If you have an aquarium with cichlid fish, or are thinking of getting cichlids, you will want to consider how to best decorate your aquarium for the benefit of these fish.
If you are choosing African cichlids, of which there are a large variety, you will need a lot of rocks, caves and plants. African cichlids tend to get a little aggressive, and could fight among themselves. Try to get rocks, artificial driftwood, artificial rock, and plastic plants in enough quantity to really fill up your aquarium.
The aquarium should be fairly large if you are going to have several cichlids. Have decorations with plenty of hiding places and caves so if a cichlid needs to escape from a bully, he can. Cichlids will often have a pecking order, and usually the larger or most aggressive will rule the tank.
With a lot of cover and hiding places, your cichlids will have more color as well as more protection from the more aggressive cichlids. There are many other types of cichlids available too. Depending on what type you have, you will want to appropriately decorate with good hiding places for the less dominant types.
If you have oscars, you probably won’t have too many oscars together in one tank, as they get quite large. If you have a pair of oscars that have grown up together, they can usually get along fairly well. If you have a third or fourth one in the same tank, they may not all get along.
Having plenty of good hiding places made of rocks and plants is a good idea for most cichlids.
Here are some items that make good decorations for cichlid aquariums:
Rock Tunnels with Plants
T-Rex Skull
Crocodile Skull
Anacharis Plant
Foxtail Plant
Tags: Fish & Ponds
