Choosing the best American Cichlid tankmates is not very hard. There a couple of issues that you must think about before anyone at your local fish store pressures you into making a fast decision.

Considering how big your cichlids will be is the first thing that you should think about. Never pick tankmates for your cichlids that look like they are small enough to fit in your fishes mouth. Maybe that will not always work, but you get the idea.

Next, don't pick a tankmate that has the potential to be more aggressive than the dominant species in your cichlid tank. Take this for example. Angel fish and Oscar fish will make great tankmates when they are small. But as they start to get bigger, the Oscars will beat up the docile Angels.

Those are a couple of points about choosing tankmates for your cichlids, but I am sure you already knew about those simple details. Now lets ask the real question. What are the best tankmates for cichlids? Have you ever thought about catfish or the fantastic little corydoras. Corydoras are simply some of my favorite tropical aquarium fish and they make great tankmates for many types of cichlids.

Again, you should definitely think about the size of the cichlids that you own. If you have Oscars, you should not choose the smaller kinds of corydoras. The Oscars will think that they are food and scarf them down like little candies. It is best to choose one of the larger varieties of corys like the bronze corydoras.

The larger types of corys like the bronze and green varieties, will reach full size at about three inches. So they should make good tankmates for even the larger types of American Cichlids.

Here is a very important thing that you must consider if you choose corydoras as tankmates for Oscars. Sometimes they simply don't follow the rules and do as they please. For the best results with pairing Oscars and corys, it is best to raise them together so they are used to having each other around. Here is a cory tip. Keep your corys in groups of at least six or seven. They are much happier in a group.

See this article for more information about cichlid tank mates. Visit cichlid care to learn how to keep cichlids healthy, colorful and happy.