Changing to cichlids

[Beehpee]

I want to change my community tank over to a tank with just cichlids, I can find homes for most of my current stock but I'm almost certainly going to be left with around 8 guppies of various sizes from 1cm to fully grown, I've still to research yet what stock to go with but deff want to start with yellow labs then go from there, so first question will the labs just kill the guppies or eat them as well? Secondly, I have a gravel substrate which is pretty small at around 1 to 2 mm max in size, will this be suitable or does it need to be finer or changed to sand, my tanks been running with no issues for around 18 months and is very stable re water parameters so when I switch to cichlids putting them in before removing the guppies would be ideal as that way there would be no interruption of he bio load so shouldn't get any spikes. Any help would be appreciated.

BP

 

[Beehpee]

Doesn't really matter at this point in my plans but the tank is a 40 gallon so once I get answers to my first couple of questions I'm gonna have plenty more on stocking, I want to change to cichlids as in my opinion they are such stunning looking fish.

BP

 

[Slade]

Your substrate is fine. The guppies will make a tasty snack for yellow labs. A 40 gallon tank is on the small side but could work if it's a 40 breeder with the same footprint as a 55.
You will probably need to increase filtration and/or water changes. Maybe look into dwarf cichlids

 

[Rare]

Yellow labs are really lay back ciclids....but in the end they are still cichlids. They made make a meal out of your guppies being that they get to be as big as 10-12cm (male) when fully grown. Don't have the guppies stressing out and get them a aquarium of their own or sell them.

As for your bio load it all depends how many you are getting & how big. Then again at 1cm & 8 guppies in there there is not a lot of bio load in there. 2-3 small cichlids will be fine..giving your BB time to catch up.

Substrate i like sand. It idea for cichlid as they like to dig around at times. A lot easier to clean as the pop stays on top vs gravel where it can slip all the way down or in between. It'a personal choice but sand is ideal.

 

[Beehpee]

I'm now almost ready to switch to cichlids, I bought 4 biggish chunks of slate which I've split up into nice usable slices, dark grey color so will show the yellow labs nicely when I get em, was pleased with the slate cos cost me equivalent of 20$ for the 4 rocks which has split into enough slices to probably do 3 tanks, all current stock going over next couple of days and the yellow labs in straight off before any BB can die off, got the slate in and for first attempt I'm quite pleased with result, plenty of nooks and crannies for hiding places so reckon should be good enough, water @ ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 30 although I have to say when checking nitrate against the color chart it's probably the hardest to be precise as the difference in the colors is so slight and quite subjective as to which I think is a match, so re the nitrate I've done a 30% WC today and will do same tomorrow before adding the Labs. One question I have is I have a red finned shark which I've had for ages and is a lovely fish and is deffo the boss of the tank currently, most research suggests not keeping him when I get the Labs but some sites seem to think he will be fine, no problem re homing him but what do you people think his chance would be if I were to keep him? He is around 7-8 cm nose to tail.

BP.

PS Ph @ 7.8 so maybe a little higher wouldn't go amiss will google how to get it higher if you guys/gals think I need to, thanks as always for any replies.

 

[Beehpee]

Just wondering if everyone is still getting over Christmas as no replies?

 

[Andrew McFadden]

They may work in a bigger tank but I wouldn't push my luck in a 40. They may kill him! You can always try and if aggression or stress becomes to much just remove it

 

[Beehpee]

Cheers Andrew I was hoping you or convict might be around cos I know your both into cichlids in a big way, might just re home him cos would hate to see him beat up or worse.

 

[Beehpee]

Well I've now added 6 yellow labs, I couldn't initially catch my red finned shark so I thought I'd put the labs in regardless, I was surprised that almost immediately the shark was making the labs life hell chasing them none stop, that left me no choice but to virtually empty the tank of rocks etc and I finally managed to net the shark, I put him in a small floating breeder trap in the tank that the cichlids were in and as soon as he was out of the way they quickly settled and seem perfectly at home, after around 3 hours the shark managed to jump out of the breeder box back into the tank, must have been like when free willy jumped that wall, anyway I don't know if the few hours out of the tank cost the shark his number 1 position in the tank but when he was back in he has not been chasing the labs at all and all seem to be co habiting the tank in harmony for now at least, I will just have to keep a careful eye on things and see what occurs, fingers crossed.

BP

 

[Beehpee]

Hi, I've stuck together some 6inch lengths of pipe to form a pyramid and then stuck small pieces of slate all over the sides using the same slate I have in the tank, this gives me 10 tubes for the fish to use as caves/hides, this might be a daft question but to me they are still tubes with an opening at each end, to make this into a cave should I close off the rear or as they are is this good enough for them to use? I will try to post a picture shortly, it's not ready to go in the tank yet as needs 24 hours or so for the silicone to cure.

BP

 

[Beehpee]

Not sure if this picture is visible?

 

[Beehpee]

Looks like I managed it twice for some reason lol

 

[Beehpee]

Just bumping this up the thread so I can see if anyone has answer as to whether I need to close off the one end of the tubes?

 

[Andrew McFadden]

Just bumping this up the thread so I can see if anyone has answer as to whether I need to close off the one end of the tubes?

No you don't need to

 

[Beehpee]

I set up the tank for my new cichlids using grey slate, I was pleased initially with how it looked but quickly started to think it looked too drab, I've now re done it using coral rock, plenty of holes and nooks and crannies for the fish who seem to like it going by the way they explored it as soon as it went in, hopefully there will be a picture attached to this showing how it's looking so far, no doubt it will gradually evolve as I change things but need to give it time to settle down and decide on what I think, any opinions appreciated. (If u can see the picture)

 

[Andrew McFadden]

Looks great

 

[Beehpee]

Just thought I'd update on my switch from tropical to cichlids, it's now been a couple of months almost and so far (fingers crossed I don't jinx things) it's been all good, I've gone with overstocking as seems to be the consensus that it helps with aggression and so far none at all but I'm aware that the fish still have plenty of growing to do so it might still happen, the good news is my wife watched an episode of tanked recently and she now wants to re arrange our lounge so as to get a much bigger tank which will be 1.6 metres wide, no idea yet what a tank that size will hold in gallons as still to do he research, anyway I digress, the fish all seem to be thriving and I can already see they've grown, i do have one small problem which is of my own making and that's that because I want to enjoy looking at them so much I have the lights on far to much which has meant I've today had to remove all the rocks and jet wash the algae of them, looking great again now but just means I'm gonna want the lights on even more, I'm gonna try adding a couple of pictures so any opinions welcome, the rocks a coral and the plants are fake just to give a bit of colour.

 

[xwing]

Add some internal water pumps to circulate the water it keep the poop from settling and algae from forming

It might still happen as by your own admission your lights are on too much how long do you keep them on

 

[xwing]

I like your tank looks good

 

[Beehpee]

We'll as for how long the lights are on it varies, my work means some days I'm home by midday and often will put them on then and rarely do I turn them off before 11pm, too much I know, I doubt they're ever on for less than 7 hours a day, I've been out today and bought a blue LED light fitting so do you think if I use that for part of the time it will help with the algae, looks great so will be glad I got it even if it doesn't, re the internal pump are you referring to what I often see mentioned on here that's called a power head?, glad you like the tank, I rearrange things quite a bit pretty much every time I do a water change, I believe doing that also helps to keep aggression down.

BP