blood parrots and friends

Question
hi Richard

i have a few tanks but the one im asking about is a 250litre i already have 1 blood parrot cichlid,5 young firemouths,2 plecs,1 tinfoil barb and 1 bala shark and i would like to possibly add-3 medium angelfish,2 more blood parrot cichlids,3 keyhole cichlids,4 kribenses,1 more bala shark,2-4 silver dollars and some cory catfish will these fish be ok together??? if not can you recommend some stocking ideas thank you. Sam

Answer
Hi Sam

The Angelfish, Cory Cats, Kribensis and Keyhole Cichlids will NOT work in this tank.

Tinfoil Barbs and Bala Sharks are both schoolers and need to be in groups of at least 3. Another problem you have is most of the other fish you named will get quite large and outgrow the 250L.

What you could do is 5 Firemouths, 2 Blood Parrots, 3 Bala's, 2 Silver Dollars, 3 Tinfoil Barbs, 1 Green Severum, 2 Plecos. This would make an interesting and colorful tank.

You want to make sure all of these fish are about the same size. I don't think the Firemouths or the Severum will be a problem. Both of these fish are more aggressive to each other than to other fish, especially fish that are larger. But in my experience, I wouldn't put 2 Severums together. I've been there and done that and I had to separate them. My Firemouths dart at each other and chase each other, but I haven't seen physical contact.

Hope this is helpful to you, good luck!

Richard