African Themed Tank?

[Llegmore]

Finally got myself a new tank - Rio 180 - for my Africa theme project. The idea started when I fell in love with African Butterfly fish. I have absolutely NO experience with cichlids, I'm more of a betta/tetra/guppy girl =S, but I'd love to try them if it could work so I'm in desperate need of advice.

So...

Does anyone have any stocking ideas for a 180 litre Africa theme to go with a pair of butterflies? I've always wanted cichlids ... but, as I said - no experience! Thankeee

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

You could do a classic African oddball tank...

2 or 3 ABF
3 or 4 Leopard Bushfish (alternatively, if you can source them, Microctenopoma congicum/ansorgii)
6 Congo Tetras or 8-10 Yellow Congo Tetras or 8-10 Synodontis nigriventris (I'd go with one of the latter two, a 100cm Juwel Rio180 might be a little short for P. interruptus long term)

As for the tank floor, I would leave that free for a pair of African Butterfly Cichlids, regarded as pretty mellow for a cichlid. Kribs might work, but would be more of a risk once they try and breed.

 

[ryan136]

Dont put african cichlids with the butterflies fish they r to aggressive or find sum that r not aggressive. Or a fish that will fit in it mouth cus they will eat it. Watch out cus they can jump out the water to o and they love floatin plants. Try congo tetra, Synodontis catfish, African knife fish and cory cats shud b ok

 

[Llegmore]

Cheers guys. I probably won't be stocking until august - planning to properly scape this one ... so plenty of time for research. Leopard bushfish look gorgeous. I'll have to look out for them. Congo tetras look gorgeous too!

Any suggestions for hard-scape - should I favor rock over wood?

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Definitely lots of bogwood over rocks with plants that break the surface (anubias fits the bill perfectly here, in the wild they grow on the water's edge, I was shocked to discover this during Anton Lamboj's talk at last year's BCA meeting in Redditch), great for giving the ABF security and the bushfih a place to naturally mimic being a leaf), these fish are found in tannin rich water and the bogwood maze with create a stimulating layout for the bushfish.

The key for this stocking plan is that tankmates need to be calm eaters, generally calm swimmers and non-aggressive.

I'm a big fan of African riverine fish and I'm in the middle of my own tetra dilemma (I have an ABFplus 4 Leopard Bushfish in my 5x2x2, 11 Synodontis nigriventris that will eventually be big enough to mix with them in my 48x12x15, but they are taking ages to grow to a decnet size)... I love the idea of an African Long Fin Tetra group (B. longipinnis) for my 5x2x2, but I fear if I do that I will need to keep the bushfish and ABF out of that tank for good, whereas Congo Tetra (P. interruptus) are a tried and tested combo with these shy predatory fish.

 

[Llegmore]

It is difficult to match the temperament of all the different fish - africans particularly I've heard. But I'm sure they're worth it in the end. They're all such beauties.

Never knew that about anubias hmmmm. I'll be sure to get some huge bog-wood bits, after all who needs to eat. and so the plan forms. muahahahhahaha.

 

[gregswimm]

Dont put african cichlids with the butterflies fish they r to aggressive or find sum that r not aggressive. Or a fish that will fit in it mouth cus they will eat it. Watch out cus they can jump out the water to o and they love floatin plants. Try congo tetra, Synodontis catfish, African knife fish and cory cats shud b ok

Oi, there are a lot of african cichlids that aren't rift cichlids. Congo tetras are too big for a 180L (you are going to want a large school, and that will take a lot of your bioload) and cory's aren't African!

When people say "African" there are 4 possibilities: Malawi, Tanganyika, Victoria, and West Africa. I assume when you want to put butterfly fish in your tank you want a West African theme tank, none of the fish you want will go any of the rift lakes. West Africa is very similar to South America in many ways but the species are different.

This set up needs good filtration 8-10x volume tunrover per hour 1440 LPH minimum(note that the stock filter (juwel 6.0?) only does 600lph which is insufficient)! I suggest getting an external sump to supplement your built in filter (very critical! and you can get a decent one for $50 USD, well worth the investment). CO2 is not necessary, but good flow is. You will need many plants, LOTS of wood/rocks that make a LOT of natural caves, but be sure to leave an open patch of sand (preferably on a far side of the aquarium). Substrate should be 3-5cm of flourite covered with 10-15cm sand) Lighting should be 2 Length appropriate T5 bulbs.
For a theme 180L i would do:

