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Posted by bombero on October 23, 2006, 8:42 pm
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gilsonal@gmail.com wrote:
> New to cichlids, interested in starting a tank 55gallons or so, and am
> wondering what kinds of setups are best. Malawi? Tanganika? I'd like
> to have fish that stay relatively small (no oscars, please) and
> possibly some plants, but beyond that I'm looking for suggestions on
> where to start. I'd like to keep fish from relatively the same natural
> locations.
>
55 Gals is a nice tank to start Cichlids, if this is a new setup for
you, I would go with (Mbuna) they are very colorful reds, yellows,
blues, silver, pink, albino....I have 2 of them setup and I call them my
Crayola Tanks, because of the colors......get them small and let them
gwt along or weed them selves out early, you will know in a short time
who will get along and play nice, I have around 30 or so in both my 55's
a bit overstocked with very good filtration, but let me tell you the
action is non stop...the tank looks alive 100% they never ever stop
moving, as far as agression, I remove the bullies and put them in my
125, or you can take them back to the LFS for another....
Electric yellows are very peaceful, Kenyi, zebras, and such...(Damasoni)
are NOT a good idea, they are the meanest fish I have ever had, even the
fry kill each other, socolofi are also a bit nasty buy very nice to look
at...goto cichlid-forum.com and you will find a lot of info there...
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Posted by swarvegorilla on October 24, 2006, 6:13 am
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> New to cichlids, interested in starting a tank 55gallons or so, and am
> wondering what kinds of setups are best. Malawi? Tanganika? I'd like
> to have fish that stay relatively small (no oscars, please) and
> possibly some plants, but beyond that I'm looking for suggestions on
> where to start. I'd like to keep fish from relatively the same natural
> locations.
>
I'd say start with a nice malwai mbuna setup.
get some tough, aggro, colourful fish
try your hand at breeding, then sell them off as colonys and fry and try for
some thing tricky that has caught your eye
mbuna are ridiculously tough and beautiful
they spawn to spite you!
an example with ample filtration and weekly water changes that would give
heaps of fry would be...
Melanochromis interruptus x3
hongi x3
blue pindani x3
rusty x3
throw in some electric blues x3
red empress x3
and a lake victorian male like a crimson dawn or nyerie or xmas fulu or
brownea... but only one! and maybe a girl for him
or
just buy random peacock males
and feed colour food for an incredible display
or
just a colony of one species
or a tanga biotype :)
they can be pretty but are a tad harder than malawi or vics due to higher pH
aragonite sand makes a sweet substrate as it buffers nice and high
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Posted by FEAR_THE_ SWAMP on November 3, 2006, 5:37 am
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I agree with the other posters. A good mbuna tank is always a nice
start, and in fact, always nice period. I've been in the hobby since
1988, and still have an all mbuna tank today, they are beauty's. 55
gallon is perfect. As the others said, keep good filteration, a weekly,
no worse then bi-weeekly water change ( 50% to 60%), a good 7.0 PH or
so, give them plenty of rocks ( natural habitat look), I like to stack
them to the top, making caves here and there. And toss in some good
plants here and there, might as well grab just a few plastic ones, as no
doubt, mbuna's dig, dig, dig. Enjoy.
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> wondering what kinds of setups are best. Malawi? Tanganika? I'd like
> to have fish that stay relatively small (no oscars, please) and
> possibly some plants, but beyond that I'm looking for suggestions on
> where to start. I'd like to keep fish from relatively the same natural
> locations.
>