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[tattoomick1]

Hi everyone, i'm mike and have done a little fish keeping in the past but i am now wanting to get a little bit more serious, i am no expert at all lol, as i say i have done a LITTLE in the past. i currently have a 48x18x12 tank and two smaller tanks 17x10x9 inch. in the larger tank i have 1 koi, 1 shubunkin, 2 tiger barbs, 3 corys, 2 guppies, 1 swordtail (lost the male) 2 gourami's and in the smaller tank i have swordtail fry and two plecos, the pleco's are only babies. i have many questions and will probably give you lot a headache haha so lets see how we get on thanks for reading

 

[chas10]

Welcome tattoomick you wouldn't happen to be tattooed would you? Lol my passions are tats & tanks!

 

[tattoomick1]

hahaha i sure am and also do tatts. i have always been interested in fish so this time im gna give it a good go. i have tropical at the minute but only community fish and want to take a change even tho i have only had the communitys about a month lol

 

[chas10]

I feel ya, I had a community & just became uninterested in it & gave away a lot of them & bought a oscar fish. Best decision ever. This fish has more personality than any fish I've had. It also pushed me to upgrade once again & now I have 5 tanks lol my community fish just weren't exciting enough. An aggressive community would be interesting

 

[tattoomick1]

i really want to go cichlids but wouldnt know where to start? i am bored of the community already haha you want em was thinking an oscar aswell but they need be on there own dont they or are they ok in a pair?

 

[chas10]

It depends on the fish really.. some are more aggressive then others but there are some other cichlids that can go with them. With mine I'm gonna try to keep it as least complicated as possible so I'm not gonna risk having another oscar with him or other big fish. He will be in a 75 gal with my convict cichlid. Convicts are smaller but more aggressive so it equals out. There are so many beautiful cichlids. What size tank do you have? I'd just start researching & look for one that catches your eye & plan the tank around that.

 

[tattoomick1]

not a big enough tank for an oscar then lol only a measley 38 gallon. could i get a few cichlids in there? think thats the route im gna take for now and then get a huge tank for other fish or an oscar, i have a very large living room so its gna be full of tanks lol

 

[chas10]

I have a 36 with a German blue ram & plan on adding a male to it. Also a couple cories & zebra danio. You should look into dwarf cichlids or apistos they are very colorful & stay between 2-4 inches.

 

[chas10]

That's my German blue ram female. The males are much brighter

 

[tattoomick1]

thats a lovely fish, can you not have many of them in the same tank then? i am ideally looking for a well stocked tank to what it can handle and also do cichlids need salt in the water?

 

[Surfer]

I have a few rams in my 55 now and they get along well. I'm still rehoming them though because I got the pair I needed..

 

[tattoomick1]

is there a limit to how many for a 38? if they get on that is lol

 

[chas10]

You could put more if you do one male to a couple females, but if you get a breeding pair they get aggressive when raising fry. That's why I'm just getting one more because I'm gonna try to breed them. They don't need salt. Some people put salt in their aquariums but you don't have to. I never have. There are other types of rams too they're very pretty fish. Some people say they are more difficult to keep but I've never had any problems with mine. As long as the temp & such is kept the way they like it.

 

[tattoomick1]

do they actually raise the fry or eat them? they sound like a good project to do if i invest in another separate tank for them, also what about vegetation? substrate. what do you mean if i put one male to two female then theres a possibility of aggressive behavior?

 

[chas10]

They are really good parents. When two pair up they stay together. They're peaceful though & can be mixed with other peaceful fish but if you breed them I'd keep them alone so they other fish don't try & eat the fry. They like sand. I have a area in my tank with a strip of sand & mine loves to pick it up & spit it out. They will dig a pit for their eggs so sand is probably best.

 

[chas10]

They are protective of their fry & will be aggressive towards other fish that come near them

 

[tattoomick1]

oh thats good to know that there ok with other fish, i will be getting more tanks to do my little projects so i will probably have many other types of fish when i become more confident lol.

 

[Surfer]

Breeding German blues would be a good investment, I'm working out a deal with Absolutely Fish to give them each batch for a sizeable amount of store credit

 

[tattoomick1]

are they an expensive fish then to buy?

 

[Surfer]

Well, they go for like 20 dollars each at my lfs. (They only sell the BEST quality, which is why they're so expensive there) it's a family owned store, but if I go to petco I can get them for 7$ each... Although their health is questionable lol.