Setting up African Cichlid Tank

[gatotsu77]

I'm sorry to kinda hijack the thread here, but I had an interesting idea which is semi-pertinent to the topics at hand. Would african cichlids feel comfortable in an environment using a lot of driftwood for caves/territory rather than all rock work? I'm still going through ideas as to what I'd like to convert my 55g to, and a whole bunch of driftwood with some rock work sounds like it'd look nice. What do y'all think?

 

[jpappy789]

Not a whole lot of trees to provide driftwood in the rift lake areas...rockwork is more natural.

 

[gatotsu77]

I know... I just prefer the look of wood over rock. I guess its comparable to keeping a goldfish in a tank with pink and blue gravel, plastic castles, etc. but I tend to like the look of a semi-planted tank with lots of driftwood over the look of a bunch of slate. I guess what I'm wondering is, despite the fact that it'll be a little different than would be naturally expected, would having a bunch of irregularly shaped pieces of driftwood provide an environment they'd still feel comfortable establishing territories in? I know their behavior wouldn't be considered perfectly natural, but then we could only truly observe that in the wild.

 

[Pittbull]

well it sounds like it would be sweet the only deal is that natural woods tend to lower the PH and HARDNESS to levels that are too low for afican cichlids, i did the same thing in a 125gal amazon theme tank with angels and festivums and where my local water is really hard 375 to 400 and a ph at 8.2 i filled that tank up with some wood and peat and it brought my levels way down the one true problem i had was when i did weekly water changes it would stress my fish on bumping the perimeters around, so i had to switch to monthly water changes which i so hate, i like to do regular weekly water changes with my tangs, so if you want to fill a tank up with woods your going to have to manipulate the water to keep it hard and a suitable PH.. now if you do a lot of rock work and do just one piece of wood you will possibly be fine depending on your PH and HARDNESS and the wood you selected..

 

[gatotsu77]

That's a good point... I didn't consider that aspect of things. Hmmm... Kribensis usually require softer, slightly more acidic water, yes? How would a tank with say 2 males and 5 females fare?

 

[Pittbull]

gotatsu77 wrote:

Kribensis usually require softer, slightly more acidic water, yes? How would a tank with say 2 males and 5 females fare?

in a 55gal that would be fine you can even go with cory's as bottom dwellers with them, kribs and corys like a ph around 6.0 to 7.0 well the cory's like a ph around 7.2 but should be ok for them if its like 6.5, later buddy..

 

[gatotsu77]

The corys wouldn't be bullied by the kribs during spawning? I've read in a number of places that bottom dwellers are not well mixed with kribs due to their protective nature, placing any bottom dwellers at serious risk of injury during spawning. I might just get a 20g L for my corys and keep just kribs in the 55g tank. I'd love to see them breed. Is a 55g enough room for 2 males and 5 females to actually co-exist, and potentially spawn without risk of injury to any of the fish?

Would it be best to just have a single male and let him have a harem of 5-6 females? I can only imagine that would be quite interesting to watch. Come to think of it, do kribs mate for life like some other fish, or will they spawn with various females?

 

[Pittbull]

you raise a great question on the life long partner i am not sure but i would believe it could be possible in all, as for the pair that forms first, when they do have fry they will chase the other fish to the other side of the tank as long as they stay away they will be fine this applies for cory's as well but you are right to believe that anything that stays close to the substrate near a spawn will def get the attack phase of the kribs if the main purpose is for breeding the kribs than i would do one male and maybe 3 females let him chose which one will be the partner and you may need to get rid of the rest but i would have some type of target fish in the setup be it may with the cory's or other kribs or even a group of rainbowfish if they dont have a reason to guard the fry they will more than likely turn on each other to release the protection aggression that will play out in this tank..

 

[Coler]

The fish (africans) won't care if nooks/crannies are provided by driftwood or by bricks or by lego or by rockwork, so long as there is sufficient cover/caves.

 

[Tommy Gun]

I agree with coler...I've used rocks, driftwood, and plants (fake) to make as many 'nooks' as possible and my mbuna have taken up residence in areas throughout the tank. Speaking of driftwood though...

the only deal is that natural woods tend to lower the PH and HARDNESS to levels that are too low for African cichlids

The extent of the changes that result adding driftwood or anything else that might play a role in water chemistry can vary based upon a number of things including, but not limited to the volume of water, the Kh of the water, the amount of wood you are adding, etc...etc...etc... Point being, it is very possible to add wood to an African cichlid tank. Additionally, I've been keeping and breeding mbuna for years in my tanks that have always hovered around the 7.0 to 7.4 pH mark and IMHO, the more important consideration is maintaining a steady and stable pH, Kh, and Gh versus trying to maintain a perfect clone of the water chemistry in a rift lake. If you think about it, it is very likely that you are buying fish that have been bred, born, and raised in an aquarium and never spent a second of their lives in their natural habitat so the more important question, IMO, is what are the parameters of the water in the LFS' tank(s). Anyways,

Do I need more plants?

I really like your tank clenzpilot32 and probably agree that "need" may be too strong of a word, however, keep in mind that plants can be very useful when keeping cichlids because they allow you to break up sight lines in the tank. Or in other words, even if all of your fish have their own little cave to hide out in, placing plants in areas that restrict a dominant cichlid's ability to see a perceived rival on the other side of the tank usually results in a more active aquarium.