Top 9 Best Cichlids for Community Tanks!
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- Опубликовано: 10 апр 2020
- Hello Fellow Fish Keepers!
In this video we look at some of my favorite cichlids for community fish tank. Some of the fish are on the smaller side and will do well in smaller tanks, while other fish are larger and can really make your larger community tanks stand out.
Want to learn about more cichlid stocking options? Check out these videos!
Great Beginner Cichlids: • Nine Great Beginner Ci...
Best Cichlids For Small Fish Tanks: • Great Cichlids for Sma...
Best Cichlids For Planted Aquariums: • 15 Great Cichlids for ...
Want to learn more about some of the fish featured in this video? Check out these species profiles!
Severum Species Profile: • Severum Cichlid Care a...
Electric Blue Acara Species Profile: • An Amazing Community F...
Geophagus Tapajos Species Profile: • Geophagus tapajos Bree...
Bolivian Ram Species Profile: • Bolivian Ram Care and ...
Also, our new shirts can be found at: www.primetimeaquatics.com/merch
For the latest in the fish room check us out on Instagram primetime_aquatics
We would like to thank our channel sponsors for 2020: Flip Aquatics and Fritz Aquatics. For 2020 our fish are being fed Northfin Foods from flipaquatics.com! They help make what we do here possible and are worth checking out!
Thanks for watching! 
Животные
Want to learn about more cichlid stocking options? Check out these videos!
Great Beginner Cichlids: ruclips.net/video/Rq4HCxjtOcI/видео.html
Best Cichlids For Small Fish Tanks: ruclips.net/video/pK5GqBIsepE/видео.html
Best Cichlids For Planted Aquariums: ruclips.net/video/Fgq9kMSCwKw/видео.html
Want to learn more about some of the fish featured in this video? Check out these species profiles!
Severum Species Profile: ruclips.net/video/xnUJKMhr_nU/видео.html
Electric Blue Acara Species Profile: ruclips.net/video/FvT_E4toJQ0/видео.html
Geophagus Tapajos Species Profile: ruclips.net/video/5SwK9fg-dJM/видео.html
Bolivian Ram Species Profile: ruclips.net/video/yh66CXYsEH0/видео.html
Also, our new shirts can be found at: www.primetimeaquatics.com/merch
For the latest in the fish room check us out on Instagram primetime_aquatics
Can I put 2 electric blue rams in my 55gal planted community tank? I have mixed rainbows(Rasboras,Tetra, Australian rainbows, 2 Kribensis ,cories, and 2 Mollies)
those are some very gorgeous Geophagusses you got there man. i currently have a group of Satanoperca Leukosticta, a Geophagus species which are very similar to Geophagus Jujupari. very interesting fish which i can easily keep along Cardinals, Harlequin Rasboras and a group of emperor tetras. but yeah, i had to protect my plants from them ^_^ because they will dig them out if planted openly so i ended up placing lava rocks around my plants to keep them away from the plants ^_^ but amazing fish nontheless
@@upserlivinthedream Ramirezis should be fine with that. just make sure you have a place for them to form a territory (a hollow coconut should be perfect) and keep your water clean since apistos are a little fragile
I think your an underrated RUclipsr/fish keeper, you deserve a lot more attention. And your videos are always top notch even when you don’t have the biggest sub count, and to me that proves that your aren’t all about the money. To you it’s rather more about making high quality informative videos for experienced fish keepers or people that are new to the hobby. So I thank you very much for making the content that you do, and helping people like me every time you post.
Really appreciate you saying that. I try to make videos that will provide people with value.
I very much agree. The unbiased opinion with quality knowledge is great
I strongly agree too, he’s very underrated and definally knows what he’s talking about. It’s a shame. But keep doing what your doing the people that watch your videos love what u do and are doing for this hobby.
@@PrimeTimeAquatics Do you have any one gallon tanks?
I also agree great content with such a mellow voice very soothing
Love it at 6:15 "apitstos may not be good with shrimp" as a shrimp photobombs. Funny.
B
I’ve been waiting for a bud like this for years! Tank u so much!
Just what I needed. Gracias!
