and put him in timeout. I had to do that with my 10" jack. Now he is still the KING of the tank, but far less aggressive. He investigates every new fish I add. But nothing else.

Good luck

yep just collect a bunch of stuff all at once .. bunch of rock , fish , a couple plants (plastic with these guys ) and make sure u pull the gt out of tank ... the meanest fish goes in the tank last ... that way he knows there were none after him ... everyone else is already there... at least thats how i start my big tanks or even lil tanks with lots of africans ...

This thread is three months old and I'm pretty sure sidekicking has not had that green terror for a few months now. Thanks for the advice, and I would love to see that 240 that sounds like a crazy tank. Cheers.

lol right now i have 3 green terrors 3 clown loaches 1 discus 2 channel cats 1 sailfin 3 small catfish that look like the sailfin 1 odessa barb 1 redface sevrum 1 white sevrum and 1 geo jupuri all in a 55 gallon they all get along favorablly with the excption of the odessa barb he chases the terrors all around the tank just them three.there kind of scared of him its hilarious should i be worried after i read all your post so make it sound like there ...terrors but mine r cute calm there still small thought is there a chance my fish are docile

No, not at all. How big are the terrors? Once they become mature, they may start to become aggressive. But it's also how they are raised. I had a red tail shark and a rainbow shark, grow up with my cichlids. They shared the tank with grammode, red devil, loisellei, hogaboomarum, fire mouths, texas, jags, convicts, uro's (mayan), pikes, kraussi, blythe loaches, to name a few and no problems. It wasn't until I added 3 dovi that there became issues. The dovi were small but were not use to the sharks, so they killed one of them and I removed the other.

So, a long story short. You may be fine for a while, that is a lot of fish for a 55gal. Once the Cichlids begin to mature, you may have issues, especially if they pair up and want to spawn. Then you will have issues.

soulkina wrote:lol right now i have 3 green terrors 3 clown loaches 1 discus 2 channel cats 1 sailfin 3 small catfish that look like the sailfin 1 odessa barb 1 redface sevrum 1 white sevrum and 1 geo jupuri all in a 55 gallon they all get along favorablly with the excption of the odessa barb he chases the terrors all around the tank just them three.there kind of scared of him its hilarious should i be worried after i read all your post so make it sound like there ...terrors but mine r cute calm there still small thought is there a chance my fish are docile

Holy crap that tank is overloaded...

a loose rule is 1 inch of fish per gallon so it may not really be that crowded yet, but when they grow a bit you might have to have a lot of filtration and deal with territory issues.

I try to use adult size when going 1" of fish to 1gal water.

Size wise its going to be cramped... Bio-load wise...

Anyone care to tally up the adult size of that list of fish and post it for everyone?

Green Terror - (x3) 8" (24")
Clown Loach - (x3) 12" (36")
Discus - 8"
Channel Catfish - (x2) HUGE (Can't find a max size for aquarium kept)
Sailfin (pleco?) - 18"
3 small catfish that look like the sailfin (Commons?) - ?
Odessa Barb - 3"
Redface sevrum - 8"
White sevrum - 12"
Geo jupuri - 10"

So just off what we know, looking at 119 inches of adult sized fish. The channel catfish will get huge (Roughly guessing 18" each conservatively) and guessing the "3 small catfish that look like the sailfin" are common plecs, those get to be 20" so... Potentially 215 inches of adult fish....Holy cow thats a lotta fish crap

I seriously recommend you rehome or get more bigger tanks!

will a GT and a jurupari go together in a 55 if they both start at the same size?

Use all dark non flashy fish of same size other cichlids will drive them to kill btw a gt is my favorite cichlid and suprisingly I dont have one

Fish Addict,

You should have just posted a new topic. This one is from 2010....

ok good to know... on other forums I use they are always asking to keep topics to a minimum ... sorry about that I am still trying to learn the quirks of the forum

I would not advise a geo with a g/t..... g/ts can become very aggresive and geos are much more docile.