New 72 gallon bowfront...and Cichlids
- Thread starter Jason-282
- Start date
I believe it just means "rock fish" in some native language from around the Great Rift lakes in southern africa.
My tank setup is all from lake malawai (ok probably from a cichlid farm in Texas) and is very bright an active. I just found out a few days ago my blue peacocks spawned without me noticing and at least 1 fry is about 3/4 inch long. Lots of fun to watch all of them and an african or mbuna tank would be my choice (but thats because i have one)
OR, somehting i want to do in the future would be an "amazon" style tank with Rams as my cichlids (stay small, but the good ones are very colorful), discus (which i think are a type of cichlid-but could be wrong about that) and lots and lots of small fast schoolers like rummynosed tetras, lots of tall green plants and the river pebbles you described. someday.
Best of luck with whatever you pick, and do your research (here) before you jump in.
My tank setup is all from lake malawai (ok probably from a cichlid farm in Texas) and is very bright an active. I just found out a few days ago my blue peacocks spawned without me noticing and at least 1 fry is about 3/4 inch long. Lots of fun to watch all of them and an african or mbuna tank would be my choice (but thats because i have one)
OR, somehting i want to do in the future would be an "amazon" style tank with Rams as my cichlids (stay small, but the good ones are very colorful), discus (which i think are a type of cichlid-but could be wrong about that) and lots and lots of small fast schoolers like rummynosed tetras, lots of tall green plants and the river pebbles you described. someday.
Best of luck with whatever you pick, and do your research (here) before you jump in.
Yep, mbuna as brandon said are a species of highly adapted cichlids native to Lake Malawi and the name literally translates as rock dweller. They have highly flexible spines and often specially adapted mouths for grazing algai/aufwuchs off rocks.
In the wild, the lil buggers claim a good old territory (the males) and try and attract females to breed with - they are highly, highly aggressive to conspecifics/other fish generally but to the former more so. In the aquarium you manage this by careful selection of species for compatability (basically nothing too gentle - relatively - with the more aggresive species as they stressed badly and outcompeted for food) and by seriously overstocking so that no one fish actually claims a territory - that is what gives this lovely bright display of many fish so typical of an african tank.
Four foot tank is considered minimum appropriate size for a manageable stocking.
Also, you stock 1 male with say 3 females of each species you keep. A lone female will get chased and harassed potentially to death. They breed very readily, and hybridise happily with other species.
For some general reading around stocking plans www.cichlidforum.com has some nice ideas (I wouldn't agree with them all but they are a handy starting point).
In your tank - 72 Galls - you could have a marvellous display of mbuna...say 35 fish or so at least (with the right filtration - you need at least a couple of great cannister filters on there because of the overstocking - a little more).
In the wild, the lil buggers claim a good old territory (the males) and try and attract females to breed with - they are highly, highly aggressive to conspecifics/other fish generally but to the former more so. In the aquarium you manage this by careful selection of species for compatability (basically nothing too gentle - relatively - with the more aggresive species as they stressed badly and outcompeted for food) and by seriously overstocking so that no one fish actually claims a territory - that is what gives this lovely bright display of many fish so typical of an african tank.
Four foot tank is considered minimum appropriate size for a manageable stocking.
Also, you stock 1 male with say 3 females of each species you keep. A lone female will get chased and harassed potentially to death. They breed very readily, and hybridise happily with other species.
For some general reading around stocking plans www.cichlidforum.com has some nice ideas (I wouldn't agree with them all but they are a handy starting point).
In your tank - 72 Galls - you could have a marvellous display of mbuna...say 35 fish or so at least (with the right filtration - you need at least a couple of great cannister filters on there because of the overstocking - a little more).
Tank is lookin' pretty nice...gotta like 5 cichilds...random groups going against all logic...gotta Krib in there, 2 electric blue jack dempsy's, a strawberry peacock, a frontosa, and some fish from Lake Victoria that i can't identify...and they're all gettin' along....
Can ayone ID this fish?
I've seen one's simliar in my cichild book that says it's from Lake Victoria...but there's a slight difference between the one picture and this guy?
Anybody know what exactly he is and if there's a "trade name" for him?
I've seen one's simliar in my cichild book that says it's from Lake Victoria...but there's a slight difference between the one picture and this guy?
Anybody know what exactly he is and if there's a "trade name" for him?
