My Brand New Buddies!

[Tommy Gunnz]

Hey everyone! I finally got some pictures of my new cichlid friends. I traded in my bala sharks and tinfoil barbs (I was a little bit overstocked having enough fish for a 1000 gallon tank in a 55 gallon! Stupid LFS people!) and got 6 M. auratus and 3 P. kennyi. I have three more kennyi coming in next week to even the tank out.

Anyways, I had a big ship wreck decoration in there and I took it out last night to start building up 'caves' and hiding places for my new friends. I really like the bottom half of the tank, but now I need to find a way to 'fill' the upper portion. If you have any ideas, I am all ears. I am a little leery about building up a big pile of stones though, unless someone can help me do it safely. I had a 10 gallon tank break on the floor once and it wasnt pretty so I am guessing 55 gallons will be just that must worse!

This is the tank previous to my new fish and the decoration changes. (It is cloudy due to being n the middle of cycling) I loved how this tank seemed 'full' and there was stuff to look at everywhere.

Here is the tank overall. I realize it is hard to see well with these pictures. I am still working on figuring out the camera!

My patriotic M. auratus!

An example of the 'caves' I am trying to create. Do I have the gist of it? I am wondering how to form a 'cave' in the middle of the tank though. I ran out of room making them with the tank glass as the back of the cave. Any ideas for me?

My ceramic 'tree trunk' decoration. The only thing that I kept in the tank from before. This auratus defends his new home with gusto!

The only pic in which I could get a kennyi to stand still for more than half a second. I think they were scared off by the red light on the front of the camera. The auratus was actually pretty curious of it!

These are the only two fish who spend any length of time in the middle of the tank. They seem to be just fine with having all the open space to themselves and are not interested in the caves as of yet.

Thanks for looking at my pictures. Again, I appologize for the quality. Like I said, if you have ANY hints or suggestions for me, I would love to hear them. I am also thinking of changing the gravel to either a black sand or at least another color

 

[Loko17]

Looks nice, lovely fish but it kind of seems that everything is taking away from everything, like its kind of all over the place. Kind of hard to describe but the fish look very happy.

 

[Tommy Gunnz]

Loko,

Thanks alot. It is a work in progress. I am hoping to 'dull it down' a little by changing the substrate and possibly going to an all black or blue background to help the fish stand out. I just flipped the background from its 'brighter' side and I think it helped a lot.

Thanks again!

 

[SamUK]

id start running away right now!! lol



i had 1 M. aurautus and it killed about 12 fish.


there one of if not the most vicsous africans going and 6 mature fish are gonna dominate your tank.

 

[denis coghlan]

Stupid LFS people!!!!!!

We all "know" and are "aware" that some/most (there are exceptions) LFS are only interested in the money, so is it really the "stupid LFS people" at this stage!! Tommy Gunnz, I am going to say that it is foolhardy to think that you can keep six of these "extremely aggressive" fish in a tank together let alone with other fish.

Please check this link M.aurautus

I am going to second what SamUk has already stated. The fish maybe ok at the moment, but when territories and boundaries are set, and those cute little fellas get bigger you are going to have a major problem on your hand. I would return to the stupid LFS people for something else. Always research before you buy!

tanks

 

[Tommy Gunnz]

Tanks,

I am well aware of the problems of keeping these fish, however, most people are telling me that this tank could work if I kept a proper male to female ratio. I guess that I was pretty silly to jump into these fish now that I have read this thread. I will have to look into something different. Thanks for your input!