redearslider.com

Hello everyone, first, I just joined this forum. I've done quite a bit of reading on here over the last year and thank you all for your knowledge that you share with everyone. It has been very helpful! Second, I have read a lot of different posts and opinions on here and other sites on what fish can coexist with a red eared slider. Currently in my tank I have 1 female res about 9". She is 7 years old, I have a mature Mbuna African Cichlid 5 or 6"(super aggressive, picks on the turtle here and there), and I don't know what kind of fish about 6"(he's not getting any bigger than this), I just call him Bob the Bass because he kinda resembles a miniature bass. I have these three guys in a 140gal tank, they all get along with minimal problems other than the cichlid bullying the res a litte. They all have been tankmates for the last two years. I also have a black tiger Oscar which is about 3" right now in a separate tank with a South American Bumblebee Catfish that will eventually be around 3" mature and a Senegal Bichir(dinosaur eel) that is 3" right now that can get up to roughly 17" and these three get along with zero issues. What I want to do is eventually add the Oscar, catfish and the Bichir to the 140gal with the others. My question, will I be over crowding if I do that? The biggest guys in there will be the res, eventually the Oscar will get most likely bigger than the res and then the Bichir which will be around 14-17" roughly give or take. And the Bichir will be long and slender like an eel, not sure if that matters. Any opinions or advice is much appreciated. Sorry for the long post and thanks again!

Welcome to the forum! I'm not sure about overcrowding (I don't know my fishies) but it does seem a bit much once they get larger. WIll your filtration keep up?

steve wrote:Welcome to the forum! I'm not sure about overcrowding (I don't know my fishies) but it does seem a bit much once they get larger. WIll your filtration keep up?

Filtration was another thing I was thinking about. I currently have a filstar xp rated for 265gal in my 140gal. Haven't had any issues with it with my current set up. I do a monthly cleaning: replacing 1/3 of the water with clean water and then every three months I change out half the water and do a deep clean and replace/rinse filter pads, media, charcoal ect as needed.. I've done this routine since I've had my slider, I did it to a lesser extent when it was just the slider but over the past 5 years since I've added fish to the mix I do it more often.

I would love to see how they interact together. These frequent water changes don't bother the fish?

I haven't had any issues yet! Only when I rearrange the plants and loss and stuff, I think my cichlid gets a little disturbed haha, he will pick up sand and move it around and create passages under the logs to swim through.. I might have a video of him doing this, I'll have to try to find it. It's quite entertaining.

I didn't know they had that much personality