Tropical Fish Forums

[ctp010]

Hi everyone, I am going to be relocating my 55g from my garage back to a finished gameroom. It is still set up for cichlids, my last one died about a month ago or so - 7 year old large Lion Cove. I still have a bristlenose pleco and a bronze cory cat in the tank, both pushing 8 years as well. I think I want to keep it a cichlid tank, but I am back to a blank slate. I prefer a good mix of color and would like the tank to be active, more smaller fish (under 6").
I had Lion Cove, Electric Blue, Cobalt Blue, several peacocks an acei and one non identified orange cichlid along with pleco and cory.... had a livingstoni too, but returned it to LFS once I discovered what it was and how large it got.
I'm looking for some different options, but regardless of what you may suggest I haven't found too many pet stores in the area with a good selection. My eye isn't good enough to try to pick juvies from mixed tanks, which could just be hybrids for all I know and hope I got what I think I wanted. I've never mail ordered fish either so I'm leary.
Any and all advice is welcome
Thanks
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~C~

[nikelodeon79]

There are some great "cookie cutter" setups on cichlid-forum.com. That's a good place to start.

Cynotilapia sp. "white top hara" (ice blue male, purplish females) and Ps. saulosi (blue/black barred males, yellow females) make a good mix for a 55g. Smaller, with lots of colors.

My current mix in a 75g is Ps. saulosi, I. sprengerae, M. pulpican, M. joanjohnsonae. You could do the saulosi, rusties, and joanjohnsonae in a 55g.

My favorite site to order cichlids from is here: http://www.livefishdirect.com/ Fantastic fish, live arrival guarantee, reasonable shipping. I've ordered from several places and this is by far my favorite.
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