African_Fever

Try to get CLEAR pics of each fish on its own. Getting a picture of the entire tank with the fish doesn't really help out for identifying which fish you have. If you're able to get some pictures of just the fish I'm sure someone on the forum will be able to identify them. With your tank being a 47 hexagaon, I honestly wouldn't recommend African cichlids for it unless you wanted 1 colourful species and filled the tank with just them. A tall tank with a footprint like yours has isn't really ideal for cichlids, but as I said you might be able to get away with a species tank (just one species). Electric yellows or another Labidochromis species would be my first choice, but you might be ok with some other types of Africans.

Welcome Lisa! What fish do you currently have in your tank? I think you'd be better off picking an area where you prefer the fish be from and go that route. Right now you have fish listed from both Lake Malawi and South America, and mixing cichlids from both areas isn't usually recommended (plus the Apisto's are tiny compared to the all the other fish and if they didn't become lunch would most likely not get enough food themselves and starve).

I think if you were able to pick up a filter with a broken motor for free/cheap it would be an idea, but since I'm assuming these both work fine I think it's a bit of a waste. You could pick up fittings etc. and essentially do the same thing with a 5 gallon pail first, and your filter second.

Why are you running them in series like that? I would understand if only one was running, but you end up circulating half the water in the tank that could otherwise be filtered and yet still using the same amount of energy. Plus, as the first filter gets clogged the second ends up having to work harder, and I could potentially see the motor burning out. But that's just my two cents.

Thanks, but I'm asking about the structural integrity of the stand due to the legs being cut and pegged together, and not the weight of the tank. I know if this stand were one piece it would be more than strong enough to support what I need.

I built a steel stand for my fish 'room' a while back (I believe 1/8" thick and 1"x2" tubing), and in all my infinite wisdom never even though about what size it would need to be to get down my stairs. Needless to say it was too big, so we cut the top part off, and installed some 'plugs' in the bottom 1/2 to ensure the top and bottom would fit together perfectly (essentially a smaller tube in the larger tube so everything lines up exactly). I have a plywood/glass tank on the bottom, and until now have just had 4 20's and a 10 on the top. I'd like to replace the top tanks with a single tank to just save space in the room (I'm shutting down my smaller tanks and going to have a couple big tanks for rays). So far the top of this stand has held 90 gallons of water without issue, but I'm thinking of building about a 200-250 gallon tank for the top so it is going to need to hold considerably more. I initially built this stand heavy enough for a large tank on both the top and bottom, but am just unsure about how much weight I trust the top with now that it's been cut/pegged back together. If this stand were in your house, would you: 1) leave it as is; it's built of heavy steel and lined up perfectly so there shouldn't be a problem 2) build basically a square for each end (out of the same 1"x2" square tubing), and bolt this to the outside of the existing stand, essentially doubling the legs for the stand but also ensuring that the outside legs are solid and not cut. The new tank would be built so that it overhangs the current stand to the edge of where the 'new' legs would be. In the pic you can see about halfway up the tank where the stand is cut and has been placed back together. The plugs are flat iron (1/4" thick) that was bent and welded in place.

How tall is the tank, and what sort of plants are you looking to do? I've got a GRO T5 fixture and I love it; as soon as the other two fixtures on my 120 go I'll be replacing them with another T5 as well. I'm at a little under 2 wpg and have no trouble growing vals in that tank, so it just depends on what sort of plants you're looking to do.

Awesome pics! I love both aro pics, especially the first one with it's tail not in your typical straight pose.

I had actually done a report on Lake Victoria for a biology class in University, and there was quite a number of papers about how the fish there were showing some of the fastest adaptation/changes ever thought to have occur. They were exploiting niches created by the nile perch within 10-20 years as stated by the article and becoming much more specialized very quickly. Cool read!

Very cool pics! I never knew that burbot were that shallow and easy to catch when small. I've always thought a native tank would look so cool full of perch (and a pike if you were able to catch a small enough one), and burbot or two on the bottom would definitely full things out. It's just too bad that it's not legal to do.

