# electric blue acara tankmates in a 75 gallon tank?



## Manami (Sep 29, 2015)

I'm starting to like the blue acara (or electronic blue acara. Are they the same cichlid?) and I'm looking for ideas of which fish are compatible with them.

Here's a list:

- angel fish (pair or two males) or maybe a red tail shark? Or other big fish as a center piece?
- serpae tetras (15) or other big school fish that stays in the middle to top part of the tank.
- electric blue acara (2-4 males) a pair would just get too aggressive when laying eggs, right?
- bolivian rams (2-4)
- albino bristlenose pleco (1) or other odd ball (upside down fish? 8D)
- zebra loach (4) or albino cory (10)
- can I add another fish here?

Also, I wish to add plants (rooted plants) for this tank, as well. Maybe some amazon swords that can hold its ground and the cichlids don't bother it. People seems to like to add white sands in cichlid tanks. Won't black sand look better and make the electric blue acara's color pop?

Any other change or recommendations, please let me know!


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## solchitlins (Sep 11, 2013)

I have a trio of EBA in my community tank. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1729502843962293&id=100007077826542

They're pretty mellow. Mom will tag cory cats when they go near her eggs or fry but it must not hurt because they keep coming back.

They dig a little spot when the fry hatch but they haven't distroyed any of my plants or gotten to the soil layer.

I wouldn't keep tiny fish like neons but most tetras are probably ok.

If anything I would worry about those firemouths getting along with rams and stuff. Rams are pretty delicate


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## Manami (Sep 29, 2015)

Your ebas are beautiful! And I see that you have Congo tetras, too! I like them, but I hear that they don't like bright light? I want to buy 1 or 2 finnex stingrays for the 75g. I don't know if getting two stingrays will make the tank medium tech, but the reason I want two stingrays instead of a single panted plus led is because I don't want my tank light to look yellow. I want it to look white.

And is your sand white or cream color?

*EDIT* Ok. I can remove the fire mouth cichlid from the stock list. Will adding 1 male and 2 female eba (if I can guess their sex) be too much for a 75g?


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## solchitlins (Sep 11, 2013)

It's pool filter sand. It's more of a tan color than white.

Personally my stock list would be more like:

Pair of Electric blue acaras
One or two male angelfish
Group of cory cats
School of tetras


http://aqadvisor.com/


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## Manami (Sep 29, 2015)

If I weren't to choose a pair of angel fish, will a pair or two of rainbowfish be ok with the eba? Or do I need to get 6 rainbowfish for their need to be in group?

Here's a stock I made using aqadvisor: (how do you post the picture of the fish you add on aqadvisor?)

- angelfish (2 males) OR boesemani rainbowfish (5 males) 
- bleeeding heart tetra (12)
- electric blue acara (pair)
- sterbai cory (6)

Aqadvisor calculates that in a 75g with two Aquaclear 110 filters, the tank is stocked by 85% with the rest of the stock with five boesemani rainbowfish and 85% with two angelfish. Or 94% if I include 5 boesemani rainbowfish and a single angelfish, but that would be too much. I like the stock better with the boesemani only. I'll have to look more info about the bleeding heart tetra in case they are nippers, but when I added the serpae tetras to the list it warned me that they are fin nippers.


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## solchitlins (Sep 11, 2013)

Serpae tetras are nippers, I have heard that as well but have never owned any
And bleeding heart tetras can get pretty large , I had some that hid all the time, just saying.

I have 13 lemon tetras I plan on adding to my tank. I like them a lot.


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## Manami (Sep 29, 2015)

Oh no, I don't want fish that hides XD.

I always read on the internet that people like to add lemon tetras to their tanks. They kinda look like gold pristella tetra. If I find them at the lfs, I'll get some when I decide to setup the 75g tank (they are kinda neat).

I removed the bleeding heart tetras to the list from aqadvisor and added lemon tetras to see if I reduced the stocking % of the tank (still shows the same 85%), but it now says that if the blue acara pair starts to breed they could become too aggressive to coexist with the lemon tetras. Could that be true?


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## solchitlins (Sep 11, 2013)

You'll have to see. Mine are mellow. 
The dominate male is most aggressive to my third, the subnominate male. He doesn't like him coming around the breeding area and chases him off but it's never gotten too violent. I'll probably remove him, not because he's in danger but because he's kind of a third wheel and I rather just keep the mated pair. Catching him has been a real challenge. I have tried a few times and given up after a while. I'll have to catch him sleeping 

Bleeding heart tetras are cool, mine were shy but maybe you'll have better luck.


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## Manami (Sep 29, 2015)

That's the disadvantage of having a bigger tank, is nearly impossible to catch a fish! 

