Hi all. Used to have fish as a youngster,mostly platys and Zebra danios, but while searching for a pet gate for my bulldog I got stuck in the tropical fish section. a half hour later i emerged with a commercial all in one 5 gallon tank for way too much dough,and a electric yellow and a little pleco. Sorry about the lack of Latin,I'm just starting to learn them. I think its a Lab?

After a month my bulldog and i would just watch the little guys for hours. The wife Ok'ed the bigger tank but gave me a strict budget. A friend from work posted a wanted ad and 2 weeks later I had an acrylic 60 gallon tru-view tank with a whisper 60 filter, 2 640 powerheads, a 300 watt heater and a stand for a hundred bucks,which incidentally is what i paid for a 5 gallon tank at Petco. the fish also came with a 5" diameter silver dollar and a 9" Plecostamus.

I have since added another electric yellow and what I believe to be electric Blues? I have one in for my picture but it really doesn't look like most of the pics I see on the net. It changes colors from a light purple to a dark purple with bright blue accents mostly on the lip area. The black bars also get real light and turn real dark. The aforementioned fish was really terrorizing the other guys so i added some lava rock and a couple caves for the smaller yellows.

Last week, I purchased some more africans. An albino, and two bright orange ones. The other day i added 2 green terrors to the tank. I heard these Green terrors are agressive but they have balanced the tank out nicely. So far so good, all the fish are living harmoniously.

Glad to have joined the Forum!!

Hey Romball, welcome to ACF!!

Glad to have you here and see that you have been bitten by the cichlid bug!!

Welcome to ACF!

Let's see some pics, we love pics here

Sounds like you've got the bug for sure.

I've found a lot of typical tank raised green terrors get along well with other cichlids and I've kept them with Africans before to keep order in the tank.

I have had some wild green terrors before that lived up to being terrors!

Yes I have the bug for sure.

Funny you mention the "green terrors", I purchased them to restore some order in the tank. My electric blue was bullying the other guys and purchased 3 more aficans also. One albino and two orange almost peach as well. Turns out the terrors chase each other only and the two smaller peach Africans rule the tank now! I originally wanted the cichlids for color and the terrors for order and the opposite has occurred.

My wife and bulldog really enjoy the fish as well. Looks like if all goes well another larger tank may be next.

Terrors are cichlids, just from South America.
I've found them to puppy dogs myself.



How great is that! Such a fun addiction we all have