Filling a 135 Gal FW Tank.

[Idealconcepts]

Filling a 135 Gal FW Tank.

My 135gal tank will be empty in a few weeks because I am purchasing a 280gal tank from a restaurant that went out of business and will be placing the current fish in the 135gal into the 280gal. I would like to place African Cichlids in the 135 but am not very familiar with them, I am more familiar with S and C American Cichlids which is what I currently have in the 135 (all are about 2-3.5 inches in length; 2 Marble Oscars, 2, Jack D., 2 Green Terrors, 2 Firemouths, 3 tinfoil barbs, a common algae eater, and a catfish that I cannot remember the name but it’s a common one). I’m running 2 Rena XP3s for the 135 and one 250watt Ebo J. I have read African Cichlids require a high ph, my ph out of tap is currently 7.6-7.8, which is actually a little high for the American Cichlids but they seem to be fine, growing and no sign or stress. I like the bright colors of the Africans, blues, yellows, oranges, and what ever other colors I have not see yet, and the fact that many grow to max of 5-6 inches. Can anyone give me some suggestions on types (along with the color of the fish) of African Cichlids I can place in my 135 and approximately how many total I can place? The only other fish I will place in the 135 is an algae eater and a catfish. Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

 

[Enki]

Wow! I would love to have such a huge tank. You could do a great African lake community tank with that much room. If it was me, and I already had oscars, *sigh* I would do a lake tanganyika set up with Frontosa as a starting place and pick the rest of the fish from there. Front's are really cool fish. Then there are Cyprichromis to run around the top and do their funny mating dance. Some shell dwellers to keep things busy at the bottom. Maybe some calvus too, if you can keep them from eating the little fish

Then there is the riot of coor and activity you could have with a Mbuna tank. You could have every color of the rainbow zipping around in there.

Do a lot of research. This page has lots of great cichlid tank pictures for inspiration.

Good luck cant wait to see pics.

 

[Terry]

Your new tank sounds great, I agree with enki would make a great Tanganyika tank or a Mbuna tank from lake Malawi.
You can increase your Hardness by useing crushed shell in your filter and useing very chalky rock like Ocean rock or Tuffa.
This is the one thing to remember with African cichlids they like very rocky surroundings.
A sand substrate would be good as well or a fine gravel, especially if you dicide to go tanganyika and get shell dwellers.
Malawi cichlids like loads of hiding places so give the lots of rocks, this also cuts down there aggression. They also say that by over crowding the malawi's this will also cut there aggression down too, but that don't mean you can go made and really overstock your tank.
The reason also for overcrowding Malawi's is that they are mouthbrooding cichlid and carry there young with them so they spawn and then pick there eggs up and carry them in there mouth.
The Tanganyikan Frontosa is also a mouth brooder, but a gig portion of Tanganyikans are pit spawners so they require spawning sites. From lake Tananyika and Malawi there are just so many fish to choose from it would take me all night to write them down.
Here are a few:-

Tangyanika

Lamprologus Calvus
Lamprologus Compressiceps
Callochromis
Chalinochromis
Cyathopharynx
Cyphotilapia Frontosa 6 stripe, 7 stripe, blue mpimbwe, zaire blue.
Julidochromis
Neolamprologus
Petrocromis
Tropheus

Malawi

Aulonocara
Labeotropheus
Melanochromis
Nimochromis
Pseudotropheus
Sciaenochromis
Aristochromis
Cynotilapia
Cyrtocara
Dimidiochromis
Iodotropheus
Labidocromis

And many many more......

HTH.

 

[Idealconcepts]

Thanks both for the information and advice. This should give me a really good start, but can you tell if there many African Cichlids that stay around 4-6 inch? I want to stay with small fish in this tank because the larger houses mainly fish that can grow up to 10 in or more. I finally got the tank home on Sat, thanks to the help of my girlfriend, parents, aunt, uncel, and little 3 year old cousin. The tank is actually larger that I first thought. Its 299.22 gallons (but I will call it 300gallons, since it is so close to it) and the dimensions are 96in (8ft) long, 24in (2ft) wide, 30in (2.5ft) wide. It is sitting int he garage waiting to be sanded down and repainted black. Hopping to have it in the house ready to cycle by this Sunday. Thanks again everybody for the information and advice.

 

[Terry]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!! what a nice size tank