While your dolphins might not get to 7 inches, I don't think they would
have much trouble getting well over 4". I would not put medium to large
African cichlids in a 26g. I find that their territory tends to be in
the neighbourhood of 20g, and their tolerance for other fish within their
territory tends to be poor *cough*. Your results might vary with some of
the smaller dwarf species, such as Julidochromis or better yet, some of
the Neolamprologous. A 26g is more for a small community tank of less
aggressive and less territorial fishes. In cichlids, this would be
something from the Apistogramma family (South America, if your tap water
is generally neutral to soft). Do a bit of research and get a few more
poster's advice. This is a hobby with much anecdotal advice and results
will vary considerably. I think I remember www.cichlidrecipe.com having
a recipe for small tanks with Africans if you are set on them (and your
source water is naturally hard & alkaline). That might help you.
--
www.NetMax.tk

"Larry" wrote in message
...
Thanks for responding. Sounds to me like we had better be running not
walking these babies (dolphins and maybe even the zebras) back to the
fish store.

We TOLD the guy there that we didn't want anything larger than 4"
fully grown but I guess he figured we were amateurs from the get go.
What others will live nicely with the little yellow guys (and not get
huge)?

Larry

On Fri, 31 Dec 2004 13:03:28 -0500, "NetMax"
wrote:

The bad news is that you will soon be
hooked, and within a year, you will look back fondly at your 26g which
will be a quarantine or a fry tank, and be admiring your dolphins
swimming back & forth in their 60 to 100g tank (dolphins or Cyrtocara
moorii get to about 20cm (7-8 inches) and are best kept in groups of
about 5 to 7 fish).