Aquarium Decor

[Tommy Gunnz]

Hey everyone! Got a couple of questions....

First a little background. I have a 55 gallon tank which has held 6 bala sharks, 3 tinfoil barbs, an apple snail, a common pleco, and two peacock eels. Yesterday I was finally able to find a person with a huge tank to keep these fish in (it was actually a store who was looking for these fish to display in their adult sizes) and so I took them in for store credit. I spent about two hours picking the brain of the store owner and eventually bought 9 new cichlids. 3 pseudotropheus kennyi and 6 melanochromis auratus. All are small and too young to sex with any certainty, but they are doing great in the tank and my eels are acting like they have a new lease on life and have been out all day!

The tank is set up with a smaller type of gravel, but I wouldnt say it is 'sandy' at all. There is two halves of a sunken ship which is pretty large and a stump type decoration. Everything I have read about these fish is that they need a sandy substrate with rocks that is more like their natural habitat. I am wondering how important this is and what the downfall of not changing my tank's decor will be? There are plenty of hiding spots in my opinion and large number of fake plants to hide in also.

Also, if anyone has any other recomendations or info for me, I would love to hear it!

 

[Ginge]

I say alsong as there are many hiding places then it is fine you will need it with the melanochromis auratus thats for sure. What eels are they??? How big is the graval???

 

[Tommy Gunnz]

I have two peacock eels in the tank with them, both are about 5 to 6 inches long. Until today, I rarely if ever saw them.

The gravel is what I would say to be about 1/2 the size of a pea or maybe 1/8th of an inch in general. It is a little smoother than most gravel I have seen. I bought it specially for the eels from the store I bought them from. I have had three eels in there before, but one died. My plan was to rehouse them also, but I am most likely going to put that off until I have larger fish or they get too large.

 

[BiffMalawi]

Until recently I had a 2" female auratus. It terrorized or killed anything it was in with. I added 4 Kenyii in hopes of balancing out the aggression, I even put the auratus in last. She had everyone pinned into caves. I had to give her away. Shortly after I moved the auratus my tank was covered in Malasian trumpet snails, they were too scared to come out of the gravel. There was even a ghost shrimp I hadn't seen in months.

My point?

Well I just wanted to second the lots of hiding places and just to caution you about your eels. Keep a close eye on them incase you have to move them.

My auratus was one of the most beautiful fish I had. I was sorry to see her go.

 

[ridewake210]

^clearly stated above. lots of hiding places.^

heres a pic of my 75G african tank just for some ideas.

 

[mamafish68]

I just adore LFS that advise people new to africans to buy bunches of hyper aggressive mbuna....whats the name of the LFS if you dont mind, I want to put them on my "dont buy here" list..



You see the picture that ridewake posted? well THATS the amount of hidey holes you're going to need, not 2 halves of a ship and some plants, sorry to say your LFS steered you wrong.

 

[Ginge]

Mamma in all fairness if this ship covers like 70% of the tank wiht lots of hidey holes then it might be ok, Any pics please.

 

[ridewake210]

with all do respect.


i just dont think this ship is as big as u think it is.

 

[mamafish68]

even if the ship was half the size of the tank, even if it had more holes then swiss cheese it would still not be sufficient for a bunch of auratus and kenyi looking for their own territory. they want individual places not some co-op flop house LOL

 

[Tommy Gunnz]

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Qm6UdhCgiw
http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjFMi5i-2GI


These two vids are the best pics I can offer right now, my usual computer is having trouble connecting to the internet for some unknown reason. Obviously, these vids show the tank with my previous occupants in it.

Like I said, I have really no problem changing the decor of this tank, however, I want to get it right for once. A little background of my initiation into this hobby: I bought the tank in question on a sort of whim (I admit it was more to fill a space in my living room than anything else at the time) and the LFS I bought it from was so much help that they sold me 6 bala sharks and two tinfoil barbs for the damn thing. Oh, and this $100 ship wreck. It didnt take long for me to get alot of interest in the hobby and so I joined this forum and I only had to read one or two posts before I realized I was in trouble. So, four months later I have fish bigger than those who could even turn around in the tank and this is why I am here now, I returned the fish to a different LFS and got these 9 fish.

I admit that I am really starting to get frustrated over all of this because it seems as if everything I try, I am wrong. I would just like some good advice on what to do here because this is starting to cost me a lot of money. I love the fish I have right now, and I understand that they are agressive. I would just like to know how to keep this tank healthy and looking good.

 

[ridewake210]

yea. still pretty sure u dont have enough hiding places.


sorry

 

[Tommy Gunnz]

Would an auratus species tank work better if I was able to keep to one male and many females? Or would a kennyi species tank be better? I know this may be stretching it, but would a tank divider be an option to keep the species seperated?

I am also pretty interested in getting some yellow labs/electric yellow. These were my first choice really, however, I was told that they do not mix well with many other fish since they are so passive compared to other africans. This would be a last resort though, I would like to save some money for a couple more tanks that I have had my eye on for a while.

How long would you say I have until I start seeing problems? Like I said, these fish are 4 to 5 months old and about 2 inches long. I have no problems right now at all. In fact, they seem to be having a grand old time in there and are all really active. No noticable agression during the day at least. My eels are also out and about a whole lot more.