I wanna do it... african style ;) (crowding south/central americans)

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Karma954

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Apr 16, 2011
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aite so im new to this forum, first post.


~the tank~
ive had a 75 gallon for a while now maybe like 8 to ten months, it was an upgrade from a 29 id had for about a year. just recently took out like 40% of the gravel and put in sand (a mix of 10 gallons inert white sand and 20 gallons of eco active sand (i guess with bacteria and all that, didnt care tho i bought it for color. it was darker and had a more earthy color, but it was too dark, added inert stuff to lighten it up. rinsed it clean anyways through the mixing process, didnt care, my tank is established enough and it has good filtration so i dont needa stress about bacteria establishment, figured id do it in pieces will finish soon) it has two 70 gallon aqua clear filters (i love them, i put what media i want in it, i almost always double up on carbons) heater keeps it at 79 or 80 for lack of a better idea of temp. soon to be nicely planted but not heavily, hoping to avoid co2 system.

~too much info~
ANYWAYS i sold a bunch of old oddball and brackish fish to make room for a mostly new batch of south/central american cichlids. bought a whole bunch of driftwood, but now trying to keep the ph from dropping. i messed up and didnt soak the wood first. anyhow, i plan to deck the tank out with plants, graft plants to the very nicely sized peices of wood. and just keep it busy, one corner is decked out with slate rock making nice caves, its actually pretty raw looking. i know that crowding is easy with afriacns (at least easy enough that ive seen it several times before) but ive never seen this with south/central americans, and everyone i speak to about it that is of any experience to answer a question like that usually says "its not quite the same for south/central, but then again, i dont think ive seen anyone try... so i dont know for sure, but id advise against it if messing up is a big deal to u, slim chances"



QUESTION - 75 gallon: if i wanted to have the best chances at a good survival rate and happy lifestyle for my crowded fish (9 cichlids plus 2 plecos 1 loach, small green spotted puffer, also keep in mind the cichlids are small too, the biggest one is the firemouth and salvini second palce, there not fully grown but not far, and considering more if deemed physically possible) in this tank, what would i need to do?

STOCK: green terror, jack dempsey, jaguar , bleekeri (madagascar??) two jewels (one is turqoise) firemouth, texas, salvini, i STILL want to go and get a elec blue jack and a nice flowerhorn, however im sure im seriously pushing it with what i hav already. theres also two plecos of 6 and 4 inches, some strange loachy type bottom feeder i found in a feeder tank in LFS, and my prized posession: green spotted puffer, about two inches nd change(first fish, the only other fish to survive this long was a pleco!)

!?!?!?!?! whats the deal people, what do i gotta do to crowd this tank?

~pictures~ ask for a pic of whatever you want to see and i got you.
 
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rtbob

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Wait about 9 months. When they grow up your tank will be very crowded.
 

Karma954

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Apr 16, 2011
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so ur saying ill need to upgrade in (sorry, edit) 9 months?
 
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user_name

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so ur saying ill need to upgrade in six months?
If not sooner.

Bring back the puffer, they need high end brackish or marine water as adults, and will mess up anything in that tank.

Get rid of the Jag and Texas, they'll be too big for the tank when adult. You MIGHT be able to get away with just the Green Terror and Jack Dempsey, but I'm not that great with chiclids.

Check out aqadvisor.com for suggestions on how to stock it.
 

Karma954

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im gonna move in a year and change. im 20 and ill be going away to a university when im done with community. ill have a bigger tank waiting there for me to move these fellas into. im sure i have a good amount of time with these fish before they get any good size on them.. they are very small rite now. im doing this no matter what. PLEASE GIVE ME ANSWERS TO MY QUESTION. WHAT WOULD I NEED TO DO TO MAKE THIS IDEA MORE DOABLE (IN A 75, DONT TELL ME A BIGGER TANK PLZ THATS NOT AN OPTION RITE NOW) what do i need to keep water chemistry stable? wastes down? aggressions low/evenly dispersed? and fish happy!!!


nah i wont get rid of puffer ur buggin. hes small, and bothers noone, picks at nothing in the tank, never picked at any plants i ever had. never needed to add marine salt, he is very healthy with about 1.5 times the recommended dose of aquarium salt. never swims up and down the glass, belly is pure white, very active and never hides. hes healthy as hell. im gonna do research, however, on making a mix of .5 aquarium salt dose, with like .1 marine, or w.e small dose will not affect other fish. i do want to improve his lifestyle. but all in all, ive had him almost two years, hes definitly about 3 to 3 and a half years old (or more) if i could guess, and he is doing so well without salt, im not stressing it until the time comes that his belly starts turning black and it dosnt go away.

and keep in mind, im aware i will DEFINITLY lose a fish at some point. i have 2 tanks (the other is a tanganyikan tank, its kinda hard for me) , and i lose at ba fish a month sumtimes.
 
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RNeiswander

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Nov 27, 2010
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If you cant find any info on overstocking sa/ca cichlids maybe there is a reason for that?? If it worked for sa/ca cichlids dont you think that everyone would do it like they do with africans?


And with the puffer get a second tank. You will not get ideal conditions for those two kinds of fish in the same tank
 

Karma954

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Apr 16, 2011
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cant get another tank, my parents will throw me out of the house, so he stays. as said, hes in great condition and has been for a while now. and yah theres no info on it cause it dosnt work well... maybe im just a baller *** pioneer whos gonna figure out what you need to make it work. ive been told to not do many things before and did them anyways, some times i lost, but alot of times i won. guess this is just gonna have to be an instictual kinda thing, i appreciate the advice
 

Lab_Rat

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You're gonna end up with a bunch of dead fish with that mix in such a small space. It will not work long term. To make it work you need a much, much larger tank.
 

Pittbull

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Lab Karma said no bigger tank advice LOL.. Early aggression starts quick in life with CA / SA so if you have all those fish together and the others you want at the early stage size there will be some fights not too serious at first but still enough to allow stress and then disease, then at mid size in life you will probably have two to three fish left still will be probably horrible but i am guessing that if you add the flowerhorn that one will probably be your victor.. My advice is if you are going to go through with this at least do weekly water changes faithfully and add some caves for retreats.. As for water perimeters the species you have chosen require completely different values so i would try to stick to a neutral PH.. As for filtration i too like the AC 70's and i have some on a few of my tanks but with that fish load you also may want to add a canister as well.. Good luck and welcome to AC..
 

laurenrocksth

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If you insist on stocking your tank so inappropriately, at the very least do water changes twice a week and provide lots of cover. There will be inevitably be fights and you will absolutely lose fish. The fact that this doesn't bother you is pretty unfortunate.

Also, if you expect your puffer to live it's full lifespan of 10+ years in completely wrong conditions, I gotta say that it's you who's "buggin."
 
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