to get cichlids or not

[sivic]

Okay well let me say my tank has been through many many changes since ive had it. Recently i just put alot of money into it for plants by getting eco complete substrate and a new t5ho lightning. But man all my plants are already dying and im thinking now if i want to stay with some easy plants or what. My friend has alot of cichlids in his tank and is offering to give me some for free. So now im in a position to decide weither or not to get them or just stick with my tank now.

Now please correct me if im wrong but most cichlids will eat plants correct?

I know it would help if you knew what kinds of cichlids he was talking about giving me and i dont even know. I will find that out soon as possible but now i need to figure out if i want them or not.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Here is a more recent pic of my setup. most of those plants are gone and dead aside from all the java moss which isnt shown there.
http://bonez.afraid.org/~sean/images/august_tank.jpg

As you can tell it doesnt look very cichlid friendly. Guessing id have to get more slate or some kind of rocks but im not sure if that would look good with the driftwood. But please help me out people.

[wwildcats04]

what size tank is that? Get south american cichlids... rams, apistos, angelfish etc and mix with it some tetras of some sort, I think that would look cool. When you say "cichlids" I assume your talking about africans of some sort correct?

[sivic]

what size tank is that? Get south american cichlids... rams, apistos, angelfish etc and mix with it some tetras of some sort, I think that would look cool. When you say "cichlids" I assume your talking about africans of some sort correct?


55gallons, and yes they are africans i believe. a few are frontos or something like that. I woud love some rams but from the research ive done they need a lower pH and my tank is like 7.5~8.5 range. If i dont take these free cichlids ill probally just get more zebra danios, some guppies and mollies.

[wwildcats04]

frontosa... thats what I am currently thinking about setting up a tank for. I also was going to put them in a 55g. They are africans from lake tang... They get quite large. I dont know waht I would put in with them

[jimmyyahoo]

well its a little late and i dont know what predicament yer in now but...

You probably put alot of money into all that new lighting and eco. So id say stick with the planted arrangement. Ive seen a few succesfully planted tanks out there that home african cichlids. id think that as long as you get small fish by the time the plants grow in theyll be established enough to handle some of the abuse by the fish.

CLAP CLAP on the Driftwood by the way. thats a helluva nice piece.

Maybe do some sorta shore like dealy with lots of low light heavily rooted plants like Java fer er somethin by the driftwood that thins out towards the middle of the tank into a desert like area with lotsa rocks with caves. A kind of 50/50 rock-plant scape.

You got a nice setup goin, try n use everything you have at your disposal.
Good luck
Jimmy

[mooman]

Just a thought.....why does he want to get rid of the Fronts? Terror of his tank maybe? They are piscivores so probably won't eat the plants (just everything in the tank with fins ;) ), but they, like most cichlids will probably dig. Listen to wildcats, stick with SA dwarfs and angels.