[Help building a nice African Cichlids tank.]

@Jhenderson you mention wanting plants in an African cichlid tank, but then mention fish from lake Malawi. These fish love to munch on plants. So, sad to say, you will have a very, very hard time keeping plants going if you go with those fish. I've done it - as Cory says 'anything can be done' and he's  right BUT it requires a lot of extra work. I was one of those hard headed ones who said 'sure it can be done!' ... I kept a tank of mbuna with plants, and the only way to get them to leave the Amazon swords, anubias and the valisneria alone (and alone is still a relative term) was by keeping a ton of dwarf salvinia, hornwort and guppy grass in the tank. I grew those other three plants in other tanks and added them by the handful several times a week to the mbuna tank. Where they were promptly consumed. I suppose the mbuna considered these more appetizing plants, and so they ate them first. But if I didn't keep a suppymof these other floating plants in there for them to munch on? You'd  see bites in the leaves of the swords and anubias real fast. And they just would start  at the tip of the valisneria leaves and start snacking down on them. My valisneria didn't stay long and trailing across the top of the tank with mbuna in there. They kept those vals trimmed. So, can it be done? Sure. Is it a ton of work and probably more effort than its worth? Yeah most likely.

 

Now, all hope is not lost to have a planted African cichlid tank! You just need to shift your focus a little. Instead of lake Malawi cichlids, look a cichlids from lake Tanganyika. Most of those are not plant destroyers. I know quite a few who, and have myself, kept lake Tang set ups with plants. Crypts, vals, anubias, bolbitis and java ferns are great, great choices for such a tank, as well as floating plants like dwarf salvinia or  frogbit (or duckweed if you really really must). Look at species like shell dwellers, julidichromis, altolamprologus,  cyprichromis and paracyprichromis.  These are all species that could work in a planted 75 that are lake Tang cichlids.

 

@penguinexdeus you could do a lake Tang tank with shelldwellers like multifasciatus or similis, and a julidichromis species like j. Transcriptus as they will be a smaller species of juli.  Have a big sandy area, and then a nice rocks stack with some height to it so each species will have the area they desire to live in. If you want plants, either get a well established bed of crypts first before adding shellies, or stick with rhizome plants like anubias and java fern stuck in the rocks.

[Shell dweller recommendations]

Sumbu shell dwellers are really neat too. But there's  a ton of different shellies out there. You gotta look around and see what colors and shapes you like. Sadly they usually  don't play well when mixing species in the same tank. So pick one species of shellies, then pick other species that will occupy other parts of the tank. I'd suggest building up a rock wall so then you could keep something like julidichromis or altolamprologus. And then an open top water schooling fish like cyprochromis leptosoma or paracyprichromis nigripinnis. 

[Livebearer Tank Stocking/Size]

Fish reproducing in your tanks is truly a wonderful thing to watch. But, we must be mindful caretakers. If you leave them be, ultimately they will reproduce to a point where they will affect the water parameters for the worse. Then they'll start dieing and disease usually breaks out. They still don't stop breeding though,  so the spiral continues, its rather vicious.  Eventually, you must make the decision of how to curb the population.  You can do that by either removing fry and selling/giving them to other hobbyists and LFS. You can get some population control fish ie predators who will eat the fry to keep the number being produced and making it to adulthood lower. You could also get two tanks and separate males from the females. Just be aware the females who have already bred will carry sperm and can have several more litters for the following several months. Those fry will also need to be sorted out by gender as soon as you can tell.

[Too many fish?]

Just be aware that your dojo could eventually get up to a foot long. Some stop around six inches, but most get considerably bigger. Usually a 40 breeder or 55 is the minimum recommended size for one. Although they are social and do like they're  own  kind, you just haven't got room in there for another one. 

[What fish are you eyeballing?]

