Quartz92 31g Cichlid Tank!

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Quartz92

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Jun 13, 2009
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112
Location
Toronto, Canada
On this thread I will post pictures and updates on my cichlid tank.

Tomorrow, 1 blue lab, 1 P. saulosi and 1 P. socolofi will be arriving to be added into my Malawi tank.
 
Look forward to seeing it! I am building a 115G Malawi cichlid tank right now and am very interested in watching yours. Check out my thread called "my new 115G cichlid tank". Made some mistakes but pretty happy now.
 
 
Tank looks awesome and the fish are soooo colorful! Great tank! I need to do some rocks like that.
 
I am very proud of the tank! However the water is a tad cloudy and Im having an algae bloom. I'm wondering if it would be worth the money to buy a UV Sterilizer.

For future reference how to you put the pictures in the link, so that people don't have to open another page to view the photos?
 
I dont know how to link them but if you use the "go advanced" button at the bottom it will let you make them part of your post by clicking on the paperclip and attaching them.
 
O Okay thanks, and I have recieved my 1 blue lab, 1 P. saulosi and 1 P. socolofi today, and they are doing great!
 
Umm, just a word of caution, eventually your fish are going to be too big for a 30 gallon. I started with a 30 gallon, had Yellow Lab, Red Zebras and Acei in it and when they hit 4-5" they started fighting and the less dominant ones hid all the time. I tried rehoming some, but the trouble did not solve. I ended up getting a 55 and that was the only way I was able to solve the aggression issues. They were just way too cramped in that tank. My Acei are a year old and all of them are 6", my Red Zebras are about 8 months old and the smallest is 4", and my Yellow Labs are about a year, with my male being 5 1/2" and the females are 3". The 30 gallon worked out for about 8 months. Your fish look small, how big are they? Just wanted to warn you. When I first set up my Mbuna tank it looked so big and roomy. However, every month it got smaller and smaller! In the end, all my Acei were smashed into a corner with not enough room to really swim.

Here is a comparison, see the Acei swimming by the river rocks? They were about 2.5" here:
img_994185_0_97c23d2b9e2450f92cd6d7243e043400.jpg


OK, same Acei, this time swimming by a chunk of lava rock (just the smallest piece he is over) that is 4 times BIGGER than the river rock was. Its now 6" and the old tank shrunk in size dramatically!
img_994185_1_b310dc274e61de1fd7924dc201bcc6b4.jpg
 
Thanks for your concern this however this isn't my first 30g cichlid tank, and I disagree that the tank will become to small, as naturally these fish live in crowded environments. I have had one before have had more fish full sized adults no aggresion issues and lots of breeding! However I have reached my limit and I will have one male per species (4 in total), the fish are still a bit young but I know I have 3 for sure. As for your past agression issues it was probably due to the red zebras. They are a very aggresive speceis.
 
Actually, my Reds are the sweetest fish in the tank! I know, weird huh? I know they are suppose to be very aggressive, but mine are not. It was my Yellow Lab who was the meanest fish and my Acei fighting so badly. The Reds and Labs were spawning all the time, (I didn't have an Acei male yet) but they just hardly had room to move any more, especially the Acei. I got myself a cheap 55 gallon acrylic tank off Craigslist and used that until I could get a nice glass setup. It was cool the first night after I moved them. The Acei would stop short at the 36" mark like there was still glass there. When they realized it was longer they spent the next 4 hours zooming from one end to the other LOL. It is also nice because I have been able to also add a small group of Greshakei now too.

I ended up having to add bigger rocks because they no longer fit in the caves the river rocks made. Then the rocks took up a lot of space, added to that they got so big and were stacked on top of each other. I have more fish and they are just as crowded now in the 55, but there is more "running" room now. I think I would have been OK if they all stayed at 4", but they got huge on me! Like I said, my adults are now 6".
 
It has been about 3 months since I set up my cichlid tank. The fish are very colorful and very outgoing. They really seem to like my attention. I would have to say my male yellow lab has grown a large interest in me, I actually hand feed him somethings.

These are my fish now,
- 3 Yellow labs (2 males 1 female) Breeding resulting in 14 babies, 3 still surviving.
- 1 Blue lab (female)
- 4 Black Acei's (2 males for sure, 2 unknown) No breeding for them yet.
- 4 Saulosi (1 male, 3 female) One male recently died from being killed by the more dominant male. These are an agressive fish species towards there own kind I have noticed. One female currently holding.
- 4 Socolofi (2 males, 2 females) Breeding pair, 13 babies 2 of which are albino all still living.

These fish are doing extreamly well and they have grown a bond with each other. I have to say I have a little kingdom in my tank!
 
I agree... my Red Zebras are actually the "referees" of the tank... The largest fish I have, the Dominant male of the entire tank is a Red Zebra who rushes in to break up any squabbles among any other fish...

I also agree, a 30 gallon may be good for dwarf species like Saulosi or Demasoni, but for the Metriaclima and Labidochromis species which can to 6 inches, you really need a four foot long tank IMHO...
 
but for the Metriaclima and Labidochromis species which can to 6 inches, you really need a four foot long tank IMHO...
Click to expand...
Most of all for the Acei. Mine are now a year old and the smallest one is 5.5". My big male is over 6". Acei love to swim back and forth all day long. Most all my other fish, the Labs and Zebras, just sort of hang out in their caves all day, but the Acei swim all over constantly. They love the long length of a 55 gallon. They are the main reason why I upgraded. When they hit 4" they just did not have the room to swim like they used to and looked so unhappy.
 
Tank is doing great!
2 Yellow labs (1 males 1 female) female holding again. My second male died when I was on vacation.
1 Blue lab (female)
4 Black Acei's (I think 4 males) So no breeding.
4 Saulosi (1 male, 3 female) One female holding again.
4 Socolofi (2 males, 2 females) I am trading these four with a friend and getting 1 male and 2 female white labs.

FRY!
First batch of saulosi didn't survive.
The 3 yellow lab fry are still doing great.
Out of the 15 socolofi 14 are still alive! One of the albino died, (the albinos grow slow)

I might add a uv sterilizer to my tank any tips?
 
You may be overfeeding, algae blooms usually resolve themselves when the nutrients run out... Also, try cutting back on your photo period, or try to shade the light so less shines into the tank. I doubt you need a sterilizer on a non-planted mbuna tank...
 
Photo period is the length of time that you leave your lights on... I use that term when talking about planted tanks, lol. Forgot I was posting in the cichlid forum!
 
Thats certainly not excessive. Prob not whats causing the algae bloom... What color is the bloom, white or green?
 
It's green, I don't think its a bloom, its just the water gets a sort of green murky colour not really bad but a bit of a tinge. My friend said try a uv sterilizer hes going to let me borrow one, he has them on all of his tanks, salt, planted and chichlid.
 
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