My first cichlid tank! Am i ready?

[VioletEmber]

Hi! I am so excited, I finally have my 20g long set up!
And I want to get a pair of dwarf cichlids...

I have 7 zebra danios in there right now but I am willing to rehome them if they don't work well with the cichlid that I end up choosing.

I would love an apisto pair, but I would have to order them. I am also thinking of Bolivian rams or GBRs or maybe nannacaras. I would love to have two species but realize there isn't enough room for two pairs, unless I am mistaken.

Do I need a special kind of substrate for cichlids? I would love to avoid buying special water conditioners, etc but obviously will if they are necessary for my set up. My ph is about 6.8.

I have a marineland penguin 200 filter.

I would like someone who likes the top part of the tank, but my number one priority is creating the right habitat for my cichlid pair.

Any advise is greatly appreciated!!

 

[a.tetreault]

im not sure about compatibility but i believe you can have one pair of any of those cichlids in your tank, any substrate is good, sand is a bit easier to clean but can get in the filters if stirred up too much, and gravel is harder to clean but still do-able and you dont have to worry much about it getting in the filter, its really up to you. your ph is a bit low so i would consider doing crushed coral as a substrate as it raises ph. but remember that a stable ph is more important then a certain number,so stay away from any chemicals that claim to raise ph unless you are willing to test almost every day and adjust as needed, they tend to go all over the place and that isnt healthy for fish. i would recommend prime as your only water conditioner, it makes the water more healthy for fish in general and its very hard to overdose it, that should be the only thing you need to add to the water. im sure someone will chime in with advice on compatibility soon.

 

[VioletEmber]

So I could mix some crushed coral in with sand? I like the look of sand and have been converting my gravel tanks to sand lately and love it. I definitely don't want to mess with chemicals everyday. My API test kit is all I want!

 

[Basefrog]

I love sand thinking of converting my 29g to a Cichlid tank with a sand substrate.. I'm tempted to say that any small fish around Cichlids is a big no no, for they can be very territoriality! So you might very well have to rehome your Danios.

 

[a.tetreault]

the cichlids this person is talking about stay small and are usually in community tanks, if you search the site you can probably find some posts that will suggest some tankmates and may give you answers on weather or not you can keep the danios.

 

[thegundog]

A pair (2 fish total) of apistogramma should work well in your 20 Long.

I don't see why you would need to modify your ph, just drip acclimate your fish. As was mentioned stability is very important.

Are there any aquarium clubs in your area? Often you can find what you are looking for through club members and have them delivered to meetings.

I really like sand as well and use POOL FILTER SAND called MYSTIC II. I purchased it at a local pool supply store - $12.00 for like 50 pounds -- way more than I needed for my 55 gallon.... It looks great in the tank, it's bright white... but what makes it really awesome - it's VERY clean - there is little to no dust in the sand. I went to rinse it before I put it in my tank and it drained cleaned immediately - there is no need to pre-rinse. It is awesome and worth searching for.....

Apistogramma is high on my list of favorite species, my dream is to build a really nice rack to hold 3 - 4 20 longs and then have 3-4 different species of apisto's "stacked" on top of one another....

Tanks set up is probably the easy part, selecting a species well..... that's tough.

Good luck and keep us updated...

 

[severum mama]

Hi! I am so excited, I finally have my 20g long set up!
And I want to get a pair of dwarf cichlids...

I have 7 zebra danios in there right now but I am willing to rehome them if they don't work well with the cichlid that I end up choosing.

I would love an apisto pair, but I would have to order them. I am also thinking of Bolivian rams or GBRs or maybe nannacaras. I would love to have two species but realize there isn't enough room for two pairs, unless I am mistaken.

Do I need a special kind of substrate for cichlids? I would love to avoid buying special water conditioners, etc but obviously will if they are necessary for my set up. My ph is about 6.8.

I have a marineland penguin 200 filter.

