Vallisneria

I hope he is ok

What types of cichlids are you thinking of?There are quite a few that would do well in a 30g. The dwarf cichlids(rams,some apistos) would do well. IT would be best to stick with less aggresive smaller cichlids since it is only a 30g. If this were my tank i would do a nicely planted ram tank. I have a 15g planted ram/cardinal tank and its one of my favorite tanks. Not sure what you mean by feeding live foods. Any fish can be fed live foods. Are you talking about feeding feeders?

How big is the tank?

Yeah i would have decorated it differently to, gone for the more natural malawi lake look(big bolders and sand as neil said). I would also keep soem of the bigger fish taht you normally can't keep in regualr sized tanks. Sweet tank none the less.

Welcome

No but i wish it did That thing is really cool

I have sort of the same thing as David. I have a AC 500(and all my other tanks have AC on them too). I keep 2 AC sponges in each filter and every water change i rinse out both sponges(i keep 2 filters on the tank, so i only clean 1). I have also had the sponges for a very long time. Even with cleanings are they nitrate traps? Should i change over to a smaller holed foam for mechanical(as mentinoed above) and just keep the AC foam for bio?

WElcome to the board

What do you consider old? Couple months, year?

I emailed the AP people before with the same expiry date question. They said that there is a date on the bottle and then they are good for about 2-4 years after that. I can't remember how long each one lasts but they each last a different amount(nitrite-2 years, nitrate 4years etc.). So maybe email them and ask. They sent me a list when i asked.

I have used the foam and quilt batting from Fanny's fabrics and Fabricland. I think mine was just 100% polyester batting and i can't remember what the foam said. Great stuff and very cheap(especially if you have a club card :P )

Very cute

I totally agree with you there. Their suggestions are a bit out there for most of the tanks. I think they hurt more then they help,especially where newbies are concerned. I still stand by my recommendation that a 30g cube is too small of a tnak for malawis. Even the "peaceful" ones get too big and aggressive for such a small tank. I think shellies are great for a tank with that kind of footprint.

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showt...&threadid=32437 is the address. I have always wanted a zebra pleco. Breeding them would be dream. I can only imagine how cute baby zebras are :P . I remember when you could get them for 30$ at dad's fishroom. SHould have picked some up when i had the chance. Now i jsut dont' have 100$ to spend on 1 fish.

Since a 30g is a bit small for malawis i would suggest tangs. Shell dwellers would make an interesting tank. Or maybe some of the smaller julies(dont' really know my julies but someone else should). Those are just 2 options that came to mind

I read on another forum that the zebra pleco isn't being caught anymore Not sure this is right but i would explain why the price keeps going up and up.

I also have planted tanks and love keeping plants but i hardly ask questions or look at the plant sections in forums(i find them way too techincal and i like keeping it simple). But it would be nice to have somewhere that people could talk about their plants though. Maybe posting about plants in the general freshwater would be enough as i think if plants had their own forum it wouldnt' get used much.

I love haps too and they would make a great choice since you have a larger tank. The only draw back is that the females of most haps dont' have much color. So if you are looking for a showy/flashy tank having groups with lots of females might not cut it. I would love to get some Placidochromis phenochilus. The males are the most beautiful fish i have ever seen. Reminds me of the kids book "rainbow fish"

Interesting combo, could you please explain a bit more as to why you would choose a peacock and altolamprologus mix?

Some of the less aggresive mbuna are Ps. saulosi Iodotropheus sprengerae yellow labs ( Lab. perlmutts are also fairly peaceful) Ps. "acei" So these species would be a good choice to pick from if you dont' want to much fighting. Depending on how many speices you want you could either go with 2 species and have larger groups. Or a few of each. I personally prefer larger groups of fewer species as it makes for a more striking tank. If you look through some species profiles it will also help us as then you will know what sort of look you want for this tank. If it were my tank i would do this. 10- 12 Ps. saulosi 10- 12 Ps.acei maybe a trio of a hap(red empress, P.electra) and a group of syno petricola

Welcome

I didn't get to go but my sister went. She lives up in cold lake with her fiance. He is in the air force and had to be in the parade. Those are great pics, thanks

I didn't see anyhting out of normal. The tank taht held the red empress is right next to my computer in my room so i pretty much watchi it for most of the day and i didn't notice anything different. Its could be possible that the red empress was attacked during the night but i have never seen anyhting remotely that aggresive in this tank before. I used to have a male peacock that would get beat up by the red empress but i sold the peacock and ever since its been a "peaceful" tank. BUt maybe there was some kind of freak fight at night and he did get injured. I was jsut wondering if i missed anyhting as whenever i loose a fish it seems to be an overnight thing instead of the fish getting visably ill. Oh well, I guess i have to think about whether i want another male or if i should sell the female i have and try something new. Thanks so much guys

The other tankmates are 5 lab perlmutts 5 rusties(iodotropheus sprengerae) 1 male P.electra 1 female red empress and 3 syno petricola There was never any fighting going on. The only one that ever got a bit roughed up was the female red empress. The male red empress was the king of the tank. He was the biggest fish and i never saw any fighting betwwen him and any of the other fish. The most that would ever happen was chasing and a bit of nipping to the female. The perlmutts and rusties seemed to not even notice the haps. They didn't seem to ever really react(chase, nip) to the haps even if they were in their "territories" that they would normally chase other perlmutts or rusties from. The before he died he didn't show any outward sighs of illness. FIns were perfect, body was free of spots and in perfect color. Eyes looked clear and he was eating like normal. So i can't think of what could be wrong. The water is good (No3 is what it normally is before i do my weekly water change, the last one was last weekend). HE looked healthy the night before and i never saw any fighting.

Its a sad sad day today. I woke up and turned on my tanks lights only to find my favorite fish dead. My 4" red empress male was laying on the bottom of the tank. So i scooped him out (proper burial in the back yard ) and tested my water. All the test came back fine. Ph 7.8 ammo- 0 nitrite- 0 nitrate around 30(normal of this african tank). ALl my other fish are doing great, no visible signs of problems. I fed them all and they all ate. I can't figure out why he died. He was fine yesterday as i watched the tank after i fed them. He ate and was swimming around fine, looked normal. So i have no idea why he would dead this morning. His body didn't look like there was anyhting wrong. HIs color was very faded, only a bit of red remained. HIs fins were ok, a bit tattered but i think that was after death as it wasn't there yesterday. The onyl thing was his eyes looked a bit red, like there was spots of blood. Not sure what that would be from. So i'm just doing a water change now(last one was about a week ago) hoping what ever killed the red empress wont' kill anyone else. So does anyone have any ideas on what it could be. I hate loosing a fish so fast as i can't do anything about it. One day they are find and the next morning they are dead. So any ideas?