55g Cichlid Ideas?

[jakeandwendy]

just got a 55gal tank with an aqueon55 and tetra whisper 20, led hoods, submersible heater, super excited about it!! i wanna do an african cichlid tank and was looking for ideas. i'm using a light colored med size natural gravel substrate and have some really pretty pieces of rock. i'm still researching and gonna do a fishless cycle, so any thoughts, experiences, advice would be great. also what sort of scavengers can go in with africans? i've got a couple raphael cats that are 2.5" and 2" long. could they move over with the cichlids? i wanna do mbunas and/or jewels and maybe a couple kribensis. thanks

 

[mfdrookie516]

Are you 100% devoted to keeping the gravel? IMHO, gravel and african cichlids don't mix well. There are a couple reasons. First, mine LOVE digging around in the sand. They are also very messy fish. If you provide the proper setup (ie lots of rock), you won't be able to gravel vac very good.

If you're going with mbuna, stick with mbuna. jewels are river fish and neither jewels nor kribs would stand a chance with mbuna. Can't say for sure about the raphaels, but I want to say they would most likely be ok

 

[smarsh7903]

They love sand so +1 to that recommendation. Also, check out synodontis cats, they are african so you can have assurance that they can put up with those crazy african antics.

Sent from my X10a using Aquarium

 

[aquabeast]

youll wanna do sand with cichlids. and youl wanna have more filtration, as they are messy

 

[toddnbecka]

First, you need to choose between jewels, kribensis, or mbuna. A pair of jewels will take up nearly the whole tank as their territory, krib's aren't as bad, but neither one will go together or mix w/mbuna.
Raphael cats are better suited to the jewels or krib's, Synodontis work better with mbuna.

 

[jakeandwendy]

pretty firm on the gravel sub but its pretty fine. also added a marineland 155 powerwheel hob, just got it today. i'm going with kribensis for the cats sake and i also read that they can be community fish with other peaceful and semi aggressive fish. is this true?

 

[jakeandwendy]

oh yeah doing the marineland biowheel instead of the tetra

 

[toddnbecka]

Krib's are the easiest to mix with other fish. A group of barbs or tetras would work well enough, other cichlid species are iffy.

 

[jakeandwendy]

a lot of sites suggest danios with the kribs as a sort of "all is well" fish, but i'm not a big fan of danios. any other suggestions? pristella tetras maybe?

 

[Big-j]

Kribensis can get aggressive when breeding, if you wanna put other fish in there I would make sure you are getting all males or females so the don't pair up

 

[jakeandwendy]

yeah we're going with males

 

[jakeandwendy]

other fish in there are just an added bonus. i just want cichlids and my two raphaels if thats going to be the best for the tank.

 

[toddnbecka]

Just about any schooling fish will work for dithers with krib's, just work around what suits your setup.

 

[jakeandwendy]

thinking maybe some large tetras..?