Starting a Cichlid Tank

[fishyfriends3]

Oh in that case I'll have to disagree with personal experience I've never had any issues keeping 1m 4f of said species along with cynotilapia afra at the same ratio in tanks 4foot/120cm long with plenty of rock work and hiding spots.

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[Dixiegirl89]

Sorry I haven't gotten back to you guys. I was super busy today, just bought another horse so I've been wrapped up in that for hours lol. Anyways! So ill be picking up rocks tomorrow and setting up the rest of the tank. So afra, labidochromis types, and lodotropheus types are a good mix then?

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[severum mama]

Oh in that case I'll have to disagree with personal experience I've never had any issues keeping 1m 4f of said species along with cynotilapia afra at the same ratio in tanks 4foot/120cm long with plenty of rock work and hiding spots.

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Curious how long they have been in the tank together. The folks in my club who advised me against keeping afra and rusties with my hongi have probably forgotten more about Mbuna than I know, so following their advice was kind of a no brainer for me.

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[Dixiegirl89]

Sorry I haven't gotten back to you guys. Ive been wrapped up in this horse I just got and its been consuming my life for the past 24 hours lol.

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[fishyfriends3]

Curious how long they have been in the tank together. The folks in my club who advised me against keeping afra and rusties with my hongi have probably forgotten more about Mbuna than I know, so following their advice was kind of a no brainer for me.

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5 years.

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[fishyfriends3]

Hi Dixiegirl. I am in the same boat as you. I am looking to set-up a cichlid tank soon. My preference is Mbuna. I browsed this forum and the internet and found most of the info a bit confusing. I did however come across someone who has kept Mbuna and he offered to help the OP of the thread I was browsing. I cheekily PM'd him and asked him if he would help me too. He was cool and offered me some great advice. I will share the PM, without his name added but if he reads this and doesn't mind, I will be more than happy to credit him.....

"In a 55 gallon once you have all the rocks in you are ideally looking at 10-12 fish and 2-4 species depending on size and aggression. These are fromcichlid forum and should give you a good jumping off point.

Smaller, Less Aggressive Mbuna Aquarium

Select any 3 species (max 12 fishes):
• Metriaclima estherae
• Pseudotropheus saulosi
• Pseudotropheus sp. "Acei"
• Labidochromis sp. "Hongi"
• Labidochromis caeruleus
• Labidochromis sp. "Perlmutt"
• Labidochromis chisimulae
• Iodotropheus sprengerae
• Cynotilapia afra
Do not mix any Labidochromis species.


Larger, More Aggressive Mbuna Aquarium

Select any 2 groups (max 10 fishes):
• Labeotropheus trewavasae
• Melanochromis johanni
• Tropheops tropheops
• Pseudotropheus elongatus
• Metriaclima pyrsonotos

However our best bet is for you to go to a fish store or website that will ship to you and make a list of all the mbuna they can get for you and go from there. Also if you can afford it i suggest bumping up to a 75 gallon"

If anyone has any more species to add to these lists, please do, as it will help at least two people...lol

Good list includes sprengerae, afra and hongi

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[Dixiegirl89]

Sounds good guys. My levels are high at the moment, so not going to add anything into the tank until they go down.

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[Kathrine]

rocks also help raise the PH. Here's what I did

 

[Dixiegirl89]

That looks so cool! I have a question though. I cannot find any rock around here. Does anyone have any experience ordering rock online?

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[SonicsDC25]

I haven't tried ordering, but shipping I assume would be killer due to the weight. Worst case scenario, you could go to some construction areas and see if they'll allow you to get any leftover rocks (friend of mine got some nice ones after a company finished building a neighborhood).

 

[Dixiegirl89]

I wish that was an option, some people do get really lucky like that. There hasn't been any construction around here in a while. I checked out some sites and for a bulk of 50 lbs of lace rock it wasn't that bad, I didnt check the shipping rates though.

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[severum mama]

5 years, ok then. Well I started out with a bag of 12 juvenile hongi and was advised to keep them alone in a 55. Most fish that are going to be affordable are unsexed juveniles so you wouldn't start off with 4 of each unless you were buying sexed fish and knew what you were getting.

View attachment 228723
rocks also help raise the PH. Here's what I did

Looks nice. Slate or sandstone (whichever that is, I'm on my phone and can't tell) do not help raise pH. It's only certain kinds of rock, such as limestone.



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[severum mama]

I wish that was an option, some people do get really lucky like that. There hasn't been any construction around here in a while. I checked out some sites and for a bulk of 50 lbs of lace rock it wasn't that bad, I didnt check the shipping rates though.

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Do you have a landscape supply place nearby?
I'm going to be swapping out the river rock when I can collect enough TX holey rock to switch all of it out, but I got over 200 lbs. of river rock from a landscape supply place for about 20 bucks.

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[Dixiegirl89]

See thats the problem, when I go to the landscape companies they mainly have stepping stones and small gravel rocks for decorations. There was really nothing there that could serve a purpose in an aquarium.

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[Dreamingdragon]

More the question what do you like in cichlids. Try took look on youtube different cichlids. Flowerhorn/ oscar/ victoria lake /african lake/ just look the aditute of the fish . African cichlids can be agressif, do you like a nice collar fish i would advice victoria lake. But look also up what ph they need how prone they are enz. Realy help full before starting up

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[severum mama]

I believe she already mentioned that she would like to keep Mbuna...

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[SonicsDC25]

See if you can find someone who knows some smaller landscaping stores that doesn't have their own website. There are 2 stores that I know of locally that sells boulder shaped rocks and they'll only be found if you actually drive down a specific road.

 

[Dixiegirl89]

Did my nitrates and nitrites spike because I added sand to the tank and took away the old substrate?

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[jwh0818]

Yes that's a big possibility

 

[Dixiegirl89]

Ok, I was just making sure. Should I do water changes or leave it alone?

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