First time Cichlid owner

[ccg]

Hello everyone!

I have kept fish for many years, but for the first time I am going to try and keep some cichlids. I have been reading, but I need some advice and pointers on where to start and how to go about this.

First problem, my tanks are not very big, so I need to stick with some of the smaller kinds, and for a start the more hardry kinds. I have two tanks I plan on using, a 35 gallon and a 45 gallon.

Each tank is well planted (fake plants) and has lots of hiding places for them. I do not plan on keeping very many fish, and for startes I am just using the one tank.

Questions:

1. What species is common for a starter like myself?
2. I plan to keep 3 fish in my 35 gallon. 1M 2F (is this ok)
3. I have breed some fish in the past, just live bearers and various barbs, but I am also interested in trying to breed my new cichlids. What type is easy to breed?

Other then that I think I have everything ready to go. I have a nice new home ready for them. I have an endless supply of live food (guppies) for them. Lots of caves and plants in the tank etc. Water is perfect. Just need some pointers on what I should start out with (keep in mind I am interested in getting them to breed).

Thanks very much and sorry about the long post.

Colen.

 

[vantgE]

You have a several african choices for a tank your size but these aren't carnivores and the guppies not a good food. If you want to feed the cichlids guppies I would check in the neworld section instead there maybe a few options there. If not bent on the guppies as feeders consider reading the pinned mbuna topic

 

[ccg]

I just have tanks and tanks of guppies, so I though if they would like some in there diet then I would give it a shot. It is fine if they should not be in their diet, it was just a thought.

 

[vantgE]

Well like I said if you want to check out some newworld cichlids, they would most likely have something in mind just below for you to feed them too, but the most common and easiets thing over here(africans) to try which guppies can't be fed too would be mbuna, Some ideas include Labidochromis Caeruleus Psedotropheus soulosi Iodotropheus Sprengerae Pseudotropheus Acie This is pretty much copied from another post i made just below here but these are some easy and common choices though you have many more check around the internet and your lfs for some other ideas

EDIT wait for fredyk to say something I could be wrong

 

[freddyk]

ccq, did you have any specific cichlids in mind? The way I see it, you have a few options for cichlid setups.

1) the mini Mbuna tank. There aren't many mbuna that do well in smaller tanks like 35 gallons, Vantage has listed them already. You can do 1 male with 3-5 females in that tank. If you can find Saulosi, you can do 1 male with 6 or 7 females, as they don't grow as large as the others. If you wish, you can also do 1m/2f of two different species. If you choose to do a mbuna tank, be very careful with what you choose. Many people think they've beaten the odds when they try fish they were told won't work, only to find they were wrong when the fish mature and become aggressive. If you can't get any of the ones listed above, I'd suggest looking at other options. Mbuna are most popular, with reason, but they're not necessarily the best.

2) the peacock tank. This would be a harem of 1m/2-3f Aulonocara (peacocks). The males are absolutely stunning, as nice as freshwater fish can get, the females are quite bland. Lab. Caeruleus and Iodo. sprengera are mbuna you can mix into this tank, for variety.

3)the Tanganyika tank. In this you can have a couple different pairs of rockdwellers, like Julidochromis, Neo. Leleupi, Neo Caudopunctatus, Altolamp. dwarf etc., some shell dwellers, and some schoaling tetra's. These tanks can make the most rewarding cichlid tanks of all, but they also require research on your part, to make sure you're choosing the right ones to put together, and they tend to be more expensive too.

4)Monogomous new world tank. This includes the common dwarves like rams, kribs (kribs are african but i treat them as new world), apistogramma, and keyholes, as well as smaller non-dwarves like convicts and firemouths. With many of these you can keep non-cichlid shoaling tankmates as well.

I don't mean to confuse you, but I thought you should know your options. If you wanted to look into anything further, just let us know.