I have a 48x18x18 250 litre tank. Apart from a few other inhabitants I have four Angelfish, and two breeding Keyhole Cichlids. I had a pair of breeding Blue Rams, but they passed on.

All of my fish are of South American species. I'm keen to add another pair or two of Dwarf Cichlids. I'm thinking of maybe Cockatoo's, but am keen to see what you think would be an interesting choice.

Must be a nice co-habitant fish, and not as difficult to keep alive as the Rams, and plant friendly.

Id go with the cockatoo cichlids,the double red and the orange both look gorgeous

I'll add them to my order. I'm hoping to score about a dozen Otocinclus as well.

Had ottos a few months back they were crazy sensative....just dropped off with no reason at all...maybe should have got some plants for them

I had five about a year ago. Down to two now. But I want a large group. I've just replaced my lamps, and the algae is wild at the moment, so they won't be short of a feed.

your bristlenose should make short work of the algae

Funny you should say that. I'm a few days from moving my 30 young Bristlenose back into the main tank. They're now too large for the mouth of my Angels!



Sorry, not the best image, but they love that dark corner!

i cant offer any help on dwarf chiclids but i thought i'd make a brief comment on ottos

i currently have 4 ottos but used to have more. unfortunately many passed away. some within a few days some took a month or 2 to die

from what i have read getting healthy ottos is not easy. i have read many reports of people losing ottos. one alarming thing i have read a few times is that people often put a poison in the river that the ottos are being taken from to make them easier to catch. it is said that these fish are permanently damaged and bound to die young.

i plan to build up my otto collection but from experience i will now only buy ottos if they look very healthy and have been in the fish shop for a good few days.

one thing i have noticed is that often the ottos i see in the shops have damaged and shortened tails. altho i did buy one of these and was lucky in that it has survived to this day, i wouldnt buy damaged ottos again, as others i bought with damaged tails didnt last long atall.

so my advice is choose carefully.

one last thing, more appropriate to the thread, i have always fancied getting a pair of convict chiclids. i dont know if these are south american or not. thankfully i did some research on convicts and read that they are not easy to keep and can be very aggressive to other fish, so i have managed to resist buying any. but now that i have some experience of chiclids in general i probably will try getting a pair in the future. i will probably put them in their own tank tho.

dont say im not good to u Peter i found some dwarfs that might interest u. the 1st is supposed to be easy to keep.

Golden-eyed Dwarf Cichlid ...

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the following ones are suppose to be medium difficult to keep.

Agassizi's Dwarf Cichlid ...

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Cockatoo Dwarf Cichlid ...

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Yellow Dwarf Cichlid ...

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the links give very basic info and dont say if they are South American or not. more research would be needed if u wanna check that they are from S.A.

You have this thing with 'dual Posts', don't you Nick?

I know my first lot of Oto's were healthy looking. I've 10 on order, that've failed to arrive the last two weeks. I guess I'll need to be picky with them. The Aquarium ordered 20, so hopefully I get to pick the best half.

That's a nice site you've linked there. I see they 'plug' the same fish food I use.

The first three Cichlids I already had bookmarked, as possibles. The fourth I wasn't familiar with at all. I had to pull the BIG book down off the shelf for that one! They are all S. American. Blue Rams used to be in that Apistogramma grouping, before they became Microgeophagus.

I liked the look of Convicts, but they'd be too much for my other fish. I must pull my finger out, and get down to that Cichlid breeding joint, to see what's available.

Cockatoo cichlids are beautiful fish, but you need 3 females to 1 male to keep everybody happy. Look into Pelvicachromis pulcher also known as the purple cichlid, kribensis and a few other names. They are very hardy, very easy to breed and best of all, extremely colorful! I bought my kribs about a month ago and they have already spawned and the fry are free swimming despite poor water conditions.
Fishypaw, convict cichlids are very easy to keep. Almost like the rat of cichlids. They breed like rabbits too. They are probably the best first time cichlid. They are very aggressive though and will uproot plants.

I think you'll find Funky's been quietly observing, from the 'shadows'.

I've been settling on the Cockatoo's for a bit. But I was looking at having a pair. Do you think that'd work out, Funky?

In a 4' tank you can go for a harem, 1 male and 3 females with suitable caves arranged around the tank (one near each side glass and one on the middle). Not sure if they'd get on well with the keyholes come breeding time but they're nice fish and on my list of fish to get again one day, a long list thats driving me mad but I know if I try too many at once things will go badly.