Please don't freak out about the condition of the following tanks. I have just taken a new teaching position and these are 2 of the tanks that were in the room. I really need help and guidance on what to do/where to start in this process. I do have some fish knowledge and have had community tanks for a long time, but never cichlids.
Okay here is the big tank in its current state:
My Questions:
1. What is all this white crusty stuff and how do I get rid of it?
2. There is no light on the tank, the one up there is from a 10 gallon that was sitting next to it. Are there any special lighting requirements for these guys?
3. There are not anywhere near enough hiding areas for the fish in this tank. How would you recommend restructuring this?
4. The substrate is some type of crushed shell? Any ideas/thoughts on this?
Moving on:
Could you help me doing some identification? I couldn't get any really good pictures of the fish so bear with me. I think the big blue one is a female Kenyi, the blue with yellow tails are acei, and the orange I think are red zebras. Do these sound reasonable? Here are some pics:
Again sorry they aren't the greatest pics. The original owner said the oranges were yellow labs, but they look nothing like that to me. Anyway thoughts on IDs? They seem to get along okay.
There was also this tank:
Yes, it is a 10 gallon. Yes, it is coated in slim. Yes, there was an adult cichlid living in this tank. There was a 4 inch male Auratus in here. I guess he was really mean to all the other cichlids in the big tank and was banished. I have since setup and moved him to this 30 gallon tank:
He is currently by himself. I would honestly like to move him back into the big tank and use this tank for an Amazon tank. Will this be possible or should I just leave him all alone in here? I feel like its just a waste of a tank for one fish. Also, do I need to change/add anything to this tank for him?
As a kind of minor issue, I would really like to see the colors on these fish pop. The Auratus is looking better now that he's in a bigger clean tank, but I feel like he is still getting lost in the dark tank, and the big tank is SUPER dark. How do I fix this? What background color would you suggest?
Sorry this is so long. Any help on anything would be much appreciated.
Okay here is the big tank in its current state:
My Questions:
1. What is all this white crusty stuff and how do I get rid of it?
2. There is no light on the tank, the one up there is from a 10 gallon that was sitting next to it. Are there any special lighting requirements for these guys?
3. There are not anywhere near enough hiding areas for the fish in this tank. How would you recommend restructuring this?
4. The substrate is some type of crushed shell? Any ideas/thoughts on this?
Moving on:
Could you help me doing some identification? I couldn't get any really good pictures of the fish so bear with me. I think the big blue one is a female Kenyi, the blue with yellow tails are acei, and the orange I think are red zebras. Do these sound reasonable? Here are some pics:
Again sorry they aren't the greatest pics. The original owner said the oranges were yellow labs, but they look nothing like that to me. Anyway thoughts on IDs? They seem to get along okay.
There was also this tank:
Yes, it is a 10 gallon. Yes, it is coated in slim. Yes, there was an adult cichlid living in this tank. There was a 4 inch male Auratus in here. I guess he was really mean to all the other cichlids in the big tank and was banished. I have since setup and moved him to this 30 gallon tank:
He is currently by himself. I would honestly like to move him back into the big tank and use this tank for an Amazon tank. Will this be possible or should I just leave him all alone in here? I feel like its just a waste of a tank for one fish. Also, do I need to change/add anything to this tank for him?
As a kind of minor issue, I would really like to see the colors on these fish pop. The Auratus is looking better now that he's in a bigger clean tank, but I feel like he is still getting lost in the dark tank, and the big tank is SUPER dark. How do I fix this? What background color would you suggest?
Sorry this is so long. Any help on anything would be much appreciated.