# Back to the Drawing Board.



## gage (Feb 7, 2007)

well...the neets are not working well for me in the 29, way to aggressive with eachother, so i will either need a bigger tank or find them a home, i dont want to have to use dividers. and the male isnt being to friendly... i think he is to much bigger.

anyway, so im going to have a spare 29g, and id like a cichlid that will pair happily and not try to kill eachother in the dimensions 30"x12"x18".

some of my thoughts were

Thorichthys maculipinnis
Cryptoheros sajica

any other suggestions are welcome, but i am really hoping one of the 2 above will work, preferably the maculipinnis.

id like to do firemouths, but i have a feeling they will do the same thing as these guys are, the male is a real arse. i dont want to get rid of them, but no more room for tanks and i dont want a permanent divider in their.


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## CiChLiD LoVeR128 (Mar 22, 2006)

Well no matter what CA cichlid you want to breed you are going to have to seperate! And dividing isn't forever it's just temporary! You don't have to get rid of your neets just buy a divider and wait for a months and try again! You are going to have to give the Female "rest periods" eventually anyway! I don't like dividing either but this isn't the wild were fish don't need dividing or seperating! Your problems with the Male is like any other CA cichlid like Convicts, Firemouths, Sajica, Salvini, JD's, on and on. What is happening could be either of these the Male wants to protect the spawn on his own OR he wants to spawn again and the Female isn't ready. Have you ever spawned CA's before or is this your first time? The reason why I ask is because through the questions you are asking it sounds like you have never spawned before. This is what I do with all of my fish that I want to breed when they don't get along divide, wait a little bit let the Female rest and build up, and then try again!


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## chrispyweld (Dec 20, 2005)

Go with some dwarf SA or shellies, that IMO is all these smaller tanks are good for. I don't like dividing either but from what I here neets are more aggressive than other CA's, as I'm sure you know, so something less aggressive or smaller might work. My first thought just based on research is nano's or septem's or something more docile if you want to stick with CA. My cutteri are too aggressive for my 29g and I will be up grading them soon to though for what it's worth.

I am leaning towards the idea that pairs are better off with other pairs or larger singles to have something to team up against. I haven't had much luck with lone pairs. Always ends up with the female getting roughed up.Dividers look lame IMHO and unless you have a fish room who wants a lame looking tank on display?


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## CiChLiD LoVeR128 (Mar 22, 2006)

> My cutteri are too aggressive for my 29g and I will be up grading them soon to though for what it's worth.


Is your 29 gal a standard 29? If so a standard 29 gal has the same footprint as a 20 gal L it's just taller so really it would be the same. So then really what you are saying is your Cutteri are too aggressive for even your 20 gal L.



> I am leaning towards the idea that pairs are better off with other pairs or larger singles to have something to team up against. I haven't had much luck with lone pairs. Always ends up with the female getting roughed up.Dividers look lame IMHO and unless you have a fish room who wants a lame looking tank on display?


I have had great success with keeping pairs alone. In fact I feel it's better to keep them a lone. Yes, you do need to divide but really you need to seperate anyway otherwise it will be too much on the Female to spawn once a month continually. Not to mention she will go through menopause much earlier than normal. When my last Female Salvini had a batch before her last batch I left the fry with the Male and Female in the 55 gal for a month and they never had any disputes and they protected the fry together very well! I had to remove the fry because I was going on a trip and divided the parents just incase within a day after dividing the Female had dug a hole under the divider to get to the Male and right away they started courting so I took it out. They were basically inseparable! I never had any aggression problems. Basically what I am getting at is it just depends on the pairs bond and it's better if you keep the pairs alone and divide to give "rest periods".



> Go with some dwarf SA or shellies, that IMO is all these smaller tanks are good for. I don't like dividing either but from what I here neets are more aggressive than other CA's, as I'm sure you know, so something less aggressive or smaller might work. My first thought just based on research is nano's or septem's or something more docile if you want to stick with CA.


