Cichlid Tank?

[nightmare sasuke]

I bought a fish tank about three years ago and packed it with a lot of fish; I eventually lost interest and most of them died off. Two now remain, and they're both cichlids (however, I am not sure what kind—they're probably some sort of African Cichlid). I just got interested in fish again and I want to repopulate my aquarium and get it looking nice again. However, I do not want to rush into it like before and I want make sure I know what I am doing.

I had the pH tested and it was slightly off so I made a water change so the pH should be okay by now (I have to go to my pet store to have it tested again). The temperature is fine (for what the internet says cichlids need). But there are some things I am unsure of.

Firstly, what type of gravel or decorations should I use? Currently, I have a mixture of light and dark pebble shaped stones for gravel. I have one cave like decoration, two artificial plants, some round rocks with slate rocks stacked on top of them to form little areas to be swam through, a clay pot turned over on its side for fish to swim into, and a piece of artificial drift wood which acts as a cave of sorts. These decorations fill the tank length wise, but they don’t rise above half of the water level (I have an 150 gallon tank). I’m not sure if I should stack some more rocks on each other to cover more of the height of the tank. Are these decorations enough? What do cichlids favor? What should I take away or change, and is it to late to change (with my fish still in there at this point)?

Another concern I have is what other fish to add to it. I want the species to compliment each other and be able to stand each other. Is there any rules to how many fish you should have, and what ones work together? I read some brief articles which made it sound like you have to have a number of different species that balance each other out territorially, is this true?

What type of cichlids do you recommend? If only certain species can work together, then I probably have to just by different species similar to the two fish I already have. However, I am not sure what species the fish I have now are. I’ll try to describe them and maybe I can post a picture later.

The one fish is about 3-4 inches long:

The other fish is pretty big, about 4-5 inches:

This fish (above) has been on the bottom a lot lately and only comes up for food, I think it might have ich or something. Can any of you tell? What should I do for it? Anyway, back on topic...

Since these fish are pretty big, does that mean I can only add bigger fish? Because the bigger ones are a bit expensive and I’m pretty poor.

Here are two pictures of my tank:

P.S. Should I buy live plants for my tank, or will the fish dig them up? How could having plants help my tank?

Thanks!

 

[SamUK]

wow lots of questions lol.

cant help you with IDs im afriad, only jus got into this myself.

for substrate i used crushed coral and then i used limestone for my rockscaping. both help with the PH which inturns helps so you dont have to alter the ph with chemicals or anything.

for decorations, african cichlids need loads of hiding places and more people build up big piles of rocks with caves for them to go in.

thats mine. i dont have many fish yet tho.


i was told my plants would get eaten but these ones dont seem to look tastey to my fish (dont kno what there called sorry.) and i stopped them digging them up by placing more small bits of limestone around the bases.


finally, for other fish. its best to go see what fish are available and then come bak and see whats best for your tank by doin a lil reasearch.

half the time the fish you see on here wont be at your LFS.

 

[Ferris]

The top pic is a Pseudotropheus Zebra orange blotch and the bottom one looks like an Aulonocara Nyassae. Have a read of the pinned article at the top of this forum for some brilliant general info on Mbuna, it's well worth a read.

 

[G_Sharky]

the bottom pic is not an Aul, it`s a haplochromis borleyi kandango redfin male...the other one is an Ps. zebra OB like ferris said....

 

[Ferris]

Gotta disagree on the 2nd pic id G_sharky, it looks nothing like any borleyi kadango redfin i've ever seen, wrong body shape and definately wrong colouration. To be honest i'm not completely sure its a Nyassae either but from the pic, that's my best guess.

 

[mamafish68]

I'm with sharky, it's a borleyi
ob is the first one

 

[Ginge]

Yeah heres the pinned topic.
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=27706
As you can see it is best to have alot of build up rock n stuff

Thats my tank.