Asolutely agree about your top choice of Geophagus which is the reason why I changed my entire African cichlids setup to Geophagus!
You're last two were my favorites as well. Thanks!
Very cool!
Love all your advice Jason
Really enjoyed this! Thanks!!
Between this video and another one of your videos, really got me considering a Bolivian ram for a tank or two of mine!
I have a group of 8 geophagus tapajos and they are my absolute favourite of all my fish, get home from work and can happily watch these dig about in the sand for ages. Amazing
Very cool!
great informative video with loads of ideas and inspiration so thank you.
Really informative. Thank you!!
What a nice selection!
Great video as always. Your videos have helped me pass time during this time and they are really good. I look forward to them. Take care and stay safe 🇨🇦
Thanks for being here! Stay safe!
I've had a Red Shoulder Severum in my 55 gal with a school of silver dollars for about 8 years now. He's absolutely gorgeous, great personality, and super docile. I had some Jewel cichlids that were a quarter of the size that I had to remove because they were too aggressive with him.
My jewel cichlids are only 2 1/2 inches big right now, they don’t bother anybody in my tank. And I have Africans as aggresive as mbuna and South Americans like rams and electric blue acara
Keep the videos coming! Love the recent videos
Thank you!
Thanks for the video, very informative.
Brilliant video as always guys!
Thank you!
I love my apistogramma. I keep just one and he is my show piece fish in my tank. I get him with white clouds, guppies (male only), my pearl danios and my rasboras. Shocked to see my ghost shrimp are still alive as well, and he doesn't seem to bother my Mystery snail. Taz has been great and loves his new dragon stone caves. I am always evolving my aquarium and have been wanting to aquascape for sometime. Just added the dragon stone and I love the authentic look it brings to my tank. I got into this hobby more because of my job, but I've always had a love for aquatics. I've learned a lot and have been really successful with my fish keeping.
Very helpful informative video. Respect and love from Australia!
Thank you for being here!
Just wanted to say thank you for all your great advice and informative videos. You have helped me out a lot. Thanks again
Thank you! Appreciate you watching.
Prime Time Aquatics Hi Jason I have a 65 gallon tall tank and I have an electric blue arcara my favorite and about 7 lake Tanganyika cichlids and I really enjoy all the colors and the the personality I do have 2 yellow labs which I first started out with. I’ve noticed some aggression from my yellow lab I have 2 yellow labs but the other one relentlessly chases the other just wondering what your advice was is that normal behavior or should I pull the bully?
Literally the video I needed today 😃
Good to hear!
As always love your info!!
Thank you! :-)
Thank you for this, I have a newer 110 Gal setup which I have 8 Juvenile Julies, 2 mollies and a Male multifasciatus. Ive been doing a lot of searching to see what Cichlids are best for planted/Community.
Great info thanks!
This is great info. I have 75g with platys only and I need a fish that will control the fry. Thanks for the video.
Love this video Apstios Rams Electric Blue Acara Geos Oh My.... Love them.
Me too :-)
Looking to get back into the hobby and I'm following 4 - 5 other channels. They're all pretty good but the amount of info in every one of your vids is impressive.
Thank you so much for watching!
Yes you’re absolutely right green severums are more aggressive than the others glad you point that out I had to move him from my 75 to another tank.
Thanks for sharing!
Great video!
Great video, many thanks,
I've always liked to add a few cichlids "into the mix"
I was delighted to see Nannacara anomala, I only saw them for sale once though, but they were a great success.
In a similar vein are the Sheep's Head Acara - Laetacara curviceps - a smaller version to those Electric blues.
I'm currently trialing some Keyholes in a community tank, and although juveniles all seems to be going well so far.
With slightly bigger companions I kept some Festivum cichlids, Mesonauta festivus, who were very characterful. This totally lifted a tank dominated by angel fish, which just sat there all day barely moving - all very pretty but no animation.
Its such a pity that some of these well behaved community inhabitants are so difficult to buy unless you're near a specialist shop.
Thanks once again for posting.
Why does everyone say that about angels, mine are maniacs 😝 (in the good way)
RRREEEAAALLLY nice presentation!!!
