Gnaw Posted December 27, 2008 Report Share Posted December 27, 2008 First off, I must say how impressed I am with all the wonderful information/resources posted by so many of your active and experienced members. Truly a treasure trove devoted to this great hobby. As stated in the topic description: I'm new around here, and I've finally decided to post after I getting carried away reading for about five hours. I guess I'll start with a bit of an introduction and go from there so I don't appear to be another lurker . I'm from Edmonton, I have a few years of experience with our aquatic friends. After moving here from the east coast I've settled in nicely. In doing so, I've acquired a 21gallon tank and have had it up and running for about 5 months now. Currently I have 4 cichlids: Fish: 2 x Electric Yellow ( I believe one male and female, very passive. They let the other two own the rock nest ) 1 x Brown??? ( The name eludes me, I think female because it was to turn blue at a point in it's life and has a tint of purple ) 1 x Blue Peacock ( Unknown sex, very vibrant color big 'mo-hawk' worried I may need to put into a bigger tank! ) This is the first time I've tried cichlids. I find they have fascinating behaviors, beautiful colors/patterns and a no nonsense attitude. I love watching them dig; they also seem to recognize me when I sit to watch the tank during their 'sun period' (lights on) they come out from the lava rocks or play peak-a-boo with me. I can also get them swimming wildly if I shake their food in front of them. Oddly enough an empty container wont fool them! Latest addition to my little tank are some live plants. I've had plants long ago, but over time I seem to forget some of the basics and terminology. Because of this they don't seem to be doing so well... Plants: 2 x Java Fern 2x Anubis I'll post some pictures tomorrow. Thank you for reading, nice to meet you. I hope to benefit from this forum of knowledge immensely. A pleasure to meet all of you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hybrid Posted December 27, 2008 Report Share Posted December 27, 2008 .... :welcome: ........... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williewonka Posted December 27, 2008 Report Share Posted December 27, 2008 :welcome: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordo Posted December 27, 2008 Report Share Posted December 27, 2008 :welcome: to AA!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lana Bollers Posted December 27, 2008 Report Share Posted December 27, 2008 Welcome to AA, I agree your one fish is probably a female, their color can be a bit more drab. Would love to see photos if you can upload them... Lana Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnaw Posted December 27, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 27, 2008 I started to take some pictures, and was coaxing them to come out from hiding I got two shots and then camera died! Needs to recharge, will post them up soon... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted December 27, 2008 Report Share Posted December 27, 2008 :welcome: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kayen Posted December 28, 2008 Report Share Posted December 28, 2008 :welcome: Also i don't think cichlids + plants = good idea, even if those two plants are tied, i think the cichlids may pick at the plants ... Also i don't know much about cichlids but i'm under the impression they need larger tanks than a 21g. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnaw Posted December 28, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2008 :welcome: Also i don't think cichlids + plants = good idea, even if those two plants are tied, i think the cichlids may pick at the plants ... Also i don't know much about cichlids but i'm under the impression they need larger tanks than a 21g. Hi, nice to meet you. Thank you for your post. Well, as I mentioned before this is my first cichlid tank. So I did my best playing it safe with some reading and questions before I made the investment. I spoke with the fish keeper at Big Al's ( if your not familiar they have a site ), she was very knowledgeable and suggested that I should have no more than the four for my size tank and that I should be aware of their behavior if they grow larger to move them to a bigger tank. The cichlids themselves are about 2" - 2 3/4" in length. I watch them almost daily in the morning I've only noticed the occasional chase or a fin nipped other than that they seem alright. Usually this happens because they swam too near anthers territory. I have to agree with you regarding the plants. When I asked the fish keeper about it I was told it wouldn't be the greatest of idea's because there are few plants which could be used and even those few would have a chance of being devoured/destroyed. Her best suggestion was to try the Java Fern and the Anubis then see what happens. She explained the proper planting method of fixing the plant to a rock/log and allowing the roots to naturally work into the base so that you won't kill the feeder-root? I found this was impossible because these fish love to dig near their rocks. Because of this, the plants would never take root and would eventually break free from their fixed positions. However, I figured out a way around this. I placed the rocks strategically in the tank and fixed weights to the plants and placed them in 'open areas' away from the large rocks. The fish would not dig away from their beloved homes and the plants took root. Over time I examined the plants carefully, they took root and grew new leafs and the fish didn't take a tasty liking to them! The base of my tank has a substrate of volcanic ash-based soil sintered with other minerals into a soft, porous, granular structure. ( says so on bag :smokey: ) on top of that i have a 2-2 1/2" layer of spectacular-looking rubble. I've never seen this stuff in my life until I owned these fish. Because they love to dig so much pebble-sized gravel is easily dug out. I mentioned this to the fish-keeper one day ( I make frequent visits on the weekend ) and she introduce me to this aquarium gravel specifically for cichlids. At first I thought she just wanted to up-sale but this stuff is really neat it looks like fossilized sea shells. Its called African Cichlid Mix which is composed of material from African rift lakes it certainly adds some eye-candy to the environment! I will hopefully get the camera up and going and get some shots tomorrow afternoon for everyone. Thanks for your comments. Keep them coming! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boom Posted December 28, 2008 Report Share Posted December 28, 2008 Welcome! Always nice to have a new member. Boom :boom: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnaw Posted December 28, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2008 Welcome! Always nice to have a new member.Boom :boom: Hey boom nice avatar. He looks very similar to my all-blue one, mo-hawk and all... I'll post some pictures today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnaw Posted December 28, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2008 Alright, here are the pictures as promised. If they are too big or too many just remove them please Mr. Moderator I did my best to shoot these. You can see the neat-looking rubble and the tunnels the fish have dug under the rocks. Also you can see the problem with my plants, some brownish spot tiny holes etc. Suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kayen Posted December 28, 2008 Report Share Posted December 28, 2008 Don't have the rhizomes of anubias or java ferns buries or else it will rot and die. and that's a deep substrate bed ... with cichlids & plants i find that you'll have to choose one or another with most cichlid species. For planted tanks .. rams are popular cichlids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnaw Posted December 29, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2008 Don't have the rhizomes of anubias or java ferns buries or else it will rot and die. and that's a deep substrate bed ... with cichlids & plants i find that you'll have to choose one or another with most cichlid species. For planted tanks .. rams are popular cichlids. Hi, thanks for your response. Rams are quite nice. I particularly like the blue angel ram cichlids. I myself never buried the plants. I just weighted them down. I guess the fish just dug up around the rocks and buried them? So the reason why they look the way they do is because they are rotting? regarding the deep substrate bed. Should I extract some of the rubble and make it more shallow? My reasoning for making it so thick was because of all the digging. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnaw Posted December 29, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2008 I took some more pictures while they where getting their evening feeding. These ones look much better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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