My New Tank, Opinions Please!!

[SilvrCrest]

Hey all!

I'm in the planning stage of setting up an African Rift Lake Aquarium and I was wondering what you guys thought of my future set-up.

Its a 40 gal (US) tank, Filtered by a Fluval 204 external filter, 200W heater.
Ground granite sand as substrate, with limestone as decor. I'm going for the natural look! Is this about right?

I hope to populate it with a trio of Haps, a trio of Yellow Labs, and a trio of Aulocaras. Does this sound reasonable in terms of aggression levels? Or do you guys have any other suggestions?

 

[keane]

Hi,

your substrate and rocks sound good.

I would add extra filtration though. I have a fluval 304 external and a fluval 3+ internal running on my 55. How about adding a 2+ to your current 204? Too much filtration is better than not enough.

So far as you fish are concerned....leave out the haps and stick with Mbuna. Haps grow large and have different dietary needs to most mbuna.

Maybe go with four each of the Labs and Aulonocara (if possible 1 male to 3 females) and add another four of another less aggressive species of mbuna * again on a 1:3 ratio.

Remember with Malawis that overstocking (within reason) is the key to reducing aggression. That's why you also need the additional filtration to cope woth the extra bio-load.

hth

steve

 

[freddyk]

Gallons say very little in a cichlid tank - what are the dimensions of the tank?

Many haps are smaller (in the range of 6") and would be ok in the 40 gallon if the tank is long enough (at least 36" long).

Labidochromis may be mbuna, but unlike most other mbuna they are NOT herbivorous and they do happen to share a very similar diet to smaller haps and Aulonocara. Also unlike many mbuna labs are not very aggressive, another reason why they'd work together with the haps and peacocks.

Once the Haps are properly chosen this sounds like a nice setup to me. I would go with 4 or 5 labs to give them a more natural environment - they are grouping fish and do well in numbers, and you can even keep a couple of males in that tank. Avoid the species Aulonocara Jacobfreibergi - it's an unusually large and aggressive variety.

I feel the same as baldranger about filtration - adding a second or larger filter will be beneficial. Since we tend to buy the fish young though, you can always add the second at a later time, as the fish grow and you find you need it.

 

[SilvrCrest]

Thanks for the commets guys,

My tank is 48" long, 12" wide ( ) and 18" high.

Yeah I've a Fluval 4 left over from my last tank, I could throw that in too for a bit more Mechanical Filtration. Will that be enough filtration?

If I was to leave out the haps, would a 1m/3f dwarf mbuna species be a good replacement?

Can you recommend some less aggressive dwarf species?

 

[keane]

Thanks for the commets guys,

My tank is 48" long, 12" wide ( ) and 18" high.

Yeah I've a Fluval 4 left over from my last tank, I could throw that in too for a bit more Mechanical Filtration. Will that be enough filtration?

If I was to leave out the haps, would a 1m/3f dwarf mbuna species be a good replacement?

Can you recommend some less aggressive dwarf species?

From what freddy says you are fine to keep the haps .

filtration will be good with the added Fluval 4 .

If you decide against Haps in the end, then a less aggressive Mbuna that would be good is Pseudtropheus Acei. Blue with yellow finnage. Gorfeous.

These are only ones I could recommend as they really are the only less aggressive ones, aside from Labs, that I keep myself. The rest are aggro little buggers!

steve

EDIT: BTW...your tank footprint (measurement) is good too.

 

[freddyk]

As well as the Acei, Rustys make good less aggressive mbuna tank mates.

 

[SilvrCrest]

What Haps would ye guys recommend?

There seems to be SO many differnet types of 'em!