Ya gotcherself a new sub!
Those electric blues🔥🔥🔥!
Appreciate you being here!
Thanks a lot for your valueable info. Learned a lot from you, keep it up brother!
Thanks for watching!
@@PrimeTimeAquatics you're most welcome!
All my favorite cichlids! Excellent choices. I would also add Keyhole cichlids and the smiling Acaras (curviceps & dorsiger) and the Satanaperca eartheaters (jurupari).
Very good choices as well!
Thanks for all the info I'm getting a pair of apistogrammas viejita some great content in this video so thanks again
Superb top 10 🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟
Cichlids were the first fish I ever kept. Really nice video enjoyed seeing all the fish and always great tips!!! They were always so interesting!! I hope you all have a very happy and blessed Easter my friends!!♥️
I never considered community cichlids 🤔❤️❤️
Thank you! Have a great Easter too!
Neat n clean tanks
And severum🐠🐠🐠
Wow very very nice
Loved this video and have several of these fish
Thank you!
Great video! I finally got my 30 gallon set up and I've been wanting cichlids again so bad lol. This helped so much and I feel confident I can keep one now. Just have to find the right one, although I'm not very picky lol. Thanks for sharing. Its always such a pleasure to see you. I have real plants from aquarium co op coming today, can't wait until they get here lol.
Cool! That will be fun. :-)
I have been afraid to do them in my 29s
@@voluntaryismistheanswer if they’re dwarfs I wouldn’t be concerned. I’m thinking about getting 2-4 rams and 2 red turkana jewels together. Completely different fish that can coexist somehow. You may hear you can’t, but guess who is in a 40 already lol. Just those guys and some other tank mates in a 29 would be more than fine. Maybe a clown pleco, and some loaches, small tetra with space and plants would be just fine.
@@voluntaryismistheanswer however it’ll only work if they grow up together, and if the reds which will probably be in slightly brackish get drop acclimated. But they’re pretty tough fish even if you throw them straight into freshwater they’ll probably survive at a 3/4-4/5 rate
I had a green sevrum with a tiger oscar, a trio of silver dollars and a place and they did GREAT. It was my peaceful refuge tank across the room from my mbunas. I'd definitely have them again.
What happened to them my guy?
So you know. Your the only person to answer my questions and to keep u posted my Julie’s are breeding like crazy now. Thank you for your help.
That’s awesome!
Great channel and content!!
Thank you!
Along with the smaller cryptoheroes, thorichthys also do well in community tanks. I rarely saw them before moving them in to tanks with other fish moving around. The meeki and passionis seem to be the most ornery of the ones I keep but even then their conspecific aggression never appears to go past gill flaring.
yeah i love the Dwarfs myself too!
First time seeing this list, not particularly interested in cichlids, but man, this was a great relaxing video after stressful day at work
Thanks for being here!
Nice video and good information thanks Professor
Thanks John!
Thank you so much for this video! I have been watching a lot of your content lately while looking for a centerpiece fish for my 40 breeder. A little tough for me since I need to order online (LFS is Petco which mainly has larger cichlids).
Appreciate you watching! Good luck!
Convicts are my favorite ones so far. Love the colors when they breed.
Update: I still think Convicts are great, but one of them beat one my turtles up.... gave him a swolen eye. My wife will never forgive the Convicts, she doesn't even know wich one beat our turtle up so she blames them all. She wanted to flush them all when she saw our turtle sitting at the bottom of the tank with a swolen eye. The turtle was at %100 the next day though, no swolen eye. We were also missing a few of the baby Convicts and one adult. And I don't think my wife was to blame so I think the turtle got his revenge. I guess just be careful if you are thinking about Convicts and you have anything delicate in your tank, luckily red ear sliders are not delicate at all in my case. But my in laws are who gave them to me in the first place, they were bullying a blood parrot they have. Just be careful with Convicts and if you do get them, get only males or females if they are living with other fish.
Convicts are very aggressive it’s just a matter of time.