Hopefully if I decide to get the bleeding heart tetras and they see the electric blue acara, they decide that the middle part of the tank is the smartest and safest place to swim, haha!

We'll see how it goes when I start to build up the tank. Thank you!


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## Manami (Sep 29, 2015)

Sorry to bring my thread up again, but I was looking at "Cookie Cutter Setup for 75-gallons" from cichlid forums and I saw this!:

Heros efasciatus - 1 pair 
Aequidens pulcher "Blue Acara" - 1
Danio malabaricus "Giant Danio" - 8 
Melanotaenia trifasciata "Banded Rainbow" - 5 
Melano. boesemani "Boeseman's Rainbow" - 5

But I don't get it, it says that the heros efasciatus grows up to 12" while the blue acara grows 7". Why get a pair of heros efasciatus? Why not get only one and get a pair or blue acara instead? (electric blue acara). 

While I don't get it, I kinda like the list, with a few changes:

Heros efasciatus "orange" (only one)
Electric Blue Acara (pair)
Giant Danio (5) <-- I prefer roseline shark, but they need a tank bigger than a 75g?
Siamese Algae Eater (3) <-- for cleaning algaes. 
Boesemani rainbowfish (5)
Turquoise rainbowfish (5)

And I think that's it!............for now XD.


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## solchitlins (Sep 11, 2013)

Manami said:


> Sorry to bring my thread up again, but I was looking at "Cookie Cutter Setup for 75-gallons" from cichlid forums and I saw this!:
> 
> Heros efasciatus - 1 pair
> Aequidens pulcher "Blue Acara" - 1
> ...


Hmm, I'm not sure I agree with that cookie cutter set up to be honest.
Not saying it won't work but here's my concerns.
1. Those type of Rainbows get pretty large.
2. Giant Danios are crazy spastic fast and totally obnoxious, would probably freak out your rainbowfish.
3. SAE ... same deal, they start off eating algae but soon learn to hog the food and they get large.

Just for your information but electric blue Acara are smaller and less confrontational than regular blue Acara. 
Precox rainbow fish stay small and are really pretty. Much better than photos. Just saying.


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## Manami (Sep 29, 2015)

Oh ok. I was really confused at the beginning with the blue acara and the electric. No wonder on aqadvisor when I added blue acara (I couldn't find eba) it reached 44% or more in fish stocking. Yikes!

I thought it was a little crazy at the beginning when I saw the size of that fish being recommended with smaller fishes. 

Then, something like this? 

Electric Blue Acara (pair)
Dwarf Neon Rainbowfish (6-10)
Congo Tetra (10)
Kribensis Cichlid (pair) <-- will it work? I want another cichlid that can work living with the rest.

Will I be able do add more species to the list? Like a school of loaches?


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## Dingleberry (Jul 26, 2014)

Mine are with angels, cories, bristlenose Plecos and neons.no issues.


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## Manami (Sep 29, 2015)

Dingleberry: That's good to know! What size is your tank?


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## solchitlins (Sep 11, 2013)

Congo tetras get large as well but it takes a while. I never have luck with kribs. They can't seem to get to the food in time or just don't eat. I gave up trying to keep any. 

Mixing pairs of cichlids is hit or miss. I once had a 90 gal with a pair of sevrums, pair of salvini and a pair of nicaraguensis cichlids. 

Is this going to be a planted tank?
Inca Stone Fish (Tahuantinsuyoa macanzatza) are cool too, if you can find them


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## Manami (Sep 29, 2015)

I don't know if I ever saw a Congo tetra in full size, but I always see them big at the lfs. Not tiny.

I saw once a group of diamond tetras, if that's how they are called. They looked really cool but I think they swim at the bottom and not middle to top of the tank = /.


Never heard of Inca Stone fish before. If it's a rare cichlid to find, I doubt it I'll find one here. Maybe I'll get lucky. Or maybe not...haha!

I like how the Kribensis Cichlid looks. They look a little similar like the German blue rams with the pink belly. Or I could just choose a pair of bolivian rams or some cories and see what happens. 

The tank will be planted...but with less plants. I want to add different types of bigger amazon swords or bigger cryptocoryne plants. No stem plants in this tank! Maybe add driftwoods. I want the tank to look like a mix of cichlids from the bottom to community big fish at the top. Or something like that. I don't want it to be a non planted tank. While I do love cichlids and sometimes it can look pretty the rocks and caves with some java ferns at the back. I'm finding it difficult to find the species of cichlid peacocks that I like. And it looks like I'll have to buy them ALL at once and HOPEFULLY all being males. Nah, maybe another time.


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