Various questions about africans

[Hannibal the Bichir]

Good day everyone,
I have a few questions today, if anyone could help me out that would be great.
First off, I redid my entire tank. I originally had gravel mixed with aragonite and it acted like a home for diatoms. I sifted the aragonite out and I think it turned out pretty well.
Questions-
1. What is the best way to remove sand from your rocks, without moving the rocks? Im thinking like a turkey baster to expell water and hopefully move the sand from the rocks.
2. I have a young yellow lab, wondering if it is male or female. I know the difference but at this age, he has a solid black dorsal but no black on his pectoral (I cant remember fin names) fins yet.
3. I think you can judge by the pictures I will post, but originally the aragonite/gravel mix was around 4" deep. Now with just the aragonite its around 1-2". Thinking about getting another bag.
4. Originally I had the tank established with- peacocks, demasoni, labs, venustrus, cichlids and a couple other pretty colorful ones. Long story short breaker got flipped and airators shut off. Anyway, most of them died. Was left with about 3 female peacocks and a pleco. I tried to restock, but ended up only going to my lfs once and petsmart multiple times on a restricted budget. The current stock is pretty packed-
3 yellow labs
5 female/juvenile sunshine peacocks
1 male Aulonocara jacobfreibergi-male
1 pleco
1, I believe its a very faded demasoni (pic will be posted)
1 red blotch zebra (mate disappeared last night)
1 unidentified african (big black one)
1 salvini
1 acei cichlid

I am willing to trade some of them to make room. I was looking for more of a vibrant color palatte without going into a male only tank. I wanted to keep the lab and peacock colony if possible. What suggestions would you have to add color. I was thinking the electric blue johanni, even though their agressive. I saw a pretty timid one, even with smaller tankmates. Maybe, I would get another venustrus. The main show pieces are the salvini, acei, male peacock, and lab colony at the moment.
Tank-
55 gallon
2-75 Hob filters
Nitrate and Nitrite levels will provide if needed, as well as ph etc.


Sorry ffor the overwhelming nature of this post. I thought I better get all my questions answered by the best of the best.

 

[Hannibal the Bichir]

sorry, the tank is still clearing up. Heres the rest of the photos.

 

[phin]

Nice looking tank. I like your mix.

Good day everyone,
I have a few questions today, if anyone could help me out that would be great.
First off, I redid my entire tank. I originally had gravel mixed with aragonite and it acted like a home for diatoms. I sifted the aragonite out and I think it turned out pretty well.
Questions-
1. What is the best way to remove sand from your rocks, without moving the rocks? Im thinking like a turkey baster to expell water and hopefully move the sand from the rocks.

Turkey baster sounds like it will work, but kind of manual. have you thought about adding a powerhead or two? Point them down into the rocks and it will keep sand from settling on them, while helping to circulate water and moving fish waste up into the water column to be sucked into your filters.

2. I have a young yellow lab, wondering if it is male or female. I know the difference but at this age, he has a solid black dorsal but no black on his pectoral (I cant remember fin names) fins yet.

I've got a yellow lab too. Picked him thinking he' male, and pretty sure he is, but while his dorsal and pecs color up often, sometimes he keeps the colors off his fins. I think it depends more on his tank mates and the aggression level in the tank than purely gender.

 

[Hannibal the Bichir]

Hello phin,
I was looking into powerheads. Due to the size of the tank and not wanting a total current. I was thinking about the nano korealia 250, maybe something bigger. That would be great for waste, because that pleco is a constant waste producer . Thinking of trading him for two clown loaches.

 

[Hannibal the Bichir]

The 240, might not be enough. The 425 looks promising though.

 

[garfy]

I think your big black African is a Bumblebee Cichlid or pseudotropheus Crabro.Probably a male.

 

[Hannibal the Bichir]

Thanks phin and garfy,
In regards to garfy, I don't belive it is either of those species. Definately not bumblebee and the pseudotropheus Crabro didn't really match it. Ill provide a close up pic tomorrow. It doesn't have an agressive nature, but has visible egg spots. So most liekkly, a male like you said.

 

[Andrew McFadden]

Thanks phin and garfy,
In regards to garfy, I don't belive it is either of those species. Definately not bumblebee and the pseudotropheus Crabro didn't really match it. Ill provide a close up pic tomorrow. It doesn't have an agressive nature, but has visible egg spots. So most liekkly, a male like you said.

Pseudotropheus Crabro and a bee is the same thing and I'm with garfy on this one it looks just like mine.

 

[garfy]

Not all bees are aggressive.Generally I have found that they are but there are always exceptions and that definately looks like a bee to me.

 

[Hannibal the Bichir]

Sorry for being so stubborn. I never knew bees turned almost completely black. On its lip, it has slightly a larger bottom lip. I didn't see that in any of the bees so far.

 

[Andrew McFadden]

Thanks garfy for the reminder lol

I was going to say on my last post that both of my bees are really calm. My black one is a little more aggressive but not in a bad way. If I have two that are getting into it he swims over and the two that are fighting go the opposite direction.

 

[garfy]

Sorry for being so stubborn. I never knew bees turned almost completely black. On its lip, it has slightly a larger bottom lip. I didn't see that in any of the bees so far.

Bees can definately turn almost black.Its a common trait.

 

[Andrew McFadden]

Here is mine if that helps any