I keep red spotted se sevrums and greens. I absolutely love that fish. I would agreed , the greens tend to me more aggressive little mores territorial. But I have my reds in a angel tank and they all do well. All them are larger now. My bigger green is a 8”. Tall to.
Btw love my new shirt and the hand written letter you and you wife absolutely made my day with that. Thanks so much. Stay safe !
Thank you so much!
I really appriciate knowing what cichlids I can add but now I want a full tank of each of those. LOL MTS
i love your videos and your fish
Thank you for watching!
So beautiful fishies 😍😍🙏🙏🙏
Nice tank!
I could not agree more with your picks. I was excited to see that Geophagus made it on the list. I can not get enough of them. One of my favorites these days is the Albino Heckelii. They are tough to find but they are definitely worth keeping.
Albino Heckelii are awesome!
Prime Time Aquatics: what are your thoughts about an Amazon Puffer being added to a 125 with several Geophagus and a few rope fish?
Our green severums are more aggressive than our red spots like you mentioned. We've been able to keep well rooted plants like swords with them by putting rocks or wood around the stems to anchor them.
Great beautiful video , i don`t particularly like Cichlids because been aggressiveness but i love their colors.
Sometimes you just have to find the right ones in the right set-up and they can add a lot to the tank!
You make me want to get them all. Will watch this video several times.. Some of the smaller ones definitely will make their way into my 75. Wonder if I can keep different dwarf species and still be relatively peaceful. THANKS
Apistos is my next addition for the ram, angelfish tank!
I Love the Topajos Geophagus and The Gold Red Spotted Severum, I have them both.
Very peaceful and amazing looking.
I keep them with my African Cichlids and they all get on very well together.
Amazing Fish.
Very cool! Both are grat fish.
@@PrimeTimeAquatics I agree.
I love them.
I really like the pattern on that angelfish at 9:00. Very cool
Thanks - I was excited to get him!
BTW loved the videos.
Great video! I loved that you let the fish do the moving and not your camera. I loved most of the fish in this video. Sadly, I won't be able to get any of them because they require tanks that are such a size I can't afford them. When I get my first tank in years ( forced to garbage the couple of tanks I had) I guess I'll be limited to guppies and nothing larger than platy.
Thank you - appreciate you watching.
Ahhh man I'm definitely going to have to head to the electric blue vid! I love cichlids, and am still massively uneducated towards just how many there are, my sister has an oscar that needs a new tank bless him.
I think I would like a nice big tank with an electric blue jack Dempsey or 2, and that's it!
Awesome video.
Cool! If you go the Electric Blue Dempsey route see if you can get them a little larger. Most of the ones I have seen tend to have genetic issues that drastically shorten their life. The electric blue acara don't seem to have that issue as often.
@@PrimeTimeAquatics blimey really!? That is something to keep a look out for then thanks, I feel it will be some time, but I'll convince the lady boss somehow!
I have a geophagus winemilleri alone in a 55 gallon tall with Rams and tetras. He's a wonderful fish. I love him so much
They are amazing fish!
My wife's cousin used to have a glass-banging angel fish, if you can believe that, LOL. And I was keeping red devils, etc at the time. It was hilarious to see! Nice big male in a little 10 gallon tank.
Too funny!
Chocolate cichlids for bigger tanks and key hole cichlids are my favorite community cichlids. Apistos and gbr are awesome too
Keyhole cichlids are a great option!
I'm always surprised that on these types of videos no one mentions Rainbow cichlids. They are very peaceful and it's very interesting to watch them change colors from one minute to the next depending on their mood.
I have a group of them, but they are a little more assertive than the fish I have on this list and they absolutely destroy all greenery in the tank. :-) I do love them though!
But not near plants
Great video your right about the sevrem mine destroyed all the plants I would love to see a video on what fish you can have in a planted tank
Perhaps like this? :-)
ruclips.net/video/Fgq9kMSCwKw/видео.html
I love your tubes! Nice job. My Bolivians have grown beautifully colorful and live perfectly with everything from guppies to dwarf rainbows. I wish I can crack the code on the German Blue Ram. The past few years I have went through a couple dozen and now I feel totally guilty trying anymore due to knowing I am sentencing their life span to less than 6 months. Maybe you can do a video on successfully raising German Rams.
