i remember hearing about a type of cichlid that only gets about 3 inches and i was wondering what kind of cichlid that was and would it be ok in a 10 gallon tank(even if ther is no such thing would that size of tank be big enough if there were?) that would be the only fish in there and i would only have one of those. sorry if i am wrong but i thought i read about it in a book one time. thanks in advance for any help you can give me

oh yeah is it true than the female cichlids are lighter in color and the males are darker?

thanks

not sure about the cichlid sorry but i know one rule for working out the amount of tropical fish you can have, a inch of fish for a gal of water

There are a few varieties of dwarf cichlids out there. 10 gallons isnt going to do it though, even for the small ones. (Theyre not actually tropical, more brackish, special care). 20 gallons would be the minimum. They range from 1" to 5" depending on the variety.

Here is a good site I found about them.

http://fish.mongabay.com/apistogramma.htm

if you look at the last cichlid on the page it says it is called a ram and they get about 3.5 inches and a 10g tank would be fine and thanks for the site it was very informative.

i was also wondering on that site the fish on the bottom of the page it says they can go with tetras i was also wondering if they could go woth mollies and platties and guppies because i do have a 20g tank with afew babies from a batch of fish that died i wouldnt put the cichlids in until the babies were full grown but do you think they would get along? there are only a few babies because the fish didnt have very many so the tank would only have 4 other fish in there.

From my experience cichlids will kill other fish, including other cichlids. Just how some places say goldfish can be in bowls, I dont think Id trust that cichlids can go in 10 gallon tanks, dwarf or not. Besides, finding that exact cichlid may prove rather difficult as there are 100's of varieties out there. I cant tell you what to do but I would just stick with the tropicals. Cichlids also need a different pH level than tropical fish.

thanks i got that kind of fish before and it lived for 6 years and was perfectly fine(that was when i didnt know much about them at all still dont) until the heater broke and the temp dropped too fast and it killed it. but other than that it was perfectly fine. i never but any other fish in with it though and it was in a 20g tank so that was why i asked about the other fish and the 10g tank thanks anyway though. i also didnt know it was a dwarf when i bought it that is why i asked about dwarf cichlids but when i found that same kind it was fun to learn about them.

Sure. Just my opinions. Let us know what you decide, OK?

i think ill just get one and put it in the 10g by itself and if it starts acting weird or if it isnt growing well enough ill just buy a bigger tank. or maybe i could move the babies to the 10g and put the cichlid in the 20g ill do one of those 2 thanks for your help

Rams are pretty docile as far as cichlids go, but I wouldn't trust them with guppies for sure.

Oooh now thats an idea!! Then you could have a few instead of one.

Aren't rams ussually peaceful? They make a great community fish and can be kept in schools.

For a 20 gallon tank you are only talking one as that fish needs 20 gallons for itself.

i decided not to get any cichlids