General Newbie Questions?

176 posts • Page 6 of 18

Member introductions and random (non-aquarist) topics.


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

by miami754

Oh, and the aggressiveness gets worse as they mature and get bigger.

Also, I would recommend maybe adding a few more rocks to your tank. You don't have to go crazy like my tank, but they really do need places to hide and feel secure. This is their natural habitat and it helps to control the aggression by blocking their line of sight. Also, when you stack the rock, make sure there are caves formed that are large enough for your fish. As your fish grow, the caves need to grow as well. Just a suggestion though (about adding some more rock).


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

by miami754

I forgot to mention that I wrote an article on controlling cichlid aggression. Click on the articles tab at the top of this page and search in the freshwater section for it. You'll get a good sense of their aggression after reading it.

(sorry for the number of posts)


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

by a1k8t31524

ok so i have on major concern here others may or may not agree with me.
this tank is just at a week old and is allready stocked with 6 fish. And no offense to you big will but being that you are new to this hobby you are probally overfeeding, which is what almost all new aquarist do, even some experienced do it. There is no possible way that this tank is fully cycled. And to me it seems that you are just setting yourself up for disaster. i.e. a massive ammonia spike and then a massive fish kill one morning when you wake up.
Cycling is an extremely important part of having a successful and happy long lived aquarium, especially if you ever decide to dice into salt water, and then it is an even longer process. I think that if you ask anyone who has been doing this for awhile they will agree with me on that point.
So like i said keep an eye on your water conditions and your cycle.
I believe that down the line you may in counter some problems that could be delt with much eayser if you would have let your tank cycle before you added fish. I am not trying to be a "hater" but just giving you my 2cents so that you dont get frustrated down that line and give up on the whole thing together.
This is and extreamly rewarding hobby for me and i think it should be for anyone who gets into it

-andrew


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

by miami754

Yeah, he does need to watch it, but his fish all look pretty small except the OB. They yellows looked to be juveniles. Cichlids are pretty hardy so they should make it through. I'm not one to cycle with fish, but I know others have no problem doing it. I guess it up to each person.

Just keep an eye on the spikes. Do enough water changes to keep them at or below 1 ppm and your fish will do fine. Cichlids are messy anyways so you'll need to get used to frequenct water changes.


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

by a1k8t31524

i cycled my 55 gallon planted with a fish, a male beta just so i had something producing a little waste but i also jumpstarted it with an old sponge from his old 8 gallon tank, and i am sure even with the tiny tiny ammo spike that i had the water was pristine compare to the small cup that i pulled him from


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

by bigwillcast

a1k8t3- I understand where you're coming from and that's why I added the bio-filter in there, hopefully by the time my spike comes the sponge will have enough good bacteria in it to help out a lot. That's also why I'm keeping the plants in there, to hopefully battle off some of that. When I do come to the point where my spike comes, is there anything I can do to make it easier on the fish?

Miami- I really like the look of your tank and I really wanna do something like that, it's just going to have to wait a while.. buying this set up and the fish has set me back. If you would, give me an estimate of how much the substrate and a big stack of rocks like that would cost and I'll start saving. In addition, I saw that at walmart they had a specific chichlid food, I'm not sure if it was the one you were talking about.. but that's where I work, so tomorrow I'll check it out while I'm there. If it's not, I'll go to the LPS and look for it.

I really appreciate all the information you guys are giving me. thanks for the help guys.


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

by miami754

I've never seen Walmart carry New Life Spectrum, but check it out anyways. I actually have never seen it at any of the big pet stores. I get it at my LFS.

Thanks for the comment on my tank. I appreciate it. As far as cost goes, I have 120 lbs of rock in there. I bought it at my LFS which ended up being more expensive, but that was ok with me because I wanted to support them. They charged me around $1.25/lb. I think you can find it cheaper if you go to a rock yard, but you'll have to ask around. It is called lace rock (at least by fish people - not sure what rock yards call it) and I love it because it has so many caves and is slightly jagges so I can interlock the peices without having to use adhesive. This is important to me because I change the rock formations up every 1.5 months to break up territories and such.

Lace rock is great too because it is very porous (i.e. not very dense) which means yuo can get larger peices for less money since it doesn't weigh a much.

You wouldn't need nearly as much rock as I have since yours is a 29 gallon. If you went with a similar ratio to mine, you would need around 60 lbs of rock, but again, this is just an estimate.


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

by bigwillcast

ok, no places up here have the new life spectrum. I got hikari chichlid staple.. little floating pellets.


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

by miami754

If you ever want to get it in the future, you could order it online. I did a quick google and found this place that sells it:

http://www.customaquatic.com/estore/con ... 52059.jvm1

Not sue about shipping prices or anything, but you can look around at other places as well.


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

by bigwillcast

Miami, did you get my message?

General Newbie Questions?

176 posts • Page 6 of 18

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