If the babies are all peacocks, then chances are he's just the first one to develop and become dominant. Peacocks are notorious for taking a long time to fully colour up, and in a tank full of babies it's not unusual for them to colour up very slowly and only one at a time - try taking out the one that's coloured to see what happens with the others.

Julidochromis would be a good choice for a 33, as would many Lamprologous/Neolamp's. A 33 is on the small size for most mbuna, but you could do a species tank (as long as it's really filtered) for mbuna or possibly peacocks (I have I think 14 yellow labs in a 37, all 2-3"). I wouldn't rule out the discus as eating the tetras either; they are a cichlid, and an opportunistic predator. Some are probably fine with small fish, whereas others may see them as food.

I'd agree with Patrick on the sponge filters, unless you're having over 20 tanks or so. A single small blower would easily supply all the air you'd need for that many tanks, and not require the extravagent setups that a full blown system would.

I'd find some 2x4's ASAP and build a quick support frame to go underneath your stand as some extra piece of mind.

Look into plywood tanks with a glass front. Cheap and easy to build, and you can build them as big as you need for rays. For under $300 you can do a 8x4x2 tank/pond, out of 3/4 plywood and potable water epoxy, and then all you need to make it a tank is to find a sheet of glass and a tube of silicone. As Corvette said, you're going to need a wide tank for motoros for life; at least 30" wide and a minimum of 6' long. Wider is always better with rays; they'd do better in a 6'x3' tank than any 2' wide tank, no matter how long it is. And as Jonah also said, they do grow quick, so even though you might be able to start them in 75, within a year you ARE going to be needing a much larger tank.

If you're going to go with fronts, go with one. I'd be worried about a group starting to spawn and really picking on the rays. I've got silver dollars in with some of my rays right now, but aren't yet too sure about the combination. The problem is that the silver dollars will eat anything I put in the for the rays, so it's hard to ensure that the rays get the food they need. If I had the dollars in with larger rays, my worry is that the larger rays would simply eat the silver dollars - kind of a catch 22. Some catfish would probably be ok with the rays, but you've always got to keep any eye on them, and I probably wouldn't have more than a couple cats with them (I got the tigrinus specifically to go with my rays). I had also tried some 'cigar sharks' with my rays (Leptobarbus hoeveni), but they also ate anything I put in with the rays - I may try them with the rays again now that the rays are able to eat much larger food and the hoeveni could fill their mouths with large floating pellets first. Bala sharks do NOT work if they're even as large as the rays themselves (ie. 5" bala with rays with a 5" disc). If you want to keep some fish with your rays, try feeders first. If they eat the feeders, there's a good chance they'll try eating anything you put with them at least once (my motoro's tried to eat a 10" Rhamphochromis within seconds of him going in the tank when the rays were only 10-11").

Syno. lucipinnis and multipunctatus

Good looking motoros; I love how many spots they both have. What kind of sand is it you have in there?

Raise the temp to 86 and I'd add salt. Shouldn't need to do anything more than that.

I believe they're usually a couple hundred. Check on MFK (monsterfishkeepers.com) as there's people on there keeping them and they'd have a better idea as to cost and where to find one.

Why are you worried about those temps? I'd just unplug the heater and make sure it isn't making things worse, but otherwise you're fine. Malawi gets smoking hot in the summer, so the fish can take some heat (I think the warmest I had was close to 90-95F, and I know it was 76F at 76 feet down!).

Sorry, the Otorongo and Tiger rays were all brought in for friends. The first ray pictured is the big one, close to a 16" disc, with a strong chance of getting to a 30"+ disc.

Fresh in from Peru, Potamotrygon castexi 'Otorongo', P. menchacai, and P. motoro 'yepezi' . The largest Otorongo is 14-16" disc and big ray, and the tails on the Tiger's are among the longest I've ever seen, especially on a 12" disc.

Too many different types of rocks just looks bad. There's no flow, and it looks like every time you found 'another pretty rock' you just added it to your tank without any rhyme or reason. Using one type of rock helps the tank look more natural, and like everything belongs together and is finished.

Why would you keep the lights on 24/7?