Boom Posted January 9, 2009 Report Share Posted January 9, 2009 (edited) Alright. may as well expand my journal a bit. My 55 gallon was the first real cichlid tank I set up. It originally housed a mix of male peacocks, and grew to include various other african cichlids both from lake Malawi and Tanganyika. It was originally set up in January of '08. Here are the details: 55 gallon semi bowfront with seamless corners. Not a standard size at 40"(l) x 16"(w) x 20"(h) Canopy with built in filter. Rena XP2 cannister. 150 watt heater. T5 lighting, on 7 hrs a day. Black sand substrate. 3D "brick" background". Rundle rock, shells, and fake plants. Temp kept at 78 - 80* steady. Good flow, circulation and agitation at the top for oxygenation. PH a steady 7.8 - 8.0. Water changes done once a week (30 - 50%) with sand vacuumed and stirred. This tank was originally cycled with the "fishless" method, using doses of ammonia. Info on the fishless cycle can be found many places on the web, including HERE, which I found a very useful resource. A google search will find you more. I believe I have some old pics from the tanks early days I'll have to find and post. Boom :boom: Edited April 12, 2009 by Boom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boom Posted January 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2009 The CURRENT tank inhabitants are as follows: 1 Pair (m/f) of Altolamprologus calvus (black) - male is about 3.5", female is about 3" 1 Cyphotilapia frontosa (Burundi) 4" 4 Julidichromis regani 2" 1 Julidichromis transcriptus 1.5" ...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boom Posted January 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2009 12 Cyprochromis leptosomas (blue flash) 1.5". I just got these little guys from Harold (fairdeal) last week. They are all doing well so far. A few of the males are already showing great potential for color. 10 Synodontis petricola 1.5". Some of these guys will be moved to my 180 once they're a bit bigger. These are active and elusive little guys for photographing! 2 Pundamillia nyererie 2" both males starting to show great colors. (no pics yet) There are 5 Labidochromis caeruleus (yellow lab) and 4 white labs in there right now. But once I can sex them, they will be gone. I have some Pseudocrenilabrus nicholsi on the way soon. Depending on their temperament, I'll likely add a few to the 180 as well. Here are some current tank pics. Boom :boom: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Ram Posted January 9, 2009 Report Share Posted January 9, 2009 Very good photos & nice tank setup. 40+ fish in a 55!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishful Thinking Posted January 9, 2009 Report Share Posted January 9, 2009 Sweet tank, Boom. I look forward to seeing more of it and its occupants. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thedarkstar Posted January 9, 2009 Report Share Posted January 9, 2009 I still really like that "brickwork" background Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
letsgofishn Posted January 10, 2009 Report Share Posted January 10, 2009 Wow, very nice tank setup!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hybrid Posted January 10, 2009 Report Share Posted January 10, 2009 NICE CALVUS!!!!!!!! :thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firestorm Posted January 10, 2009 Report Share Posted January 10, 2009 I really like the background. My 55 tang tank has a few of the same inhabitants lol. The only downside I see in using a dark colored substrate with these guys, is that some of the fish blend in quite a bit. The cyp's should show awesome color against it though when they start to color up Just a question, why would you move your petricola's when they get bigger? I like having some syno's in with my tangs, it's nice to have a little bit of everything Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boom Posted January 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2009 Thanks for the comments and compliments! Firestorm, I have thrown around the idea of changing the substrate to natural sand (same as my 180) as I still have half a bag sitting there. But I think I like the black and the contrast it gives to the brighter fish. My comment about moving SOME of the petricolas to the 180 when they get bigger is just based on numbers. There is 10 of them in the 55 gallon, and only 1 larger one in the 180. I'm just gonna even them out and move 6 or 7 to the 180 and keep 3 or 4 in the 55. That way I have some in both. I just love little synodontis cats and I think EVERY African tank should have some! I just wanted to make a note, if you have a Tang. tank like mine and all the fish seem to hide and stay near the bottom, add some Cyp's! I can't BELIEVE how much more all the other fish are out now that the Cyps are in there. Even my shy calvus' are swimming out and about and even coming up near the top. Talk about a great dither fish! Boom :boom: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boom Posted January 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2009 Very good photos & nice tank setup. 40+ fish in a 55!!! I wanted to make a quick note about Blue Ram's comment as well. I am a BIG fan of overstocking African cichlid tanks. Why? Well, so far, in my relatively limited experience, I've found that with enough fish, aggression is very limited. This is because a hyper dominant fish will rarely pick a single target. And with enough "targets" the aggression is so spread out, that no one fish suffers the worse for wear because of it. This doesn't ALWAYS work obviously. Even in all male tanks, I've had fish (specifically my Tropheus "Kaiser II") that for whatever reason choose one fish to pick on relentlessly (in my case it was a Cop. borleyi "redfin"). I had to remove the borleyi. When I did, the tropheus chose another fish to chase and "beat up", (this time it was my Ps. Acei). Obviously, it was time for the tropheus to go. I gave him to my buddy, and he has had NO similar problems with that fish! In setups where there is a single or only a few species of fish, when both males and females are present, and breeding is the goal, overstocking MAY NOT be recommended either, but it may also work to spread aggression. It all depends on the setup and species. Where I do recommend it is in the type of setups like my 180 and this 55. My 180 is all male (supposedly) and in the 55 I have no desire to breed anything. If some breeding does take place great. But I find having a slightly "crowded" tank, they are less likely to breed anyway, which is fine by me. There are two BIG keys to keeping an overstocked tank though. 1. Make sure you have LOTS of filtration and do your regular water changes. 2. Make sure you keep an eye on the aggression and be prepared to move fish when necessary (as demonstrated with my tropheus). Just my thoughts on the subject. Boom :boom: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishful Thinking Posted January 10, 2009 Report Share Posted January 10, 2009 I agree wholeheartedly, Ryan. Overstocking with overfiltration is the way to go with the africans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnaw Posted January 10, 2009 Report Share Posted January 10, 2009 Good to know Boom. Did you get a deal on the Synos? How/where did you get that many? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boom Posted January 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2009 I got the syno's from Harold (Fairdeal), for a fair deal. Boom :boom: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boom Posted January 11, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2009 So here are some old pics of this tank. This is when it was first set up. This is a red Eureka peacock I had, he became far too aggresive for the other fish and I had to remove him. Ended up just trading him in at my LFS. The problem I found with the initial setup was that it was far too colorful. I wanted the fish to be the colorful part of the tank, not the rocks. I tryed just changing the configuration of the rocks... ... but decided to try something very different. I decided to add bricks with holes in them. This is what it looked like initially. I ended up changing the configuration of the bricks around quite often, removing bricks and changing the layout. I ultimately decided to go back to a more natural rock and have ended up really liking how I have it set up now. Boom :boom: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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