• A pair of: Any krib (Pelvicachromis pulcher/taeniatus/subocellatus) species, OR any Parananochromis OR Nanochromis parilius
• A pair of: Anomalochromis thomasi OR Hemichromis sp. "Bangui" OR Pseudocrenilabrus nicholsi
• Pick 2: 8 Neolebias trilineatus (three lined tetra)OR 8 Alestopetersius caudalis (yellow fin congo) OR 8-10 Bathyaethiops caudomaculatus (African moon tetra) OR 8-12 Ladigesia roloffi (Jelly Bean Tetra) OR 10 Nannaethiops unitaeniatus (one lined tetra) OR 12-15 neolebias gracilis or 15 Aplocheilichthys normani. Try and get a 1:2 Male to female ratio with all these fish.
• 5-8 Chiloglanis polypogon (African suckermouth catfish)(recommended!) OR 3-5 Synodontis nigriventris (upside down catfish) or 5-6 Synodontis contracta (Bug Eyed Squeaker) OR 3 Synodontis brichardi
• 1 African butterfly fish (maybe, provided you have enough surface cover)
  

Pick as many plants as you like the more the better, the more fast growing stem plants the less algae you will have. (Keep your nitrates somewhere between 5-30ppm, no need to dose any ferts.)
Plants are (All African unless I'm mistaken):

• (ez) Guinea broad leaf
• Pistia (nile cabbage)
• (Highly recommended ez) Anubias barteri/minima/lanceolata/augustifolia/hastifolia/coffefolia/afzelli/frazeri/nana
• 20+ Vallisneria spiralis (recommended)
• Bolbitis heudelotii (African water fern)
• African Hygro
• Aponogeton boivinianus
• Crinum natans
• Blyxa aubertii

Edited for accuracy/updated stocking.

 

[aether.ed]

Hello im new here joined coz i read your plans for an african tank and just thought id throw my experience out there!

unfortuantly i feel congo tetras may get a litle big and way too active for a 180, need to be in large groups and i wouldnt put em in anything smaller than a 300 because of this. The very minimum u need a mixed sex group of 6 and you might just get away with it but good congo tetras are not cheap and may not be worth the risk, maybe african red eyes may be more suitable?

Also the spotted bush fish grows to 6inches and gets territorial so the suggestion of 3 or 4 may be abit much. maybe just one.

Other fish that do well are senagal bichirs grow to nearly a foot but one may be okay in your tank as theyre not too active. a large (at least 6)school of true upsidedown catfish would also be awesome wouldnt get both tho each needs its space. African vampire shrimp grow to 6 inches and would be a suitable tank mate. also maybe a couple more butterfly fish as they enjoy the company of others and as a result are alot more active.

One thing i would mention are kribs, when breeding they are highly territorial and will take over ur tank. they wont bother the butterfly but will batter most other fish, theyd take on my 8inch syno eupterus's to the point that they would just hide constantly. Also bear in mind that this is in my 500ltr with only a single breeding pair of kribs, in a 180 theyd take over. I have however been tempted by the blockhead cichlid (steatocranus) as they are very unusual and knowhere near as fast and agile as kribs but being cichlids expect some aggro when breeding (must be kept as a male and female pair or they will get depressed and waste away)!

I know you dont want to hear this but i feel the usual african oddballs need a bigger tank. knife fish, elephantnose etc, Ive got em all and personally a 300ltr is absolute minimum.

My suggestion would be, 6-10 african tetra (if u can find anything abit smaller than the congo tetra, i know of african yellow fins and red eyes but dont know bout size or activeness. If u do get congos i would get 6 no more no less due to its social needs and ur limited tank space), another butterfly or 2, 1 spotted bush fish and 6 or more upsidedown catfish!I tend to think of upsidedown catfish as the african corys, always wizzin about together, dont get big either! The bush fish then becoming the centerpiece, they have a great personality comparable to cichlids and are very friendly with their owner.

Alternative to the upsidowners, a senagal bichir or a pair of blockhead cichlids maybe? (never kept blockheads but their behaviour has always facinated me) any of these alternatives will require a soft sand substrate and caves, upsidedown cats just need plants and wood to hang around but need to be kept in groups to be happy and active.

Also the vast majority of african fish require quite subdued lighting or you may never see them from hiding, floating plants do the trick there!

African fish are amazing and unique, im planning a monster sized 850gallon 8ft beast of a tank, hoping to capture a slice of the congo in my livingroom.

