Is it okay to house these fish together?

Whom ever sold you the fish should have told you that this was a bad mix....Well theres not much you can do about the territiories....I know by experience....My Father has an adult male Tiger Chichlid that is so aggresive he tries to kill his decorations.... This fish is so massive he is setting in a 150 gallon tank. So you might want to reconsider the 55 gallon and think about getting a larger one that is in a right price range for you....I know that right know Petco has full tanks with everything on sale this week. If The Chichlid is still small you could try to find another Chichlid that is about the same size or maybe larger (no biger than an inch). You need to seperate the Chichlid all together to get him to leave your other fish alone, that is the only way.You should call who ever you bought that fish from, and try to get a refund for something diffrent before it becomes too much of a hassle like it did for my dad.

Good luck this is the only info i can give you right not I have to leave im sorry if you need to know anything else please let me know by e-mail. Cassie_331@yahoo.com

To properly answer this question, some more information is needed.

First off, "Cichlid" could be hundreds of different fish. Same goes for Algae Eater. If you don't know what kind these are, look at these sites for identification.

Here the fish are listed in groups:

http://www.aquariumlife.net/fishsearch.asp

Here they are listed by name:

http://www.aquariumlife.net/fishsearch.asp

So let's go through your list:

Cichlid- Depends what kind you have, some need 20-gallons, other over 100.

Tiger Barb- Must be kept in groups of 5 or more, but will be fine in a 55-gallon.

Rainbow Shark- Fine in a 55-gallon, need to be kept as the only shark like critter. Will be fine with Tiger Barbs and most "Algae Eaters".

Algae Eater- This could be anything from a tiny Oto, a Siamese Algae Eater, to a massive Common Pleco. Whether it can be kept in your tank, or with your other fish, depends on what it is.

So whether your fish will work in a 55-gallon and whether you can add more depends entirely on the 2 unknowns you have.

Edit:

Sorry, the first website was supposed to be:

http://www.peteducation.com/category.cfm?c=16+1911

What type of cichlid is it?

What type of algae eater?

I would definitely suggest you move the fish to the 55 gallon, though depending on what the cichlid and algea eater is you may have to get an even larger tank.

Tiger barbs should be in schools of at least 6 since they need to establish hierarchy. If they aren't in a school they can become aggressive of even stressed.

DO NOT get another rainbow shark. IMO there should only be 1 shark to a tank and in a 55, there isn't room to ask for another. Plus they are aggressive fish and can be to their own kind and other fish as well with more than one in a tank.

Get back to us on the type of algae eater and cichlid.

EDIT: Okay, I know that Convicts are sometimes known as Zebra cichlids and there are a few other species that have "blue" and "zebra" both in their names. Check out the links and please let me know which one it is. This will help you out further.

http://www.theaquariumwiki.com/Archocentrus_nigrof...

http://www.theaquariumwiki.com/Pseudotropheus_zebr...

I've been reading up about cichlids/barbs for a while as i am thinking of getting a rainbow cich and some tiger barbs. But anyway, apparantly it seems that cichlids can live with barbs easily, but you need a big, well aerated clean tank with ALOT of plants and "hidy holes". You may want to purchase some more barbs as they should be in schoals of at LEAST 3 or 4, then the cichlid wont bother them.

For the algae eater, purchase some bogwood for it as bogwood usually has alot of algae on it during the cycle.

The rainbow shark would also mind its own business when the barbs swim together, so all in all hopefully your tank will be nice and peaceful once and for all :)

Hope i helped.

I cannot seem to find any specific information on the internet on this, so I cannot give you a link that shows that I know what I am talking about, but you should NEVER EVER house fish in a tank that has had rodents in it.

The problem is the rodent urine. It is lethal to fish. It is not possible to clean all of the urine residue out of the tank, because it gets embedded into the sealant, and it will leech into your aquarium water.

So, unless you want to tear apart your tank, scrape every speck of sealant off it, and reseal it back together again, I would say there's no way to safely do this.

Everyone I know who has tried it has ended up with dead fish.

U could add 5 more tiger barbs.They have a reputation as fin nippers, but this can be avoided to some extent by keeping as a large shoal of 6 - 7, where they will spend most of their time establishing a pecking order amongst themselves.they are active fishes and are good to watch.Ur cichlid has to have more privacy though as it is very territorial.add one more rainbow shark to keep ur old one company.

You should only have one pleco per aquarium, as they'll become very territorial as they age. Also, make sure that you get a type of pleco that won't grow ridiculously large, such as a bristlenose, unless you're planning to upgrade to a very large tank. The goldfish would prefer to live in a tank with cooler water than the rest of the creatures you listed. It won't work. I don't know much about crabs, but I'm pretty sure most of them need to be able to crawl on land as well as walk on the bottom of the aquarium.

Chiclids are very aggressive and unless housed together before you get them I'd not put them together...not in a 10 gallon anywy! If you put them in a 55 make sure you have plenty of hiding places and or plants.

You can do that. However tiger barbs are semi-agressive along with the rainbow shark. The algae eater doesn't matter. The cichlids are dangerous due to aggression. They could kill all your other fish

your tank is wayy tooo small.. . cichlids require a 20+ tank