It's actually a tall, rather than long: 30x18x15
That also rules out the idea of a river conditions tank: I took my small river tank down not long ago and would have recreated it in this tank but it's too tall for the flow to work properly without a LOT of hassle and money (powerheads galore).
I had the seven msobo magunga in there, been there nearly a year now, but they're just not interesting me at all. It's terrible: I feel so bad b/c I've never had that with fish before! The tank is full of rockwork (built up right to the top), so I'm going to have to remove all of that, maybe leave a couple of pieces in for the synos who love roaming in and around it.
I had started to remove some rock to make it easier to get in and maintain the tank in the meantime. So, I've also started planting it up as well with the extra space. I originally stuck with java ferns and vallis since mbuna don't particularly like munching on them (don't taste so great apparently!) and theyre well planted. The newer plants include more vallis, some tall chain sword, and a few malaysian swords. Keeping to the hardy ones for now since they're going to get dug up. Once the cichlids are in their new home I will plant more heavily and with greater variety, like I have in my other tanks.
Senegal bichir is an interesting idea! But, they scare me! If I'm going to get nibbled I'd prefer it was by something cute lol
Also they grow to a foot in length which is way too big for the tank.
But it's a different non-angel, non-ram idea though so thankyou!
Thinking of puffers I'd love to keep an irrubesco or two in there, but they're a bit moody and I don't know how they'd get on with the synos...
Another alternative is to keep an aggressive 'community' (my msobo magunga really WERENT aggressive despite all the literature reporting the contrary! I think mine must have been on valium or something :S). Maybe some of the more moody barbs, perhaps everetti.
Does anyone know of any aggressive but interesting fish that can be kept together? Or, I like the senegal bichir idea on the basis of a single fish in the tank kinda setup. Any other single medium-sized fish that will roam all levels of the tank (no oscars either!) that anyone can think of? The problem is that puffers are interesting solo, and my community is interesting because of all the interactions. The cichlids just kinda hang out and do very little. Munch a bit on algae, and repeatedly have babies....! That was fun the first few times...but not really anymore lol
So, if it's a single fish it'd have to be a pretty interesting one!
Wow, am I fussy or what?! Hehe. I just don't want to fall in to the trap of the cichlids where I end up feeling like I'm not getting anything out of keeping them and because of that they're not getting the attention they deserve (they're not neglected, but I look at them a LOT less than my other fish).
Still leaning towards:
#1. Group of 4-5 SAPs
#2. Pair of irrubesco
#3. Aggressive 'community'?