Yeah I imagine dwarf SA or shellies would work better! Keyholes would be sweet! :thumb: I want to keep a couple of pairs sometime in my future! I have heard that Neets are very aggressive as well but no matter what you choose in CA you will have to divide them sometime. No matter if they are docile or not.


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## chrispyweld (Dec 20, 2005)

CiChLiD LoVeR128Is your 29 gal a standard 29? If so a standard 29 gal has the same footprint as a 20 gal L it's just taller so really it would be the same. So then really what you are saying is your Cutteri are too aggressive for even your 20 gal L. [/quote said:


> What's your point?
> 
> Yes they are too aggressive for for a 20L too. I moved mine to a 29g with dithers to try to give them somthing to focus thier aggresion on and the male still harasses the female relentlessly. When they were in the 125 or the 55g with other pairs they got on great and only spawned every six weeks or so. In larger tanks with company I have NEVER had to seperate. They have more space to seperate themselves and distractions. So again IMHO and IME it works MUCH better. As I stated. And we are talking about a 29g NOT a 55g wich has much more room.


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## CiChLiD LoVeR128 (Mar 22, 2006)

> What's your point?


Well you said that they were too aggressive for the 29 gal and so it seemed to me that you were saying that it is working better in the 20 gal L then in the 29 gal. That's all that I was getting at!



> When they were in the 125 or the 55g with other pairs they got on great and only spawned every six weeks or so. In larger tanks with company I have NEVER had to seperate. They have more space to seperate themselves and distractions. So again IMHO and IME it works MUCH better.


I respect your experience and your opinon I wasn't stating otherwise. Yes, it probably does work much better!



> And we are talking about a 29g NOT a 55g wich has much more room.


Yes, I know we are talking about a 29 gal and not a 55 gal I just thought I would share my experience. However, when it comes to spawning and depending on the type of cichlid you are spawning a 55 gal might not be much better. And what I mean by that is the aggression. I am sure gage would still have the same problems with the Neets in the 55 as the 29 gal. Which would then result in the samething........dividing or seperating or like you said have a community if dividing or seperating isn't up your alley.


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## MetalHead06351 (Oct 3, 2007)

Personally, I would keep the neets and separate them as needed. Not enough people have them and they are a cool fish. Unless you have a 125 gallon to put them in, thats the way to go. Cichlid lover is right on with what he said about ca cihlid pairs. They will usually fight because they are cichlids more than lovers.


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## chrispyweld (Dec 20, 2005)

gage said:


> well...the neets are not working well for me in the 29, way to aggressive with eachother, so i will either need a bigger tank or find them a home, i dont want to have to use dividers.


So he said he dosn't want a divider so he will either get a larger tank or get rid of them. That is why i recomended a larger tank. My experience it help if they can "divide" themselves with space. Telling him to use a divider when he stated that he won't due to personal preference is in no way helpfull. Read and respond to the _Post_.

Gage, Sorry about derailing your thread.


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## gage (Feb 7, 2007)

no need to apologize, its OK to have arguements in my threads, its all good.

ccihlidlover...i have only spawned firemouths, convicts, these neets, and keyholes (werent successful with the keyholes, to many tankmates, fry got eaten) and NONE of them were even half as bad as these little ********...

and also, cichlidlover, i can almost guarantee a larger tank with more hiding spots would help, but being that all my tanks are in my room, i have no room for a 55g, i wish i did, they are a cool fish.

anyway, as stated, i do NOT want a divider, i will keep panzy cichlids over keeping dividers, i hate them, and all my tanks are in my bedroom.


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## CiChLiD LoVeR128 (Mar 22, 2006)

> ccihlidlover...i have only spawned firemouths, convicts, these neets, and keyholes (werent successful with the keyholes, to many tankmates, fry got eaten) and NONE of them were even half as bad as these little @#%@#%^...


Don't say you have *only* but say you have spawned Firemouths, Convicts, Keyholes, and Neets because you have great experience! And I wasn't trying to criticize you! It's just from the questions it seemed like you have never spawned CA's before! I never did get my Firemouths or Keyholes to spawn! That's awesome that you did! :thumb: I have heard that they are very nasty but that doesn't mean that they are impossible to spawn it just means you either need to seperate and/or divide more or like you or chrispyweld said get a bigger tank.