Thanks again for all the videos!
The biggest freshwater angelfish I’ve ever seen in my life was in a Chinese restaurant that I only went to once The tank was atleast 150 gallons if not bigger and believe it or not the angelfish were close to 2 feet tall from fin tip to fin tip I know you don’t believe me and if I wouldn’t have seen them in person I wouldn’t have believed it either I NEVER thought they could get that big💯🤯
:) Thank you for your great content! I have had the rottenest meanest angelfish on the planet! LOL. I kept angels for 25+ years, but only a couple pair at the time. My last experience led me to no more angels. They lived long lives (over a decade) and the older they got, the more aggressive they became and the less my corycats got to eat. Stinkers! But i loved them. Now i only have one tank - corys and dwarf neon rainbows, plus two wagtails. Never had wagtails before but now i know why -- they are professional poopers, but pretty poopers.
Have a great day and thank you again
That's a nice mix. :-)
Thanks for making me optimistic about my angel pair and their grumpiness lol
@@voluntaryismistheanswer my angels never killed each other, and only one got fin nipped. They're just grumpy at times!
Ive had great results with Keyhole cichlids.
This may sound weird...
I have a particularly aggressive peacock Cochlid. He attacked every fish in my tank and would chase them around like crazy.
He was originally very docile. I don’t know what happened.
Anyway,
I 3D printed a beautiful flowy male beta fish (I liked the design lol) and I put it on a metal stick. I use it to chase my peacock cichlid that’s trying to attack my smaller fish.
He now COMPLETELY leaves the fish alone! I chase him into the a gazebo I made for him.
He comes out an patrols his area but the rest of the fish are left alone. I have to do it once in a while but generally the fish have settled in their “territory”. I never see him really chasing anyone else unless it’s feeding time. Even then he stays around his area.
That is really something!
do you chase it inside of the tank or outside? lol
We’ve had golden and green Severums. In both instances they lived 10+ years. Wonderful fish. Great personality. I do believe you are correct about the aggression level. The green (wild?) severums did seem a bit more moody.
My buddy picked up a juvenile pair, loaches died immediately. Angelfish also died. Do not suggest keeping greens in a community that’s not other predator cichlids
My green Sev is absolutely aggressive, I agree that greens are more aggressive than others and he pulls everything planted in the tank out, even silk plants he will pull them from their glued bottom 🫠 has lots of personality tho
I'm pretty new to the hobby as an adult, i had a cichlid tank through high school but that was in the stone age. I say that to illustrate i am new to utube and such for cichlids. So, ive noticed that a lot of the fush-tubers are a bit condescending and annoying (to me anyway)
but this guy, is fantastic. really great info, really great channel . informative and welcoming
Appreciate you being here!
One species of cichlid you didn’t mention that I want for a community tank is a keyhole cichlid💯🐠💙🔥
Absolutely!
Wow that actually made it helpful I have plenty in my 29 but overloaded on the center peace of 4 angels gonna possibly have to sell those 🤦♂️
I have 3 Geophagus sveni and they are so cool. I def dont recommend having a pair as one will gang up on the other. They are sweet.
Those first couple of tanks were stunning. The fish were all beautiful. I've got a Bolivian Ram in a 20 gallon, planted long that it shares with Bronze Cories, Zerbra Danios and Neon Tetras. They all seem to get along. I bought maybe a half dozen Rams over the course of three weeks from Pet Smart a few months ago and this one was the only survivor. The others died shortly after I got them. Not sure if they came in sickly or my tank was to blame. Their bellies were a little shrunken but I also can't get my nitrates down. Pet Smart did honor their return policy. I may try again once self isolation is over.
Thanks for all the fun videos you've been putting out during these trying times!
I have had zero luck with German Blues from the big box stores.
@@PrimeTimeAquatics Maybe I'll give Wet Spot, which you mentioned below, a try. Not sure they can ship fish from Oregon to NY these days. Happy Easter and Good Health to you and your family!
Jason, excellent! and very informative video as always, but now I have a question for you?
