Alien Anna
Fish Gatherer
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2002
- Messages
- 2,087
- Reaction score
- 2
Hi Everyone,
a little while ago, I had a dream of having an African cichlid tank. My local water is alkaline and hard (pH 8.6 - 9.0 out of the tap, KH and GH >21) and although I was limited for space, I knew there were smaller, dwarf varieties about that could live happily in the 33 gallon tank I acquired.
I have assembled all the equipment except the rocks (which I intend to get in the next couple of weeks) and have read books and books on the species of fish I'd like to get. I checked out cichlid recipe sites and started to think about what I wanted in my tank: colour, variety, personality and suitability for my water.
I thought: rainbow fish, a couple of Neolamprologus sp. (tretocephalus and leleupi) and a bristle-nosed plec. I was informed that the rainbows would be too big and nip the fins of the others and the cichlids were far too aggressive and impossible to sex (and to therefore expect casualties).
So then I did some research and discovered yellow labs. Gentle cichlids, I was told, easy to keep in small groups. So, I suggested rainbow fish, yellow labs, blue labs and a bristle-nosed plec.
Rainbow fish were an even worse idea with this combination I was told, and labs aren't anywhere near as gentle as you've been lead to believe, especially in such a small tank, and much bigger than you think - a few horror stories later, I was convinced.
So today I took a trip to a shop which has an excellent reputation, especially for cichlids and had a long chat with the owner. He confirmed all the horror stories I'd been told but suggested some species that would be much better for my tank (he said). Incidently, he didn't like the bristlenose in this combination either - he said they hated the hard, high pH water and he pursuaded me that cheap and cheerful danios would be much better than expensive and difficult rainbows.
The recipe suggested was:
6 Brachydanio rerio (Zebra danios)
Small school of Neolamprologus brichardi (Lyretail cichlids)
Trio of shelldwellers (m + 2f, species according to availability)
Synodontis notatus occellatus (one-spot catfish)
The brichardi, he told me, were schooling fish and he'd never had a problem with aggression, provided they had plenty of caves and were kept in a small school. Then I posted this suggestion on a fish group.
It took an hour before I received my first horror story email. Brichardis are apparently known for their psychopathic ways. No one had heard of the catfish and I've heard nothing about shelldwellers, but genrally the opinion wasn't good. But everybody liked the danios
Meanwhile, I'm going totally off cichlids. Given the stories of mayhem and violence I've heard about them recently, I'm amazed anyone wants to keep them (except for loveble old angelfish). But, when I was into horses, I was always the person that got to ride the horse with the persistant rearing problem; and when I was into hamsters, I was the person that people took the vicious, un-tamable biters and spent hours persuading them not to eat human flesh. My mother can remember me at 6 years old, coming into the house with a weasle attached to one finger saying "Mummy, what kind of animal is this? Can you fetch my book so I can look it up before it escapes?"
So, I'm not the sort of person to shy away because an animal is difficult or demanding but I don't want to make stupid mistakes that I'm going to kick myself for later. If you have small, African cichlids, please tell me what you have that works. Thanks.
a little while ago, I had a dream of having an African cichlid tank. My local water is alkaline and hard (pH 8.6 - 9.0 out of the tap, KH and GH >21) and although I was limited for space, I knew there were smaller, dwarf varieties about that could live happily in the 33 gallon tank I acquired.
I have assembled all the equipment except the rocks (which I intend to get in the next couple of weeks) and have read books and books on the species of fish I'd like to get. I checked out cichlid recipe sites and started to think about what I wanted in my tank: colour, variety, personality and suitability for my water.
I thought: rainbow fish, a couple of Neolamprologus sp. (tretocephalus and leleupi) and a bristle-nosed plec. I was informed that the rainbows would be too big and nip the fins of the others and the cichlids were far too aggressive and impossible to sex (and to therefore expect casualties).
So then I did some research and discovered yellow labs. Gentle cichlids, I was told, easy to keep in small groups. So, I suggested rainbow fish, yellow labs, blue labs and a bristle-nosed plec.
Rainbow fish were an even worse idea with this combination I was told, and labs aren't anywhere near as gentle as you've been lead to believe, especially in such a small tank, and much bigger than you think - a few horror stories later, I was convinced.
So today I took a trip to a shop which has an excellent reputation, especially for cichlids and had a long chat with the owner. He confirmed all the horror stories I'd been told but suggested some species that would be much better for my tank (he said). Incidently, he didn't like the bristlenose in this combination either - he said they hated the hard, high pH water and he pursuaded me that cheap and cheerful danios would be much better than expensive and difficult rainbows.
The recipe suggested was:
6 Brachydanio rerio (Zebra danios)
Small school of Neolamprologus brichardi (Lyretail cichlids)
Trio of shelldwellers (m + 2f, species according to availability)
Synodontis notatus occellatus (one-spot catfish)
The brichardi, he told me, were schooling fish and he'd never had a problem with aggression, provided they had plenty of caves and were kept in a small school. Then I posted this suggestion on a fish group.
It took an hour before I received my first horror story email. Brichardis are apparently known for their psychopathic ways. No one had heard of the catfish and I've heard nothing about shelldwellers, but genrally the opinion wasn't good. But everybody liked the danios
Meanwhile, I'm going totally off cichlids. Given the stories of mayhem and violence I've heard about them recently, I'm amazed anyone wants to keep them (except for loveble old angelfish). But, when I was into horses, I was always the person that got to ride the horse with the persistant rearing problem; and when I was into hamsters, I was the person that people took the vicious, un-tamable biters and spent hours persuading them not to eat human flesh. My mother can remember me at 6 years old, coming into the house with a weasle attached to one finger saying "Mummy, what kind of animal is this? Can you fetch my book so I can look it up before it escapes?"
So, I'm not the sort of person to shy away because an animal is difficult or demanding but I don't want to make stupid mistakes that I'm going to kick myself for later. If you have small, African cichlids, please tell me what you have that works. Thanks.
