New to Ciclids, would like advice!

D

draddog

Registered Member
Oct 15, 2006
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I was a member of AC several years ago. I have a 75 gallon with an Aquaclear 500 and an Ehiem canister. I have not been able to have it set up for several years. We just recently bought a home and it is now up and running again. I have decided to set up with cichlids and I have no previous experience with them. Could some one refer me to some "general cichlid" posts from the past that would start me off in the right direction. I would try to track down some of it myself, but I am still, to this day, semi computer literate. Also my LFS is quite limited on selection, so any input on where to purchase some of the more colorful cichlids online, would be appreciated also.
Thank you very much!
Chris
 
First decision is whether you want African or New World cichlids, and at least some of that decision is based on your natural water parameters.

Second decision is whether you want several smaller fish (5-6" and smaller), or one or two larger fish (10+").

Third decision is how much aggression you are willing to tolerate (which also impacts on the above choices).

If you can give us some more information, we can do a better job of advising you.
 
rmcder, thank you for replying to my post, I do appreciate anyone willing to give me a hand. Having said that, I probably should have titled my post differently. What I am currently looking for is a good starting point to learn the basics about cichlids so that I can then begin to narrow down what I want to do. Perhaps some old threads that were geared for answering the basic questions, much like the "read this first" posts for cycling tanks etc. Or even some general cichlid website that are reputable and reccommended amongst a quality group such as this. Along with a few reputable sources for buying quality fish at a reasonable cost. So any help in these areas will be greatly appreciated along with any other help, hint or tips.

Now to address the questions you have of me, which type of cichlids, I currently have no idea and probaly won't with out a little more research. As far as size of fish, I think I would prefer to stay around the 5-6 inch range. Concerning aggresion, I'm still somewhat up in the air, but it is not important to me that they be one way or the other, except in terms of them not killing each other.

I think my primary interest is finding the largest number of 4-8 inch (give or take) fish with the most vibrant colors possible, that will not kill each other.
Hope this helps, and thanks again.
Chris
 
as far as websites You can go to malawimayhem.com for any info on african cichlids they have thousands of species profiles, stocking recomendations and a great forum. Most mbuma and other african cichlids stay small and can be grouped in fours three females to one male. If you choose to go this route you will need to overfilter and possibly overstock for agression. In a 75 gaooln you have lots of options for mbuma or other african lake cichlids. You could put about 25-30 mumba in a 75 gallon from 3-7 different genuses. There is an article section for general information which can answer a lot of questions here. And the newbie fourm has some good info too. as far as buying fish online liveaquaria.com is good and there are others someone posted one here a while ago that sold a variety assortment cant remember the site if I find it I will post it later. Any new question you have start a new thread you will get a better response hope this helps a little.

Cycling:http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81388
New Tanks:http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=85268
 
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If you don't mind looking at a book that occasionally gets technical, check out The Cichlid Aquarium by Paul Loiselle. You can probably get a copy through your local library, or if they don't have it they can get it through interlibrary loan.

It's really good for giving the "whys" and has lots of advice about setting up tanks for particular situations. You can always skip over the scientific parts if they are boring to you.

http://cichlidae.com/review.php?id=311

Depending on where you live, there may be a fish club or society within driving distance of you. They usually have a couple auctions a year, you can't beat the prices and quality, and you see the fish in person before you bid on them. The last one I went to I got a bag of 14 young Hemichromis lifililli (red jewel cichlids with blue spangles) for 2 bucks. Yes, absolutely beautiful fish for less than fifteen cents each. I also got a bag of 8 Blue Acaras for one dollar. If I'd had the tank space, I could have gotten loads of Leleupi (sp?), Frontosas, etc for similar prices. You have to do your homework, take a book, or ask someone or the cute little critters you get might turn into huge monsters. But it's a really fun way to get great fish!

Hint- at the end of the auction, everybody has bought way too many fish, and prices are very low.
 