Some things to read for some african ideas....
http/www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/content.php?sid=4153

http/www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/content.php?sid=3616

A vid of my current african community tank, got most things in there! as said its a 500ltr 110-130gal depending on what part the world ur from, but got a 850gal planned as my puffer will grow to 2.5ft!
http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=COkOoOSaog0&list=HL1339332659&feature=mh_lolz
Its a lively biostrous tank but no outright aggro anymore since i split up my kribs! Just ignore the java fern, couldnt find african fern anywhere! May not work on ipads n things due to content restrictions.

Hope you have as much fun as i have had with african fish! expensive but soo worth it!

Any questions please ask.

Ed

P.s the above post is talking complete sense any african fish = much larger than ur average bioload for some reason, maybe its just they love their food. and also water quality is of great importance the majority of the african fish are very sensitive and will not tolerate anything other than the most pristine of water conditions (elephantnose for example). However on the flipside those bichirs in my experience are tough as old boots and live forever!

I'd just disagree with the kribs, individuals are fine but mine were some of the most brutal bullys of fish ive ever seen, they wanted that tank to themselves and nigh on got it by battering everything else into hiding no matter how big the fish was. No damage was done tho, all my fish can handle their own if needs be!

 

[gregswimm]

I agree with you. The congo tetras were added because I was running out of readily accessible fast dither (every LFS I have seen carries them). I keep kribensis and am acutely aware of how territorial they may be. I figured the heavy use of dither will spread out the agression, but this may not be so. I have also suggested alternative cave spawners such as Parananochromis and Nanochromis. As for the cats, Chiloglanis polypogon would be the prefered cat of choice for its taste of algae, but they are ridiculously hard to find. I am also trying to keep the bottom dwellers to a minimum. The Synodontis are both small fast and nocturnal making them in my mind the perfect choice for bottom dweller.

If I were to use my template to make a tank I would stock it: 2x Nanochromis parilius, 2x Anomalochromis thomasi, 12x Ladigesia roloffi, 10x Bathyaethiops caudomaculatus, 6x Synodontis contracta (assuming Chiloglanis is unavailable), and more anubias/vals than you could shake a stick at.

Ultimately it is up to the owner to research the fish and decide what works best for him/her.

Edit: The reason cichlids have a larger bio-load than other fish is because of how they eat. They are quite messy. They have 2 sets of jaws, one for biting and the pharyngeal which is located in the back of the moth/throat is used for chewing. When they chew small food particles exit through the gills and the food may be spit out and re-eaten in order to better chew it.

And welcome to the forum!

 

[gregswimm]

Also, when you say block head cichlid, I assume you are talking about Steatocranus casuarius? I don;t recomend them because they require very fast currents and high O2 levels. They also get large in comparison to some of the other fish mentioned.

I think a senegal birchir would be too big, too much of a threat to smaller fish, and compete too much with the cichlids for caves.

Edit: There are some of these rarer fish on AB
Anomalochromis thomasi perfect number to get a pair or 2
jelly bean tetra
syno brichardi
non-anual killies

 

[aether.ed]

Yeah thinking about it the requirement for realitivly high current for the blockheads would contradict the low current requirements for the butterfly, my bad. But most african oddball tanks require low light for fish like the butterflys so algae wouldnt be in great supply, so an algae eater should not be a necessity. I get little to no algae at all in my low light set up.

Id say

6-10 congo tetra alternatives, 6 if congo's r ur only option
6 upsidedown cats
3 butterflys
1 spotted bush fish

maybe a small cave dwelling cichlid but i dont think it'l be necessary the bush fish has more than enough character to be the centerpiece! and the upsidedown catfish would get pushed out of caves by the small cichlids. I'd think for an ultimately peaceful community tank maybe miss out cichlids, they are territorial and aggressivly protective parents whenever they decide to breed. and then u have to figure out what to do with babies. To be honest tho my cichlid experience is limited to various apistogramma, angelfish, severum and the kribs all exhibited similar agression except those #40## kribs who were brutal with it. others maybe somewhat more peaceful. The thing im saying is ur other fish could do without the potential aggro in a tank that size, u may find em constantly on edge, especially the shy skittish fish like congo tetras.

But hey what do i know, i have never had experience with the suggested cichlid species and it would be wrong of me to put all cichlids in the same basket as i realise how different each fish can be.

I dont know much about killies but id worry about butterfly fish munchin them if they are as small as I think they are (guppy sized?)

Just have fun with it and keep your fish nice n happy!

Ed

 

[aether.ed]

Have to admit im an african oddball fish nut and not really into the cichlids, my brother keeps all sorts and absolutely loves em. I got into the whole thing with polypterus as i loved the prehistoric dinosaur look then got into all the amazing synodontis and it just went mad from there, anything weird and wonderful, it just so happens all the best weird and wonderful fish are african! Lovin it!