I would like someone who likes the top part of the tank, but my number one priority is creating the right habitat for my cichlid pair.

Any advise is greatly appreciated!!

There's no need to add anything to increase pH, including crushed coral or aragonite, which will raise pH/hardness. SA dwarf cichlids generally prefer softer water and pH 7 or below (not that it's normally that big of a deal if over 7). If you want sand, use something inert like pool filter sand, or some of the sands you'll find at the lfs.

You don't need any special water conditioners for them. I'm guessing you won't be starting with wild blackwater specimens.

Keep only one species in a 20 gallon IMO. The danios should be fine as tank mates.

 

[VioletEmber]

Fantastic advice, thanks everyone! Now, food... I have frozen brine shrimp and bloodworms. What else? What brands of cichlid food do y'all recommend? Feeding schedule?

 

[a.tetreault]

just read the ingredients and buy a quality cichlid food. you dont need to feed the shrimp or bloodworms all that often just on occasion, only feed what they can consume in about 30 seconds, once a day. i would also recommend skipping a day of feeding every now and then.

 

[siva]

Omega One and NLS cichlid pellets.

 

[T-man02]

i prefer nls over omega one

 

[VioletEmber]

just read the ingredients and buy a quality cichlid food. you dont need to feed the shrimp or bloodworms all that often just on occasion, only feed what they can consume in about 30 seconds, once a day. i would also recommend skipping a day of feeding every now and then.

So, what exactly am I looking for? I did read a thread awhile back that mentioned that even some food marketed for cichlids has the wrong percentages of things... I doubt I can find that specific thread now, but I can try. But I can start with the two recommended.

It is starting to feel like I'm ready to add my pair. Giddy dancing! Now I just have to decide which I want- or maybe just find out whatever severum mama has in stock!

 

[siva]

Last I saw she had a pair of nannacara anomala. I absolutely love mine..gorgeous fish.

 

[VioletEmber]

Last I saw she had a pair of nannacara anomala. I absolutely love mine..gorgeous fish.

Pictures please!

 

[siva]

Of mine? Oh goodness. You would make me do that. I'll try to get a decent one.

 

[siva]

Well, I tried, with my hubs droid, the only camera available to me at the moment, but the results are just awful. One of these days I'll invest in a camera instead of tanks and fish so I can actually photograph my fish

 

[severum mama]

Pictures please!

Here are a few pics of a pair that I recently sent up to Connecticut. They're beautiful little fish and my bad pics don't do them justice.

 

[Koikid88]

My experience with Kribs is they are nasty, aggressive little fish. Generally only towards other Kribs.
So keep in mind, if you go with a pair of kribs, they may never take a liking to each other. The possibility is there for all cichlids, I've just found more so with Kribs. Try and find an existing mating pair. Best way to match up new, is to add a bunch of females with just a couple males, and remove the ones that don't pair up. In a 20g long, I wouldn't recommend that though.

 

[Labenator65000]

Well, I tried, with my hubs droid, the only camera available to me at the moment, but the results are just awful. One of these days I'll invest in a camera instead of tanks and fish so I can actually photograph my fish

Siva brings up a good point (sorry the sidebar): Phones are not the best choice for taking pictures of Cichlids; at least the ones I have tried. Much as you may try to convince them to sit still, they are always on the move, and phones take forever to focus. It's really quite frustrating. Food for thought, if you plan to photo your aquatic friends.

 

[VioletEmber]

Here are a few pics of a pair that I recently sent up to Connecticut. They're beautiful little fish and my bad pics don't do them justice.

so cute! my understanding is that they are kinda pale when young but color up to a greenish as adults... i found this pic online...

http://public.bay.livefilestore.com...VatbCFajWzIS9gL2ri8N8Sg/Nannacara Anomala.jpg

is that what they look like? when searching for anomalas it seems a lot of people mislabeled their fish as anomalas and they were really adoketas which are more stripey. right? i like the jewel tones of the anomalas. and even the paler females are a pretty golden color.