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25-30 mumba in a 75 gallon
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in my opinion, that's about 15 fish too many. mbuna will grow to an average of 4.5 inches and by the time you've installed the density of rockwork required to successfully maintain these species, there'll be about 65 gallons of actual water volume remaining. add gravel and you'll be down to about 60 gallons. the strain on the biofilter in that tank containing 30 cichlids will not be doing the inhabitants any favors and even with weekly water changes of 50 percent, i think the fish will suffer.

Mbuna are polygamous brooders which means that to successfully maintain them at minimum aggression levels, you must keep only a single male with 3-4 females of the same species. this means that a species group consists of 4-5 cichlids. assuming five for the sake of discussion, i'd suggest that three groups of different species, for a total of fifteen Mbuna will fill a 75 gallon tank.
 
draddog said:
rmcder, thank you for replying to my post, I do appreciate anyone willing to give me a hand. Having said that, I probably should have titled my post differently. What I am currently looking for is a good starting point to learn the basics about cichlids so that I can then begin to narrow down what I want to do. Perhaps some old threads that were geared for answering the basic questions, much like the "read this first" posts for cycling tanks etc. Or even some general cichlid website that are reputable and reccommended amongst a quality group such as this. Along with a few reputable sources for buying quality fish at a reasonable cost. So any help in these areas will be greatly appreciated along with any other help, hint or tips.

Now to address the questions you have of me, which type of cichlids, I currently have no idea and probaly won't with out a little more research. As far as size of fish, I think I would prefer to stay around the 5-6 inch range. Concerning aggresion, I'm still somewhat up in the air, but it is not important to me that they be one way or the other, except in terms of them not killing each other.

I think my primary interest is finding the largest number of 4-8 inch (give or take) fish with the most vibrant colors possible, that will not kill each other.
Hope this helps, and thanks again.
Chris
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When I started (a little over a year ago), I went to the library and took out a bunch of books. I also found a guy at the lfs that was knowledgeable and willing to answer questions. From there, I went to the various forums and read everything I could.

I wanted an active tank with smallish, colorful fish (pretty much what you're saying). What I ended up doing is getting a wide variety of New World cichlids - nicaraguense, rainbow, honduran red point, severum, bahia, firemouth, albino mixteco, spinossisimus, macullipinis. As they grew older, I discarded some as too aggressive, too plain, etc. I now have hondurans, a severum, an electric blue dempsey, a green terror, a spino, a rainbow, and a firemouth (in three tanks).

I added clown loaches, rosy barbs, and tiger barbs for their colors and activity. Each of these has a different shoaling style and interesting quirks, and they complement the cichlids very well. I don't know anythign about Africans, but others have responded to you about those. Hope this is a help to you.
 
I personally prefer new world cichlids and favor angels, discus,rams . thes are considered relatively peaceful cichlids and my wife like them as they tend to be fairly colorful.

you can check out some of the cichlid forums many break the categories down . new world, african even to species such as oscars etc.
 
liv2padl said:
in my opinion, that's about 15 fish too many. mbuna will grow to an average of 4.5 inches and by the time you've installed the density of rockwork required to successfully maintain these species, there'll be about 65 gallons of actual water volume remaining. add gravel and you'll be down to about 60 gallons. the strain on the biofilter in that tank containing 30 cichlids will not be doing the inhabitants any favors and even with weekly water changes of 50 percent, i think the fish will suffer.

Mbuna are polygamous brooders which means that to successfully maintain them at minimum aggression levels, you must keep only a single male with 3-4 females of the same species. this means that a species group consists of 4-5 cichlids. assuming five for the sake of discussion, i'd suggest that three groups of different species, for a total of fifteen Mbuna will fill a 75 gallon tank.
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I was giving a example of overstocking for agression I keep 9 mbuma plus 5 synondontis catfish in my 55 galon. You can definately keep less and be fine but I perfer to overstock in my mbuma tank. If you dont want to do as much maintnance and dont want to overstock live2padl has it right on the button.
 
You guys are great, you have helped a bunch. Do any of you have any recommended websites that have lots of pictures in a thumbnail type setting. I am trying to begin to become familiar with some of the species.
 
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