240 litre (63 US gallon) freshwater aquarium diary

[Helina18 11]

Hello! Welcome to my diary!

It is happening, God permitting, tomorrow or day after tomorrow a new used, well looked after aquarium with a beautiful cabinet, arrives!

Home is ready!

My only current aquarium 54 litre (14 US gallon) aquarium moved to bedroom next to my desk. It's been running since 2020. You can find its diary here. I thought it was an impossible dream to have a second, larger tank in this 2 room apartment, but it'll become reality now! I am super excited!

The new aquarium will have its current inhabitants moved with it. Which are:

6 x adult Labidochromis caeruleus Yellow Lab Cichlid
1 x adult Iodotropheus sprengerae Rusty Cichlid

So, a Malawi lake cichlid aquarium it'll be.
I have seen in several places in the internet plecos being cept with cichlids, though my aquarium store told me to forget that idea. We'll see. I'm investigating it, and will gladly hear your experiences and ideas about it. Cheers!

 

[Jennet31 89]

I think I am almost as excited as you to witness this thread having kept Malawi's in the 80's without knowing sufficient about them. I had two yellow lab Cichlids in my tank and a few blue's and blue stripe, plus a few others. Never kept anything else but Cichlids in mine, so looking forward to this journey with you.

 

[Helina18 11]

I think I am almost as excited as you to witness this thread having kept Malawi's in the 80's without knowing sufficient about them. I had two yellow lab Cichlids in my tank and a few blue's and blue stripe, plus a few others. Never kept anything else but Cichlids in mine, so looking forward to this journey with you.

I'm supper happy to hear this!
It's THE tank which picture I posted to my other tanks diary. With super beautiful cabinet and stony decor. Custom-made cabinet, crafted on the spot! I got nearly 30% off the price that she was originally asking! Such a blessing!

She said she is already starting to miss them cichlids, but that she and her husband are getting old and she thought it's a good time to let go. I said the aquarium will be most appreciated and that I'm actually really happy to get the fish too, despite that my original plan was to buy the aquarium without fish. As I looked into the fish, I started to really want them too! I'm excited to see the beautiful fish and what they are like!

I plan to try to add some Anubias hard leafed plants and Java Fern among the stones and see if they last. But I need to wait with that till November I think.

 

[Naughts51 123]

I have seen in several places in the internet plecos being cept with cichlids, though my aquarium store told me to forget that idea.

What species of pleco?
Generally your cichlids need a water hardness of 10-25GH, hard water. And pleco are considered softer water species 2-12GH.
So what is the GH and what species are you considering adding?

 

[Helina18 11]

So what is the GH and what species are you considering adding?

Ideally a zebra pleco L046. It's reported to do well in also slihtly alcaline water and I was going to aim for water hardness in the lower end of what cichlids require, GH 10.Temperature needs to be around 27 celsius I believe.

But if that won't work out well then maybe some variety of Bristlenose pleco instead. And I plan to add pleco caves amongst rocks if I see this plan through. How does this sound?

 

[Naughts51 123]

How are you “aiming for water hardness”?
I wouldn’t do cichlids at 10GH. Fish do best in parameters in the middle of their range.
The L046 would be outcompeted for food with your fish.

 

[Helina18 11]

How are you “aiming for water hardness”?
I wouldn’t do cichlids at 10GH. Fish do best in parameters in the middle of their range.
The L046 would be outcompeted for food with your fish.

Hey!
I'm still investigating this as an option. There's much for me to still learn before I decide. I have tests for water hardness and pH and water hardening powder. I read from somewhere (forgot to bookmark it) that I should feed plecos when I turn the lights off, for it not to be out competed for food with cichlids.

Another possibility is that I keep from getting plecos while I have cichlids. They are from a patch that is of 8 years of age already. Will have to think this through and read more about it. But yeah, at least that Tropica guy George Farmer has a bristlenose pleco with his cichlids successfully:

 

[Naughts51 123]

Ancistrus are not as delicate as hypancistrus zebra. Species vary. For parameters research at seriouslyfish.com or Loaches Online.
What is the ‘water hardness powder’ you have? Water hardness (GH), alongside temperature, is paramount for the health of the fish.

 

[Helina18 11]

Finally done!

2 days work, my first ever big tank with external filter. I had it done, then had to dismantle everything up to also removing most of the sand again. Because.... It wasn'even! Though we had looked as if it was. But it was much worse than that, catastrophe wasn't far but as if a miracle everything worked out perfectly now, yet again. No accident. Second miracle on this trip.

So here it is! Introducing my lovely slim and tall Malawi aquarium with some wavey cryptocorynes.

 

[Jennet31 89]

Looks lovely. I've just bought a Cryptocoryne balansae as a small plant. Will probably use it to replace the Sword I have currently as my feature plant as that is getting too tall and the leaves getting brown stuff on them. Also stopping catfish pellets and algae wafers from dropping fully to base of aquarium. My 3 corydoras still giving me lovely displays of wizzing round at times when I am sitting in my spot in lounge and am not close. I had two yellow labs in my Malawi aquarium in 80's and early 90's. Definately able to fight their corner against some of the other cichlids when it suited them to. Did not breed though. Probably my tank was overstocked at that time. Although did not often lose a fish, which is something.

 

[Helina18 11]

Looks lovely. I've just bought a Cryptocoryne balansae as a small plant.

I added Cryptocoryne spiralis - it's beautiful!
In the start of this video.

Did not breed though. Probably my tank was overstocked at that time.

I heard the fry gets often eaten in aquarium as soon as they're released from the mouth of the female. So they might have been breeding.

 

[Jennet31 89]

Yeah, some cichlids do that. I think there are not too many that take care of their fry to enable enough of them to grow sufficiently to leave in the aquarium. It was never my aim to breed them, so I did not worry too much about them, although I do find mouthbrooders and any fish that take care of their fry very interesting.

 

[Helina18 11]

 

[Helina18 11]

The female who is carrying fry is thin already and seems weaker than before. It's been resting on top of the filter intake. The release of the baby fish might be close. I spent most of today watching the tank and first I tried to catch it to isolate it and to save the babies. At around noon, after a 30 min chase I left the nets to the tank and kept on watching it. Praying together with friend for it to swim to the net! I placed them where it used to hang most. After 5 pm I also asked one of my Chuch evangelist to pray for it, and in under 10 min the fish swam straight inside one of the nets! And it happened while I was standing close by, and catched it!

It's in a livebearers floating breeding box at the moment but tomorrow I'll get a chanse to order a bigger hanging net box for it and the fry.

Does anyone else have ecperience with these females getting overly thin and weak? Do you keep them separately and feed it how often after release of the babies?

There's a male hanging around it much now, maybe trying to help her. Maybe it's his babies there.

 

[TNG1]

I'd release the female back in the tank.

Below is an extract from Aquarium Source.

After she lays her eggs, the female will scoop them up in her mouth. She incubates the eggs for as long as 40 days. During that time, she won’t eat a thing!
The mother continues to hold the babies after they hatch. The youngsters absorb the egg sac for a few days before they become free-swimming. That’s when she releases the fry into the open waters.