Paul

Some of the larger Rasboras like Red Spot, Brilliants or even Rainbowfish will work in that tank.

I just picked up 10 Peacock Gudgens on AquaBid. I’m always scanning the lists for dwarf cichlids, and rainbows. I stocked a 40 Breeder exclusively on AquaBid. Panda Corys, Kribs,Brilliant Rasboras, Von Rio Tetras, & Ottos.

I keep Ottos in all my tanks.

@Maggie sponge filter’s strong suit is biological filtration while mechanical filtration is a distant second. I have Marineland filters and not one of them has carbon in them. I get rid of the carbon and keep the frame to hold a polishing pad and a coarse sponge in position. With this setup the hob handles the bulk of the mechanical filtration and assists with the bio filtration.

SAEs & Ottos both work on brown algae in my experience.

If all you’re doing is putting a couple of lights on the power strip I don’t think you’ll have a problem.

@Jim TNyour choice of tanks will depend on what you want to spend on it. You can get an Aqueon 29 at Petco during the $1 a gallon sale for less than $35 tax included or if you want to go the acrylic route then price tag will be over $250. I also recommend some sort of lid. I’ve used Fritzyme along with a sponge from another tank to get the cycle moving with good success. I run sponge and hob filters in my smaller tanks 20L, 29, and 40 breeder. Before you commit to plants make sure the fish are compatible with plants , some like them too much and make a meal out of them and others just want to keep ripping them out of the substrate. Since the 29 is a tall tank you’ll need a fairly strong light if you want to grow foreground plants successfully. Prices for these will be all over the place from about $40 to $100+. The Finnex Stingray 2.0 is a good mid priced option that provides good light without a lot of bells and whistles. Good luck.

I found that visual barriers tend to keep the aggression between the love birds at a much lower level. With that being said if your male insists on visiting Mommy Dearest no amount of visual barriers are going to keep the fins from flying.

Well my fish can never complain about getting fed the same thing day after day. I keep a wide variety of fish from Pencilfish with incredibly small mouths to 5" Discus. I have food for the cleanup crew of Cory's, Otto's and SAE. The medicated foods get fed to fish in quarantine. So I keep a few different types of food to keep them all happy.

Here goes Xtreme krill flakes, Hikari Vibra Bites and Algae Wafers, Discus pellets from Germany, Sera ONip tablets (the old yellow container} two sizes of Cobalt pellets, 2 different New Life Spectrum medicated pellets, Ocean Nutrition discus flakes, San Francisco Bay freeze dried tubifex and brine shrimp, frozen brine shrimp, bloodworms, and beef heart, BBS and Aqeuon flakes (2) varieties and pellets (2 varieties) that they sent me as a mea culpa for having to have a 1/2 inch cut off one the panels of their 40 gallon breeder lids so it would fit one of their 40 gallon breeders. Some get fed to the fish more than others but they all get used.

I wouldn't trust any enameled metals. They could be made from pot metal which is made of any number of metals melted together (in other words there's no recipe) and then poured into a mold. So there's no telling what effect water will have on it or what effect it will have on fish if chipped or scratched.

@SaltinthedesertI've got a group of 7 Nanacarra in a 29 gallon that have become bunch of killers. The casualty list includes Cory's, Cardinal and Rummynose Tetras. Once I saw a tetra floating with it's head bitten off I pulled all the remaining fish out. The Nanacarra have the tank all to themselves and all they do now is hide in the rocks. With all that being said the other dwarf cichlids I keep live relatively peaceful lives. The smallest group is 5 A.nijsseni and the largest is 12 Kribs. There will be some chasing around, they are cichlids after all.

@ADMWNDSR83 it's a piece of cake. Watch @Dean’s FishroomBBS video it takes all the mystery out of the process.

Watch @Coryvideo from his collecting trip to Peru. He showed the sharp gravel they were finding cory’s on. Personally all my tanks have a gravel substrate and the cory’s are all fat and happy.

I feed bbs 2-3 times a week and only hatch as much as I’ll use that day (2 feedings). For more info watch Deans bbs video.

@MaxMI think if you can't keep your parameters stable (ammonia spikes for example) no matter what you do you've probably overstocked the tank. If you keep African lake cichlids overstocked tanks are a way of life. If they're not living in close quarters the aggression levels go off the charts.

@alpenglow007Sure, why not.

There's coarse sponges and then there are coarse sponges. I have some Marineland Penguin Pros that I was using the Marineland course intake sponge on and I found that every 10 days +/- due to reduced flow I'd have to pull the intake sponges to clean them. I swapped them out for the coarse CoOp sponges and I'm now going about a month + between cleanings.

@Williamirish16I've got a 40 breeder stocked much heavier than that with no issues with the water quality (2 filters) so live stock wise you should be fine. I've kept A. caucatodies with GB Rams in the same tank successfully, they both even spawned in that tank but they're cichlids after all and even though they're considered "peaceful" there's always one SOB that will try and stir things up so just monitor them. Good luck.

@subramn here you go

@subramnIt's personal preference there is no right or wrong answer on this subject. That being said if you do decide to use it one of it's other benefits is that it kills free swimming disease causing organisms. There was a very long thread on this topic late last month if your interested.

She’s still hiding. If you have the extra cash and can find them I think you should get one or two more females. You’ll be surprised how fast the aggression goes down. I originally got a trio of nijsseni on AquaBid but one of the females died in transit. While I was waiting for her replacement the male’s aggression was off the charts. When I added the replacement fish (I bought another trio) the aggression basically disappeared. Just my experience.

I’ve posted about this tank (29g)in the past. A few months ago I found all my Panda Cory’s dead, I replaced them with Julii’s (after quarantine) and they were all dead the next day. Long story short it turns out the “peaceful” Nanacarra’s are killers. They’ve killed Rummynose and Cardinals. So now that I’ve removed all the tetras they stay in the rockwork. I’m looking for suggestions on tougher tank mates to act as dithers for these guys. Temp 82F pH 7.2.

@bmillerI run both a Ziss moving bed filter and a hob in a 40 breeder. The Ziss handles the bio filtration really well with minimal mechanical while the hob does both the mechanical and bio filtration.