A Juvenile Chocolate Cichlid, Red Shoulder Severum, and a Waroo swim into an aquarium bar and begin to have drinks. How would the story end in your opinion?
Option A: All three cichlids are happily sitting at the bar swapping fish stories of their younger days when they would place a can on the fisherman's hook, then swim to the top to see the fisherman's face while laughing all the way back down
or
Option B: All three cichlids are in rock'em sock'em drag out duel to the death, last fin standing wins rawkus that lasts three straight days cause even the fish police were afraid to respond?
As you can tell I would benefit from one of your awesome video's focused on medium to large cichlid community tanks. Keep up the good work :) Cheers!
I made the switch from African Cichlids to South American cichlids. I have a 125gal. with 5 Geophagus Surinamensis, 2 Green Severum's, 2 Red Spotted Severum's, and 10 Congo Tetras. And best for last, a Green Phantom Pleco.
Labidochromis carelues/ yellow labs are great in a comunity tank to!
Cool video.
I would also add Anomalochromis Thomasi cichlids as another terrific smaller sized cichlid,
plus Keyhole cichlids as another very gentle natured community suited cichlid.
Terrific video :)
Good fish or bad that diamond cichlid cuz its very peaceful for a cichlid, but is territorial when spawning.
I have gold severums red shoulder severums and red mouth brooding severums together and other than the occasional chase they are fairly calm
I'd add the Rainbow Cichlid (Herotilapia multispinsa). They're medium-small with warm colors--gold to brown with the lateral stripe, several dark bars, and blue in the fins. Very peaceful even in groups. I've even heard of successful breeding in a community tank. They will protect their nest, but they probably won't damage the other fish even then. The other fish will just learn to stay away.
Another might be the Flag Cichlid (Mesonauta festivus). They're medium-small, and I've never heard anyone complain that they were aggressive. The black stripe from mouth to the tip of the dorsal fin is striking, and they have long ventral fins, like angel fish but shorter. They're not as big or as boisterous as angels
I have found Ellioti Cichlids and Thomasi Cichlids great for community tanks 😊
Eartheater cichlids are great, some of them are my favorites. For me when it comes to geos, I would pick geophagus sveni.
Nice video, awesome fish. I'd like to add a cichlid that would do good in a 20G or larger with nano sized fish especially. The checkered board cichlid (Dicrossus filamentosus). 😉
You know, I thought about that one and then forgot about it when I did the video. Haha
Am done with gravel or sand bottoms. I now do both in the same tank, I prefer slightly more sand than gravel, but both together look more natural to me than just one or the other. Now that I use egg crate at the bottom I can even fill that with just soil and top it off. Another thing am moving away from are DEEP tanks, imo they’re useless. Love the low boy, but I found one with 12” high and 60 gl same footprint.
We like adding sand and gravel together too!
Prime Time Aquatics I think it’s more natural look.
Nice video
My all time favorite for community tanks are the Thorichys (Firemouth) species. I've successfully kept single males with smaller schooling fish without a single issue.
Love both Geos and Severums. I have a group of 8 geophagus sveni in a 125, and 8 red tiger severums growing out. close to being ready to sex. Both are great. Dont forget, if you have issues with those pesky weeds, severums are almost as effective as uaru in weed control.
Would love it try Electric Blue Acara’s 🤓
They are great fish!
If you keep this up you are going to talk me into a cichlid tank. 😊
It's worth a try. :-)
Love this channel! Always watch every new video. My "community" cichlid in my planted was a yellow lab because I used to throw one into every tank I had since I was a kid because yellow being one of my favorite colors. Quick question is it possible for a yellow lab and a deep water hap to hybridize if it's the only two species in the tank as I'm trying to create a more mellow malawi tank set up.
I 've mixed them a lot and never saw hybrids. Thanks for watching!
Electric blue acaras, can confirm, 3 relatively full grown in a 56 gallon corner, they are accompanied by a rainbow shark, 8 serpae tetras, albino bristle nose, and two African rope fish, and two kuhlie loaches, the acaras are super easy going and don't bother anyone