warezaholic
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2021
- Messages
- 13
I have not owned an aquarium in 20 years. I'm a widower and becoming crippled that makes my outdoorsy interests behind me and revisiting my aquariu hobby fits an old body's like mine pretty well until my time expires.
Long ago I had a 55, 50, two 29 and two 10's running with nearly all breeding and segregating Mbuna's along side a footlong, pampered, three spotted peacock spiny eel and a couple cats.
My 55 top was all males my 50 bottom with females and a couple juvenile males and the two 29's for mom's holding fry! One 10 wes was just a fry tank and o ten was for quarenteened new, sick or injured fish.
This month I bought a used 50 with a (repainted) stand. After 20 hours of scrubbing and sterilizing (over 5 day period) sloppily applied silicon on an, and questionable, obscure corner. 2 days later, I cautiously started adding water a few gallons an hour untill my confidence it was sound then poured in 60 pounds of new black aquarium sand, 30 pounds of new 2 inch size river rock, and a new Tetra Whisper EX 70 filter, new 500w heater, new programmable led lighting a NOT LEAST the Tetra Wisper AP300 (one of 5 whispers) all of them have been running nearly non stop for over 3 years *(in my
bubbleponic gardens)*.
After running for a week I introduced two Mbuna under 3 inch (I hope are males) and of course I bought a 4 inch baby spiny eel (tiretrack this time).
All have been doing very well However at feeding time AM and PM the Mbuna are so greedy; they keep eating brine until they can't even swallow any more so, I give them flakes just prior to feeding the eel his frozen brine shrimp; in an attempt to get small portions for the eel to eat. The eel (I call Leonardo DiCaprio because he avoided capture for 2 days at the pet store). He has plenty of places to hide along with the ability to disappear under the sand any time he gets harrassed but right now, the Mbuna are too small to be a threat... I always turn off the circulating currents because the eel seems to be lacking vision and can only find the ones he happens across under 3mm from his wanderings. It appears his predation skills are lacking at this stage. After the eel has opportunity to eat for about an hour, I turn the filter and ariation back on (I end up with much, much less filter debris). And my Whisper filter don't need priming because the impeller in inside the tank and below the water level, so "Almost Zero Backwash Syphoning" when whenever I turn it off. I am currently running a Whisper 300 on 2 different 4 inch, flat round air stones (beautiful but maybe a little overkill just 2 stones) but they enjoy dashing back and forth to both bubbly corners and the filter current..
The real issue with the Mbuna's is the neverending digging and building mountains right next to it..
The attachment shows just 24 hours of excavation.
Long ago I had a 55, 50, two 29 and two 10's running with nearly all breeding and segregating Mbuna's along side a footlong, pampered, three spotted peacock spiny eel and a couple cats.
My 55 top was all males my 50 bottom with females and a couple juvenile males and the two 29's for mom's holding fry! One 10 wes was just a fry tank and o ten was for quarenteened new, sick or injured fish.
This month I bought a used 50 with a (repainted) stand. After 20 hours of scrubbing and sterilizing (over 5 day period) sloppily applied silicon on an, and questionable, obscure corner. 2 days later, I cautiously started adding water a few gallons an hour untill my confidence it was sound then poured in 60 pounds of new black aquarium sand, 30 pounds of new 2 inch size river rock, and a new Tetra Whisper EX 70 filter, new 500w heater, new programmable led lighting a NOT LEAST the Tetra Wisper AP300 (one of 5 whispers) all of them have been running nearly non stop for over 3 years *(in my
bubbleponic gardens)*.
After running for a week I introduced two Mbuna under 3 inch (I hope are males) and of course I bought a 4 inch baby spiny eel (tiretrack this time).
All have been doing very well However at feeding time AM and PM the Mbuna are so greedy; they keep eating brine until they can't even swallow any more so, I give them flakes just prior to feeding the eel his frozen brine shrimp; in an attempt to get small portions for the eel to eat. The eel (I call Leonardo DiCaprio because he avoided capture for 2 days at the pet store). He has plenty of places to hide along with the ability to disappear under the sand any time he gets harrassed but right now, the Mbuna are too small to be a threat... I always turn off the circulating currents because the eel seems to be lacking vision and can only find the ones he happens across under 3mm from his wanderings. It appears his predation skills are lacking at this stage. After the eel has opportunity to eat for about an hour, I turn the filter and ariation back on (I end up with much, much less filter debris). And my Whisper filter don't need priming because the impeller in inside the tank and below the water level, so "Almost Zero Backwash Syphoning" when whenever I turn it off. I am currently running a Whisper 300 on 2 different 4 inch, flat round air stones (beautiful but maybe a little overkill just 2 stones) but they enjoy dashing back and forth to both bubbly corners and the filter current..
The real issue with the Mbuna's is the neverending digging and building mountains right next to it..
The attachment shows just 24 hours of excavation.