Hey guys i finally caved in, well more like an unfortunate set of events took place which wiped out 2 of my sharks plus my catfish leaving my tank with only one shark and my pleco. So therefore, I decided to forgo getting new sharks and went to the cichlid side.
Now i have been contemplating this move for awhile and have reading up alot on the subject. I even was lucky enough, during my vacation to Atlanta, to visit the Georgia Aquarium and their beautiful Cichlid display. So I knew too many plants was a bad idea and rocks were good.
This is what my tank looked like when i had just the sharks....
So next step was lets add some rocks! What did I do, there is a stream about 200 yards from my apartment which feeds into a river from which people fish and eat out of. I went treking through the bushes found a spot which had fish swiming around them (i figured they would be ok) and started plucking out some rocks.
So I took them home, put them in the bath tub, and then...
1. soaked them in hot water for about 2 hours
2. scrubbed every rock with a brush scrubber
3. rinsed and scrubbed
4. soaked again in hot water with bleach for 1 hour
5. rinsed and scrubbed
6. soaked again in hot water with bleach for another hour
7. rinsed and scrubbed
8. PUT THEM IN THE DISHWASHER FOR 4 HEAVY CYCLES WITH HOT DRY! Woohoo!
Now of course by now i figured hell, if there was anything remotely alive on these rocks, they are long dead by now... but just in case they were not.
9. I didnt have a pot big enough (or one my better half would allow me to use) to boil the rocks, so I baked them at 500 deg for an hour.
So, after all was said and done (2 days of my life on this), I went to the fish store and picked up 2 small beautiful Cichlids from the "Assorted" tank. Please Identify if you can the names, pics below.
So I took my remaining shark and pleco out of the tank and went to town. This is what I have created. I just hope its good enough for my new friends.
'
What do you think?
Can you identify these?
BTW you know what I love the most about this project.... other than paying for the 2 new fish. I spent $0 on the new setup!!!!
So anyway as I said before this is my first attempt at this, so any suggestions would greatly be appreciated.
Now i have been contemplating this move for awhile and have reading up alot on the subject. I even was lucky enough, during my vacation to Atlanta, to visit the Georgia Aquarium and their beautiful Cichlid display. So I knew too many plants was a bad idea and rocks were good.
This is what my tank looked like when i had just the sharks....
So next step was lets add some rocks! What did I do, there is a stream about 200 yards from my apartment which feeds into a river from which people fish and eat out of. I went treking through the bushes found a spot which had fish swiming around them (i figured they would be ok) and started plucking out some rocks.
So I took them home, put them in the bath tub, and then...
1. soaked them in hot water for about 2 hours
2. scrubbed every rock with a brush scrubber
3. rinsed and scrubbed
4. soaked again in hot water with bleach for 1 hour
5. rinsed and scrubbed
6. soaked again in hot water with bleach for another hour
7. rinsed and scrubbed
8. PUT THEM IN THE DISHWASHER FOR 4 HEAVY CYCLES WITH HOT DRY! Woohoo!
Now of course by now i figured hell, if there was anything remotely alive on these rocks, they are long dead by now... but just in case they were not.
9. I didnt have a pot big enough (or one my better half would allow me to use) to boil the rocks, so I baked them at 500 deg for an hour.
So, after all was said and done (2 days of my life on this), I went to the fish store and picked up 2 small beautiful Cichlids from the "Assorted" tank. Please Identify if you can the names, pics below.
So I took my remaining shark and pleco out of the tank and went to town. This is what I have created. I just hope its good enough for my new friends.
What do you think?
Can you identify these?
BTW you know what I love the most about this project.... other than paying for the 2 new fish. I spent $0 on the new setup!!!!
So anyway as I said before this is my first attempt at this, so any suggestions would greatly be appreciated.