Restarting tank with Cichlids!

[dcallen]

Hello all,


I have a 70 gallon tank that I'm restarting with African Cichlids. I have been told by a lfs that overstocking may be a good idea as it cuts down on fish being singled out and beat up on. I have also been advised by the same lfs to put as many as 15 fish in the tank. I currently have one yellow lab in the tank at the moment and I plan on adding male peacocks from here on out. I'm also told that the yellow lab and the peacocks can peacefully co-exist. Is this sound advice, or should I keep the population down a bit? Any thoughts would be appreciated. Also how much rock is actually needed in the tank?


Tank: 70 gallon

Filtration: One HOB Emperor 400 and an Eheim 2213 cannister.
Approx. 90lbs. of holey rock and various other rocks.

Substrate: Mixture of rock and shells (some cichlid mixture.)

Heater: One 300 watt dial-in thermostat heater.:)

[nanahachi]

hey there

i am in a somewhat similar situation, but with a newly setup 20 gallon. id be curious to see how you set your rocks up. I'll be hitting up my LFS tomorrow, and will try to make a few caves, and would love to see examples. I'm also curious about the answers to the questions you asked, so hopefully this *bump* will generate a few answers.

:D

[dcallen]

Hi,

Yeah hopefully it will. I will say that I have mostly holey rock in the tank at the moment, and I have approx. 80lbs. of it, plus some others rocks as well. It looks pretty good. I think I'll take some pics so I can post them here.

[JSchmidt]

I don't have much experience with peacocks, but I don't think there's anything wrong with the advice you rec'd. Yellow labs are pretty mellow as mbuna go, so you shouldn' t have a great deal of trouble.

Overstocking is best done on larger tanks (your 70 g. is at the lower end of the range at which overstocking helps, IMO). It also is most useful to control the aggression of territorial cichlids. You should realize that overstocking will force you to have more filtration, do more frequent filter cleanings, and change water more often. I don't recommend overstocking to anyone who hasn't kept africans before. There is just too little margin for error.

On the other hand, you could have a quartet of labs and a quartet of peacocks in your tank without considering it overstocked.

Good luck!

Jim

[dbcb314]

ive never heard of the overstocking think, but it seems like it would work


you can put labs with peacocks. i have done it before and i have seen it done many time. they go well together

[dcallen]

Hey guys,

Thanks for the advice. Are there any specific peacocks or any other Africans from Malawi that you would suggest putting in with the Yellow Lab? I'm not set on the peacocks necessarily I was told that they are a little less territorial and aggressive so I thought they may be a good choice. Also if I don't go with the overstock route, how many fish would be good for my tank, maybe 8? One other thing the nitrite in my tank seems to have spiked it's around 40-50ppm at last check. I did get some good dirty water from a sponge filter of an African tank at one of the LFS in the area to dump in the tank to perhaps make it cycle through quicker. Is there anything else I can do to speed up the process? I don't want my Yellow Lab to stay exposed to the high level of nitrites for very long. Thanks for the help.

[JnS]

how is the tank going?

overstocking will work with some species and not others, so you need to be careful! :)

as for rocks, your rocks are nice......but I prefer flagstone rock which stacks great and is easy to stack with out the threat of a rock slide :eek:

any land scapiring place should have this rock. if not go digging and find some texas holey rock :)

[dcallen]

JnS,

Thanks for the input. The tank has been setup for just over 2 weeks now. The nitrite levels seem to be subsiding finally. I have one yellow lab in the tank at the moment. I want to have a more peaceful tank, can you suggest some Africans that would go with the yellow lab? I was thinking of male peacocks. Also how many fish would be recommended for the 70 gallon tank and should I mix males and females? I know what you mean about the rock, I found some rock called serpentine which is really nice, looks real natural and is similar to what would be found in the rift lakes. As of right now I have mostly Texas Holey Rock but I may replace it with the serpentine, haven't decided as yet. Thanks for the help.

[JnS]

well ..
are you looking to breed the fish or just have a nice colorful tank?

rocks are more of a personal prefrence :) i have had many types of rocks in tanks.

being your in Texas, what city are you in? I know a few breeders down that way :)

[dcallen]

JnS,

I'm in Austin. No I really don't have a major interest in breeding although that might be pretty cool, rather I would like a semi-peaceful and colorful tank. Thanks for your thoughts.



-Don..

[JnS]

Don,
check out http://www.cichlidtrader.com/

[stik6shift98]

yes overstocking is a good idea but it depends on each fish ....just watch them and remove the agressor if there is one