What cichlid is hardy enough to be my 1st fish

[humerjeep]

Hello again,

On Setup of any tank I know you can intro a fish or two. previous tanks have been community tanks and I have been spoilt for choice as to what first fish I can add. l
Looking to set up a dwarf cichlid tank I am not so sure, can someone please advise.

 

[Slashdogg]

Are you asking what kind of cichlids would be able to survive cycling? I'd be hesitant to suggest anything, even though there are quite a few that could. Its just really not an ideal situation.

Better to get some biospira or seeded filter media.

As for good first dwarf cichlids, it depends. Do you want a nice south american planted tank? You can also do a Tanganyikan shelldweller tank.

Specie recommendations (assuming the tank is cycled):
South americans (these would be ok in about a 15 gallon minimum, maybe a 10):
Laetacara curvicepps (Dwarf flag cichlid)
Cleithracara maronii (keyhole cichlid)
Most Apistogramma species.

Tanganyikan dwarves:
Lamprologus ocellatus (20 gallon long minimum, very aggressive little fish, my favourite)
Neolamprologus multifasciatus (10 gallon minimum, bigger tanks are better though)
Neolamprologus similis (not sure, I'd say 10 gallon absolute minimum)
Lamprologus brevis (You could do 2 pairs in a 10 gallon with these guys)
Julidochromis transcriptus (10 gallon absolute minimum).

Hope that helps. There are many more choices. My favourites would be L. ocellatus or the dwarf flags if you want to go south american.

Ryan.

 

[humerjeep]

Thank you Ryan for your reply, it has given me food for thought, I have tried the rock dwellers and found that I only briefly saw them at feed time after feeding they would scamper back to the security of the rocks, so most times it look like I had an empty tank. I think I going to opt for the South American planted tank. I've seen some setups via picture on other site and they look jam packed with plants how would this be achivable from the intital setup or do I plant normally and wait for the plants to flourish??

 

[Slashdogg]

Which rockdwellers did you try?

As for the plants, I'd say go with about 2 watts of lighting per gallon. Use decent substrate too, plane old gravel is not really good enough for most plants, unless you're going for really low maintenance plants like java fern or elodea. I've never really done a good planted tank (the only plants I don't kill are java ferns, anubias and vallisneria), lately I've been more interested in Tanganyikan cichlids.

 

[Emg]

Many will say to add ALOT of plants right from the get go. It helps to keep the algae from getting a foothold when you have alot of plants in there to soak up the nutrients.

Low light tanks are easier to keep. If you stay with 1 1/2-2watts per gallon and you get all low light plants, you won't have to do the CO2 injection/excel/ferts dosing thing.

Java fern, anubia nana, water sprite, java moss, some/most cryptocyrene I believe and even I think amazon swords can do ok in low light situations. At least I have one smallish amazon sword in a low light situation and it looks great. Doesn't grow a whole lot...lol...but nice and green anyway.

For substrate I recommend Echo-Complete for planted aquariums...or flora base. I believe BigAlsonline has a great deal on the Echo stuff. I got a 20lb bag for about 22$ total from them, and it got to my house within a few days of ordering it. It's usually more expensive than that if you buy it from an lfs. If you go with the Echo....DON"T rinse it !! One of the positives with that stuff...lol...no rinsing involved. It has nutrients for the plants and bio stuff to help get your cycle started off.

 

[humerjeep]

The rock dwelling fish that I had was housed in a 90 gallon tank
4 Electric yellow Hap 3 females 2 males
3 Purple Mbuna 2 females 1 male
3 Electric blue Hap 2 females 1 male
I also had a dwarf spotted plec but for the life of me cannot remember what it was.

Set up of the new tank is in progress as I have inherited a tank, equipment, white sand and some slates and a few pieces of bogwood cleaning, rinsing scrubbing has stared in ernest, but looking for some inspiration(visual) of what an Amazon setup looks like so I just dont want to stick plants, decor in any old hap hazzard way, I've seen references to of an Aquascaper called Takashi Amonos but cannot find anything on him. reference made of his aquascaping is something I would like to see.