Bigg(ish) New Worlds For A 180

[tenohfive]

That was my thought, so hopefully they'll either pick their territories peacefully or have one little scrap and be fine after that.

 

[markandhisfish]

probably the second of the 2. out of the 3 id say the acara will be boss of the tank. they are generally fairly peacefull but at the same time easily capable of dominating a tank. having said this any aggression is usually reserved for any fish that stray too close to the acaras "patch" altho this would be compensated by the fact that the other 2 should grow faster than the acara . so once a pecking order is established id say you should have a nice tank there

 

[tenohfive]

Cheers, fingers crossed. Have just got the tank setup - needs a couple of days to settle down but its looking promising. Could do with abit more bogwood, which is sods law as I sold a bagful a month or two back. But should be okay. Have gone for the central bogwood spire with 3 or 4 stone and slate caves and some light planting in between - and an open swimming area at the front of the tank. Hopefully there are enough areas that can be claimed as a territory for each of them.

 

[tenohfive]

One other thing I forgot to ask about was feeding. I've got a fairly comprehensive collection of dried food - freeze dried bloodworm, brine shrimp, daphnia, flake, tetra prime, spirulina, catfish wafers etc. I've seen reference to cichlid pellets - any particular type? I've heard good things about the Hikari ones so may pick up some of them whilst at Wildwoods, and given this is going to be my show tank I was thinking about getting some frozen food as well - what should I pick up, what should I feed and how often? Taking into account the pictus are carnivores and are probably quicker than the cichlids.

 

[markandhisfish]

i feed mine hikari pellets tetrapro veg crisps ( severums) frozen food like bloodworm mysis krill etc for the pictus you can get nutrafin max sinking pellets with shrimp and krill mine used to like them. they will also appreciate live bloodworm. i wouldnt worry about the pictus getting the food before the cichlids it more likely gonna be thw other way round cichlids are greedy sods. i usually feed mine whatever they eat in around 2 minutes twice a day once in the morning and again in the evening.

 

[tenohfive]

Cheers. Much aquascaping later, tank is nearly ready - just needs a couple of extra bits of bogwood to complete it really, and some time for the plants to grow out.

Thanks for the advice, looking forward to going to Wildwoods on Wednesday now.

 

[Acara Man]

Get some pictures up?

 

[tenohfive]

Will do tomorrow, just going through the saga of moving my community tank from their temporary 80L plastic bin home to a new tank.

 

[Davo86]

Angels: an option, some spectacular ones but most are abit bland
Festivums: only get to about 4" don't they? If so, a bit small again
Keyholes: nice but too small and indistinctive

Festivums should be hitting 6 - 8" same sized and a suitable tankmate for angels

Also sajica, spilurim or Rainbow Cichlids would also be ok

 

[tenohfive]

Angels: an option, some spectacular ones but most are abit bland
Festivums: only get to about 4" don't they? If so, a bit small again
Keyholes: nice but too small and indistinctive

Festivums should be hitting 6 - 8" same sized and a suitable tankmate for angels

Also sajica, spilurim or Rainbow Cichlids would also be ok

Cheers. Settled on one of each of sajica, t.ellioti, blue acara and 3 pictus.

Changed me mind - got pics of tank now. I've got a few planned adjustments, but any comments welcome:

 

[Davo86]

Lol, didn't see there was a second page to this thread,

I would add some tall pieces of redmoor if you can , this should encourage the fish to venture higher up the tank as they will feel that they can quickly dart behind it if needed.

Just for reference I currently have a sajica T. Ellioti and green acara (Aequidens Coeruleopunctatus) and the sajica is by far the most aggressive, with the other two being fairly timid, (all 3 are juvis at about 2-3inches)

Pictus can get pretty big, but I'm happy returning them if they outgrow the tank before I replace it with something bigger - which is unlikely. That said, I'm open to suggestions for an alternative catfish thats bigger than cory's and doesn't skulk in caves all day.

Think I'll stick a post in one of the catfish forums to answer that question though.

Pictus should do fine, although a cool alternative would be a couple of hoplo cats

 

[tenohfive]

I'll see if I can get some redmoor, sounds like a good idea - I was looking for ways to extend the decor upwards abit but my only idea so far was to stack a couple more bits of bogwood up there. A bit more light planting (to seperate some of the rock caves) and a black background were the other changes I had in mind.

Fingers crossed it all works out, and thanks to everyone who's contributed. Once I've made the changes I'm planning I'll stick another couple of pic's up.

 

[markandhisfish]

good stuff will be watching this 1 develop its going to have 3 of my fave fish in it

 

[tenohfive]

Quick update:

Thanks to sharktale I was able to get some rocks I've been meaning to collect for awhile, and a new piece of bogwood that was in itself a mini cave - I used this as a base for a bogwood spire/pile. A quick trip to my LFS to get a few plants and this is the result - apologies for the quality of the pictures, the tank needs a bit of a clean and needs some plant detritus hoovering out tomorrow - and photo's taken on my mobile:

 

[Davo86]

Looks good,

are they real aquatic plants? they look a bit like houseplants to me,