Bichirs, particularly smaller species as I'd like a poly pile in my tank instead of just one or two giants. So p. Delhezi, p. Palmas, p. Polli, p. Mokelmbembe, p. Retropinnis and p. Palmas Buetikoferi. Not including p. Senaglus on my list as I'd like patterned bichirs and the sengals just really don't  do it for me. I'd like to be able to distinguish my polyterus from one another and if I just have a pile of sengals I don't think that would be possible. Then again if there were only one senegal they'd be easy to pick out amongst the group...

Also considering getting a group of alestopetersius brichardi ie the 'red congo tetra'. I've already got standard congo tetra - phenacogrammus interuptus in another tank and they breed for me. I'm curious if I could get a group of this beautiful but less common species and get them breeding for me as well. Maybe make them more common in the hobby.

 

[Food for People?]

Fish are fun to watch, but also delicious. Now I was never big on eating shrimp,  so keeping them in aquariums really hasn't changed that I still don't  care for the taste of them. I was neutral about squid before hand, but four years in marine biology preparing whole squid for consumption in the fish tanks has thoroughly turned my stomach due to the smell. Its so hard to get it out of your hands.

[New Tank Smells]

@Daniel I am greatly amused that 'locker room' is apparently an animal. In all seriousness, this is a fascinating chart. And perhaps something similar for tanks could be useful. In that regard, I'd like to suggest smells such as fresh rain, wet dirt/freshly turned earth, sulfur/rotten egg, turtle food, old rained on cut grass,  rotten fish food, and burnt plastic.

[Great Community Non-Liver Bearer fish for 45 gallon tank]

 My top suggestion is danios (leopard or zebra, theyre the same species, just different patterns) as they'll stay towards the top of the tank and be quite active. The rummynose will school more towards the middle and lower in the tank, so it will make your tank have activity at all levels.

[What would you stock in this hex tank?]

You could do a species only tank with julidichromis transcriptus if you wanted a neat fish. Have a pile of rocks in the middle - you can stick anubias and java fern to the rocks, I haven't found julis to be destructive to the plants. Do some floater on the surface, either a crown of pothos as was suggested above, or dwarf salvinia. They will breed and cooperatively raise the fry. And they will move at any angle, up or down, front or back, so they'll  use the whole rock so long as there's enough rock structure for them. 

[What Kind of Corydora??]

Some more info about your tank can help us guide you to some options that would fit best. What temperature do you keep your tank at? What other inhabitants do you have in this tank or plan to put in this tank? 

[Ive adopted a Bumble Bee Cichlid... HELP]

You can purchase egg crate from home depot or lowes, usually near the lighting aisle. And yes it does work as a nice way to help keep cichlids from knocking the rocks into the glass bottom of a tank, or moving so much sand that they clear a space all the way down to bare glass.

Synodontis catfish are the 'biotope appropriate' choice for bottom dwellers/clean up crew. There's many species of them though, so do your research about what you're  getting. Synodontis eupterus? Get quite large (8", though some individus have been recorded over 10"!) and are rather territorial their own/similar catfish species, so they aren't a schooling fish. More of a neat bottom centerpiece sort.  Synodontis lucipinnis or synodontis petricola? Stay much smaller at around 3.5" to 4.5" and are a schooling type. Honest the s. Lucipinnis remind me of a smaller, African version of a pictus if you've ever had them. The synodontis will eat leftover food/pellets that make it to the bottom, but aren't good algae cleaners. But mbuna tend to pick at algae on their own anyhow...

Non Lake Malawi clean up options? Plecos are an option, just get ones big enough that they can stand up to getting bumped around by cichlids. I've seen people make clowns and bristlenose work, but also seen the meanest of cichlids take their eyes and peck their fins to pieces. Cactus plecos, blue phantoms, tigers and queen arabesque are all options I know locals have kept in their big cichlid tanks. But be aware some of those are more carnivorous than others, so do your research into specific species. 

