Hello again... It's probably been almost a year since I last posted on these forums. If you remember me, that's cool! If not I started off as a beginner and learned a lot of what I know from here. I then began to work at a local fish store that focused on salt water and cichlids. We also sold healthy dog foods (ie not Science Diet, Petigree, Benifold blah blah blah).
Of course when you work somewhere you get a nice discount and with that discount I got myself a very nice 55 gallon set up. My main focus was on Angel Fish and I built myself a great tank. After a year I was fed up with caring for fish at work and at home. I found a new job but found myself still burnt out on fish keeping. I did the complete minimal on caring for the tank. A bacteria killed all my plants and I was just fed up with the whole process and refused to rebuild. Even with all the work I did it was never really shown as it was hidden in the back of my room.
To make an already long story short I transfered to a larger apartment and the tank is now displayed in clear view of the living room where company can come over and awe over it. I decided I was going to revamp the tank and purchase new plants to grow and beautify it once again! I started re-visiting fish stores to plan on what plants I wanted to try and grow.
Sadly I woke up one morning and the tank was cloudy and all my fish were dead but three (Minus the Otocinculus and Plecos because they are un-killable)! Even my Angel I grew attached too because I had him since I've been in college was taking a dirt nap. The problem was that my girlfriend was feeding my pleco left over veggies and she put in almost two full squashes. The levels in the water got all off balanced and killed almost all that I housed (Unfortunately I didn't check water levels as I was too sad). To say they least she felt horrible but I assured her it was okay. The fish had a great life and even some of them I rescued from the big pet chains.
I moved the survivors to my 20 gallon tank and did a full water change on the 55 gallon. I was very sad but at the same time I was extremely happy. This meant I could restock with any type of fish I wanted! For years I've always wanted to house African Cichlids! So today I decided to take a trip to my old shop and pick out my first group of Cichlids. I have been watching them all day. They are fairly afraid of me so far but in the corner of my eye I can catch them exploring the whole tank. Here is my list thus far (All males):
Aulonocara Ngara Flametail
Sunshine Peacock
Deepwater Hap Peacock
Azerus Peacock
Red Eureka
The shop I used to work at claims I should house around 15 Africans in my 55 gallon. To my understanding the reasoning behind this is so they are less aggressive to each other by numbers. However, housing that many fish that get fairly large in such a small tank scares me. Is this information I am receiving true to some extent? If so I am looking for more suggestions to other fish species as well as any helpful links or tips I can find about keeping african cichlids.
As always, thank you.
Of course when you work somewhere you get a nice discount and with that discount I got myself a very nice 55 gallon set up. My main focus was on Angel Fish and I built myself a great tank. After a year I was fed up with caring for fish at work and at home. I found a new job but found myself still burnt out on fish keeping. I did the complete minimal on caring for the tank. A bacteria killed all my plants and I was just fed up with the whole process and refused to rebuild. Even with all the work I did it was never really shown as it was hidden in the back of my room.
To make an already long story short I transfered to a larger apartment and the tank is now displayed in clear view of the living room where company can come over and awe over it. I decided I was going to revamp the tank and purchase new plants to grow and beautify it once again! I started re-visiting fish stores to plan on what plants I wanted to try and grow.
Sadly I woke up one morning and the tank was cloudy and all my fish were dead but three (Minus the Otocinculus and Plecos because they are un-killable)! Even my Angel I grew attached too because I had him since I've been in college was taking a dirt nap. The problem was that my girlfriend was feeding my pleco left over veggies and she put in almost two full squashes. The levels in the water got all off balanced and killed almost all that I housed (Unfortunately I didn't check water levels as I was too sad). To say they least she felt horrible but I assured her it was okay. The fish had a great life and even some of them I rescued from the big pet chains.
I moved the survivors to my 20 gallon tank and did a full water change on the 55 gallon. I was very sad but at the same time I was extremely happy. This meant I could restock with any type of fish I wanted! For years I've always wanted to house African Cichlids! So today I decided to take a trip to my old shop and pick out my first group of Cichlids. I have been watching them all day. They are fairly afraid of me so far but in the corner of my eye I can catch them exploring the whole tank. Here is my list thus far (All males):
Aulonocara Ngara Flametail
Sunshine Peacock
Deepwater Hap Peacock
Azerus Peacock
Red Eureka
The shop I used to work at claims I should house around 15 Africans in my 55 gallon. To my understanding the reasoning behind this is so they are less aggressive to each other by numbers. However, housing that many fish that get fairly large in such a small tank scares me. Is this information I am receiving true to some extent? If so I am looking for more suggestions to other fish species as well as any helpful links or tips I can find about keeping african cichlids.
As always, thank you.