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## CiChLiD LoVeR128 (Mar 22, 2006)

> and also, cichlidlover, i can almost guarantee a larger tank with more hiding spots would help, but being that all my tanks are in my room, i have no room for a 55g, i wish i did, they are a cool fish.
> 
> anyway, as stated, i do NOT want a divider, i will keep panzy cichlids over keeping dividers, i hate them, and all my tanks are in my bedroom.


Yes, a larger tank like a 55 gal would help by having more room for either the Male or Female to get away from each other. I have never kept Neets so I really can't relate but I go off of my other CA pairs which aren't too much different just maybe aggression. But I still feel that you will either need to seperate and/or divide or like Chrispyweld has stated add some tankmates as distractions so that the aggression isn't pin pointed all the time on one cichlid.

We all have different preferences. I just don't like keeping pairs with other tankmates. I like to keep my pairs in their own tanks. I have tried keeping a pair with tankmates and I will never again do so. Also I feel that too many problems can arise by keeping pairs with other tankmates. I don't like keeping and using dividers either but I would rather divide then have tankmates with my pairs. When I had my pair of Sajica in the 55 gal I tried not dividing them and they are very docile. The Male kept the 'paired' Female in the corners and on the run all the time. They were only 2.5 in! It wasn't a constant chase but he chased her every 30 min or so. I had a lot of hiding places were the Female could hide and thought they could stay away from each other and divide themselves but it never did happen.


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## gage (Feb 7, 2007)

CiChLiD LoVeR128 said:


> > ccihlidlover...i have only spawned firemouths, convicts, these neets, and keyholes (werent successful with the keyholes, to many tankmates, fry got eaten) and NONE of them were even half as bad as these little @#%@#%^...
> 
> 
> Don't say you have *only* but say you have spawned Firemouths, Convicts, Keyholes, and Neets because you have great experience! And I wasn't trying to criticize you! It's just from the questions it seemed like you have never spawned CA's before! I never did get my Firemouths or Keyholes to spawn! That's awesome that you did! :thumb: I have heard that they are very nasty but that doesn't mean that they are impossible to spawn it just means you either need to seperate and/or divide more or like you or chrispyweld said get a bigger tank.


hey, i only said only because it isnt to much of an accomplishment in spawning any of them, pairing them is the PITA 

as far as the neets, i have come to a conclusion on them, seeing as this was my own experiment to see there aggression level in person, and though they are aggressive, if something goes to lip lock, these guys arent really capable, either they run, or they just start darting, definitely not a lip locking fish, i wanted to see there aggressive behavior in person before saying they are the most aggressive of the smaller CA, i have come to the conclusion that yes, they are possibly the most aggressive of all the CA cichlids that only grow to 6", and with the experiment of keeping a pair separate and putting the others in my 90 with other fish, they are in turn more aggressive then the RD, Flowerhorn, Rose Queen, Salvini,etc as well, but they wouldnt stand a chance if the salvini or the others fought back, problem is they are to quick and the fish run away.

enough of my rambling :lol:, btw, i didnt take anything you said as criticism, i realized afetr i asked some pretty noobish questions that i really already knew the answer to, but it still doesnt change the fact that i wont separate with dividers :lol:, *** had all those pairs breed for me and i have never had to divide them, oh well, i need to find something more docile...waaaaay more docile, like i said, the neets were an experiment.


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## Tongue33 (Sep 17, 2007)

Personally I think Cutteri would be a better option than Sajica. As the females are from my experience smaller.

And I believe a pair of Cutteri would do fine in a 29. I gave a few pairs away to some friends and they have them in a 30 standard and they spawned fine. Aggression toward one another was almost non existent.

I couldn't tell you from personal experience as my Cutteri Pairs are in 125 and a 135 community tanks.

And one female is 2.5" and about 18 months old... The other female is 7 months old and 2"


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## Tongue33 (Sep 17, 2007)

here's my adult or close to it pair


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