General Newbie Questions?

176 posts • Page 4 of 18

Member introductions and random (non-aquarist) topics.


miami754
 
Posts: 373
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2008 9:18 am

by miami754

Just tell him that you were not planning on doing a cichlid tank so you need to take them back. He'll give you some crap answer about how they will live fine with everything and then just say, no thanks. Ask him if you can exchange them for some more barbs. Barbs do better in bigger numbers anyways and they are good cycling fish if you decide to not do the fishless cycling.


miami754
 
Posts: 373
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2008 9:18 am

by miami754

No sorry, man. All I have is e-mail and that would be the same as using this.


bigwillcast
 
Posts: 107
Joined: Wed Nov 12, 2008 10:41 pm

by bigwillcast

I'm not really all that big of a fan of the barbs to be honest... any other suggestions you could make that would go well with the barbs?

I really like the colors of the chichlids, but I'm basically broke now from buying all this tank stuff and can't afford to be changing around all the substrate and stuff like that for a little while. On top of that, I only have a 29 gallon tank and online it says most of these need a 50 gallon.


miami754
 
Posts: 373
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2008 9:18 am

by miami754

Oh my bad - I thought I saw earlier that you had a 50 gallon. I think I read the post before you actually bought your tank.


miami754
 
Posts: 373
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2008 9:18 am

by miami754

In terms of what goes with tiger barbs, the main thing is to keep at least 6-8 of them. That way they will focus their aggression on themselves and not other species (they are more aggressive than general community fish, but not to the point that you can't keep them with others). If you keep them in a school this large, they usually will do fine with the standard community tank fish although you do need to watch out for fish with long flowy tails as tiger barbs are notorious fin nippers.


bigwillcast
 
Posts: 107
Joined: Wed Nov 12, 2008 10:41 pm

by bigwillcast

could I maybe just have like 10 african chichlids in this tank and keep it small to that number?


miami754
 
Posts: 373
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2008 9:18 am

by miami754

10 would be pushing it. You generally want to overstock Africans, but not too much. Most mbunas get to be 5-6" when full grown. In a 29 gallon tank, you could probably have 40" of cichlids in there so you are probably looking at more like 8. The problem with a small tank is that you HAVE to get the male:female ratio right (1 male:3-4 females). If you put two males in that size tank, the dominant one will kill the other one. If you do decide to do it, I would recommend two mild-mannered (relative to mbunas) species with each having 1 male and 3 females. I would also add osme more rock because it will be vital that they can hide and escape each other.


a1k8t31524
 
Posts: 939
Joined: Sat May 26, 2007 5:10 am

by a1k8t31524

if you like the cichlids you might look into some new world cichlids like German blue rams you could probally do 3 or 4 in there they are not agressive and are beautifull only get to 4" and you would not need to mantain a higher PH like you would with the africians, but make sure you tank is fully cycled or you will loose them they do not tolerate water swings all that well


bigwillcast
 
Posts: 107
Joined: Wed Nov 12, 2008 10:41 pm

by bigwillcast

ok guys, update:

took the barbs out, replaced with three different chichlids:

pundamilia nyererei - ruti island
OB chichlid
and a white top afra chichlid

Went to a different breeder, he really really knows his stuff. So much that he kept talking and talking for an hour and a half and I couldn't get out of the shop lol. But I guess it's going to be an all chichlid tank, regardless, the PH in the water up here is unussually high anyways. Therefore, this will work out.


bigwillcast
 
Posts: 107
Joined: Wed Nov 12, 2008 10:41 pm

by bigwillcast

oh, also added a bio filter.. you know the ones that go inside the tank with an air pump hooked up to them and the big sponge? yeah, that's filtering also.

also bought the vacuum cleaner I've been meaning to buy (that was a chore... the plastic adaptor wouldn't fit in the sink, therefore, I had to run all over this podunk town to find a metal one) that all got worked out though... Cleaned up the bottom of the tank before I put in the new fish.

General Newbie Questions?

176 posts • Page 4 of 18

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