Botia loaches are also sometimes kept in cichlid tanks as clean up for uneaten food. Larger botia are the go to since anything small like a dwarf chain would just get eaten like a corydoras. Redtail botia, berdmorei tiger loaches, yoyo loaches and kubotai (angelicus) loaches are all good options as they get to a decent size and are fiesty enough on their own to work out with cichlids. Just be sure to provide enough hiding spots for them to scoot away to when they've  had enough of the cichlids.

[Betta shrimp feast?]

Bettas think shrimp are delicious. And bettas have strong enough jaws that if they get a hold of a shrimp and can't eat it in one bite... well, the shrimp just won't stay in one piece. Its always a risk putting cherries with bettas, even with a lush jungle if plants for the shrimp to hide in. Some bettas just really like to eat shrimp. I've seen plenty of mine over the years take down ghost shrimp, which are bigger than cherries.

[Recycling used tank water]

How often are you doing water changes? What %? Whats your stocking like in these 3 tanks? What plants/how many are you running in each tank? Are you running an RO system? Honestly it seems like thats a rather massive price spike for just three tanks, only one of which is good sized. I know different municipalities charge different rates, but running 7 tanks here (29x2, 47, 54, 58, 65, 220)  in addition to an RO system, my water bill is usually $21-30 a month, vs the $16 it was per month before tanks. 

[The Real Deal with Culling]

I live feed culls to other tanks with fish that will eat them. Or they are netted out and offered in my hand to the rats, who snatch them out and eat them in seconds. Its over quickly for them either way. 

[Tip for feeding your bottom dwellers veggies (cucumber, zuchinni, carrot)]

@James Black I leave the string long and keep either a piece of pvc (usually an elbow) or a metal washer tied to the opposite end of the fork. I prefer the pvc because it makes me less paranoid I'll ever chip the glass dropping that against it versus the metal washer. And I'm not the most coordinated person to have ever existed, so fumbling the string happens often. But the weight keeps me from losing the other end into the tank. The string is left long enough that the fork can sit in the bottom of the tank, but the weighted end hangs against the stand, not against the glass. Nothing to restrict view or stay against the glass to clack around that way.

[Tip for feeding your bottom dwellers veggies (cucumber, zuchinni, carrot)]

You still have to reach in and remove the remains if there are some after a day or so. I have a couple tanks where they don't  eat the skin of the veggie, or may only eat part of it. I find an easy way to remove it without getting your hands so wet is to have a line tied to the end of the fork or plant weight, so you can just pull that back up to retrieve the fork/weight and hopefully the remains of the veggies. 

Alternatively,  you can just keep an Aquarium  Co-op towel over your shoulder or next to your tank to dry off your arm. Because the aquarium hobby isn't a dry one xD

[Share your plecos and catfish]

This isn't all of my catfish and plecos, but its who I've got recent pics of.

The pictus, doing their typical pictus pile when there isn't food to be had.

Various ages of pictus. Mr Pim is the biggest one,  whose  over a decade old now, though not sure how far past that, given I got him already grown years ago.

The farlowella ie twig catfish pair. Doing what they usually do which is hang off of things.

The female albino bristlenose, who doesn't  like to share her food. 

 Corydoras. I have several species currently. But I have this group that were sold to me as merely c. Punctatus - which they most certainly aren't. There appears to be two species in this group.  Not sure what either are. But working on getting weight back on them, they came in looking like twigs. 

Finely spotted, that seem to form vertical bars, darker bases.

Larger more random spots. Lighter base color.

Here they are together. Pretty distinct differences. But not sure on either species.

[What to do with extra fry?]

@Brandy If you are feeding culls to a cat, do NOT use clove oil! This is a poison to them. It can not be proccessed in their body and can cause liver failure. So if you'd like to feed cull fish to a cat, don't euthanize them first with clove. 

@ChemBob @Hobbit Chickens can have clove oil externally, but the effects on them internally are not something well understood yet, at least not for me.  Chickens are admittedly not something I work much with as a state veterinary inspector. I do know it is used externally (diluted in other oils like coconut and olive) to deal with mites and feather plucking. I do not know if that means they can have it internally. I know chickens will certainly eat fish, they used to stand around a water trough that horses would drink out of on a farm I visited. The trough had gambusia in it and sometimes they'd  jump out when the horses drank. The chickens were there to snap them up.

