About three months ago, my wife informed me that the native New York saltwater fish I was keeping in our 75 gallon were ugly, and she was uninterested in the tank. I'm fortunate to live on the bay, so I have great access to all kinds of cool but "natural" colored fish. Due to limited space, I decided to go back to my first love, African cichlids.
My original plan was to stock a few tilapia that stayed reasonably sized, and a mix of colorful mbuna. Well, the only readily available tilapia species was the Buttekoferi, and I don't think I need to explain the aggression issues with them.
The tank is completely drained, cleaned, and ready to go. It has playsand substrate and a good pile of lace rock for decoration.
Plan B - go with a mix of Electric blue M Callinos, Yellow labs, & a third orange or red colored fish. It's been some time since I've bothered to go into a pet store, and boy was I in for a surprise. Most of the local shops have shut down, and I'm not going with the "mutts" at Petco's assorted tank. Anywhere remotely decent was extremely expensive. I decide to put out a wire at the local Nassau county aquarium society website, and I met a great guy named Artie who was cool enough to invite me over, where I was given a tour of his many setups, and was also able to purchase 10 baby yellow labs in the .75-1 inch range for an extremely reasonable price.
Fish go in the tank at the very beginning of September, and proceed to put on .25-.5 of an inch in just under 2 months time. However, they only come out to feed. So I have this tank full of rock. Well, I decide it's time to add some dither fish, and since tiger barbs come to mind, I head out on my search. I eventually settled on 3 HUGE green tiger barb males that are stunning. I also decide to put six 2-2.5" tinfoil barbs in for movement, since I could only find three green barbs.
Please note - I know how big tinfoils get. When they eventually outgrow the tank I will either find new homes, or if I can't rehouse them, humanely euthanize them for bait in my crab traps. It doesn't matter what kind of fish are used as bait, the blue claws aren't picky, and I don't value a tinfoil any more or less than the bluefish I usually use.
Since the addition of the barbs, the labs are out all day long. The tanks looks beautiful, and a few more green barbs and a pair of bristlenose will complete the project. I must admit I'm enjoying the barbs immensely, even as much as my cichlids. I'll post periodic updates every month or two. My nine week old boy loves to watch the fish swim, so we spend around 15 minutes a day looking and learning about the tank.
Thanks for reading, and feel free to make comments as you wish.
My original plan was to stock a few tilapia that stayed reasonably sized, and a mix of colorful mbuna. Well, the only readily available tilapia species was the Buttekoferi, and I don't think I need to explain the aggression issues with them.
The tank is completely drained, cleaned, and ready to go. It has playsand substrate and a good pile of lace rock for decoration.
Plan B - go with a mix of Electric blue M Callinos, Yellow labs, & a third orange or red colored fish. It's been some time since I've bothered to go into a pet store, and boy was I in for a surprise. Most of the local shops have shut down, and I'm not going with the "mutts" at Petco's assorted tank. Anywhere remotely decent was extremely expensive. I decide to put out a wire at the local Nassau county aquarium society website, and I met a great guy named Artie who was cool enough to invite me over, where I was given a tour of his many setups, and was also able to purchase 10 baby yellow labs in the .75-1 inch range for an extremely reasonable price.
Fish go in the tank at the very beginning of September, and proceed to put on .25-.5 of an inch in just under 2 months time. However, they only come out to feed. So I have this tank full of rock. Well, I decide it's time to add some dither fish, and since tiger barbs come to mind, I head out on my search. I eventually settled on 3 HUGE green tiger barb males that are stunning. I also decide to put six 2-2.5" tinfoil barbs in for movement, since I could only find three green barbs.
Please note - I know how big tinfoils get. When they eventually outgrow the tank I will either find new homes, or if I can't rehouse them, humanely euthanize them for bait in my crab traps. It doesn't matter what kind of fish are used as bait, the blue claws aren't picky, and I don't value a tinfoil any more or less than the bluefish I usually use.
Since the addition of the barbs, the labs are out all day long. The tanks looks beautiful, and a few more green barbs and a pair of bristlenose will complete the project. I must admit I'm enjoying the barbs immensely, even as much as my cichlids. I'll post periodic updates every month or two. My nine week old boy loves to watch the fish swim, so we spend around 15 minutes a day looking and learning about the tank.
Thanks for reading, and feel free to make comments as you wish.
It will be cool if u post a pic of the full tank-if you know what I mean 
I believe so.... 