Thanks for the welcome!

Ed

edit: Aha, I just realised. This is a cichlid forum haha, i just googled ended up on this post and added my thing not realising that im in the african cichlid bit haha, im such a dumbass! Guess some of it may still be relevant.

 

[Llegmore]

Wow so much info. Thanks people. I know it's quite a small tank for the theme I'm aiming at. Unfortunately, it's the biggest I can get as I'm only allowed tanks in my bedroom and I already have 3

It's definitely going to be very heavily planted and I will get extra filtration.

When it comes to fish species, I have a lot of time to do piles of research as I'm not planning on actually stocking the tank until late summer/autumn. Weirdly enough, I couldn't find congo tetras in any of my local LFS so I probably wouldn't get them anyway. In fact yesterday I was close to scrapping the whole scheme and just keeping a couple of butterfly fish by themselves.


Welcome Ed. That's a great tank. I swear I should just get rid of my bed and wardrobe Honestly, I would love an oddball tank. But I really don't have the space for one and it's all about keeping my babies happy.

The whole thing really depends on what fish I can actually get. Ordering online is out of the question - it's a cash only situation. so I'm a bit limited as it is. I used to know an awesome oddball specialist shop nearby but they shut down so I'm stuck with the LFS. Hopefully it'll be worth the wait.

 

[gregswimm]

Low light, and go heavy on the anubias and pistia. And obtaining fish that your LFS doesn't stock isn't such a huge pain, no real need to order online. If you have a good LFS (one that specializes in fish) they will often take orders. I know if I place an order at my LFS they will usually have it in the saturday of that wk.

As for the congo tetra, try and stay away from them. IMHO if you are going to stock cichlids (you can easily do 2 species) a large school of smaller fish would be better vs a small school of larger fish. The advantages are three fold: the cichlids are less likely to focus on one particular fish, the fish can hide in smaller places where the cichlids cannot get to them, and a larger school of fish will help maintain the health of all the fish in said school. Schooling fish feel safer when lots of their brethren are around and fish with less stress will stay healthier (less prone to disease) and may spawn/exhibit more natural behaviors that you would see in the wild.

The key to housing 2 teritoral cichlids together in the same tank is to utilize both ends of the tank left side for fish A and right side for fish B. You will want to arrange the sides with the species you want to keep in mind. Lets take an example and move from left to right in the aquarium. Anomalochromis thomasi (will be known as fish A) has been chosen along with Parananochromis caudifasciatus (will be known as fish P). We know A is a substrate spawner so we arrange the left side of the tank with a clearing of open sand with a few flat stones on the floor. This clearing my be bordered by some larger annubias. As we move to the right side of the tank our objective with the design is to block fish A's view of fish P, and vice versa. On the right side of the tank is where we plan to make fish P's terrirtory. We know fish P is a cave spawner so we decorate accordingly. A large piece of wood that has lots of fish sized nooks and holes, a pice of texas holey rock can work well (assuming the fish can fit in the holes), and/or arrange some wood with cichlid stones. However it is done the main objective is to create an environment on opposite ends of the tank that favor each cichlid. Leave the middle half of the tank as a 'neutral zone', an area where neither cichlid will want to take up residence.
This setup combined with a very active top and middle section can actually prevent the 2 cichlid species from evicting one another if aggression does arise. The more fish you have in the top/middle strata of the tank, the less likely 1 fish will be picked on multiple times. The other good thing about a large active school is that not much harm should befall our butterfly fish (especially if it can camouflage in the floating plant).

To get a pair of cichlids is not as simple as picking a male and a female and assuming they will fall madly in love and not beat on eachother. You should get no less than 5 of each species, house each species preferably in separate tanks (but this is not always necessary example being I got 2 pair of L.ornatipinns and 1 pair of J.marlieri from dumping 6 of each in a 55g, the fun part is removing unpaired individuals). You will be able to tell un-paired individuals as they will be forced out of cover and or forced to the top of the tank, pairs will usually stick together. You can then take the un-paired fish back to the fish store and trade them for something else. This is the only way I know of to make pairs of cichlids while keeping all your hair on your head where it belongs.

Cichlid species (and fish in general) are vast and my knowledge is not. It is therefore imperative that you research the species that interest you and find out as much as you can about their habitat and behavior. This goes for ever fish in the tank. This can be one of the most interesting tanks on this site (and in the world), and I am totally jealous