 

I am someone who is well entrenched in the 'circle of life' mentality.  Everything is eventually consumed by everything else. How to do so efficiently with as little waste and as much benefit as possible is something that interests me. Some consider this cruel, and I accept that not everyone will see eye to eye with me on this topic. But I am happy to talk about the subject with anyone who desires to. Of course, it is not my forum, so if Cory or the mods would prefer I not, simply tell me so and I can also avoid such conversations.  

I feed my culls and any deaths to my rats currently. They are not euthanized beforehand. But my rats are also extremely fast to grab any fish I provide and consume them. They really like fish. And being omnivores, it is very good for them to have a little protein in their diet. These rats later go on to become feeders for my snakes. My snake lives in a paludarium (a 220 gallon) and when he defecates that waste is used as plant fertilizer - and I have to get it out of the water quickly or the corydoras and pictus will eat part of it too. It seems to do them no harm whatsoever, but they sure make a mess of it tearing it apart, so while it doesn't seem to notably affect the water parameters, I prefer not to have rat hair floating around in the tank. So the circle of life is complete in this example. 

When I get the chance again, I'd like to have an exodon tank again. They were fascinating fish to watch. The heirarchy in a group was really neat to observe to me. I've also considered getting bichir again, they're carnivores but I don't know that they'd be fast enough to catch a guppy. Certainly big enough mouths to eat them, but the catching part is what has me wondering if they'd be a good choice for that particular purpose. Of course, I love buchir even without them having such a purpose. I always found them to be like water puppies, took to hand feeding readily. However even the smallest bichir would need a 55 gallon minimum, but preferably a 75. So that's  not a small tank.

[What did you get done today?]

So we all know plecos like zucchini and cucumbers and green beans, did you know they liked daikon radish too?

She's not sharing. She already kicked the corydoras off the slice and is using even bit of fin she has to try and cover the piece and claim it as hers.

She'll get full eventually and then let the other fish have their turn. The slice is big enough she can't  eat it all. I hope. I figured I'd just try it because I had some extra daikon leftover from my own cooking. Didn't  think she'd like it more than the cucumber.

[What to do with extra fry?]

On 11/18/2020 at 6:19 PM, Brandy said:

I wonder what is the minimum sized predator that is big enough to eat a full grown or large juvenile guppy? Like if you grew out and saved the prettiest ones, what would snack on the plain ones? Apologies if this is offensive to anyone. Just curious.

Its a good question. Guppies gotta be culled, its just a fact of life. But we don't all have space for a huge tank to devote to something like an Oscar as our cull eater. Most ctenopoma are going to be big enough as adults to eat adult guppies- their mouths are surprisingly large. One could also keep a small group of exodons (bucktooth tetras ie mini-piranhas) in a 29 gallon. Probably 6 of them as a species only tank. They can't eat an adult guppy in a single bite but, well, they're  bucktooth tetras. It'll be bite size for them in just a second. I actually found my pictus cats were great guppy control. Threw some couple month old guppies in that tank and it wasn't the congo tetras that got them like I thought would happen.  The lights went out, still had guppies.  Came out next morning, lights came on and guppies were gone.  Pictus were fat and happy. I watched after lights out the next time - they wait until the lights have been out for a bit and the other fish slow down to sleep, then they shoot up to the surface and thrash around with their mouths open, gobbling up anything that'll fit ie guppies.

 

[Oceanic 75 gallon aquarium]

if you measure the dimensions, you could simply cut your own lids out of greenhouse siding - they sell it in sheets at most home depot/lowes/that sort of store. They don't break anywhere near as easy as glass. 

Like you, I've had very little luck ordering lids from my LFS and having them come in the correct size.

[Best cichlids for 35 gal?]

Sounds like a set up for a lake Tanganyika tank could work. Multifasciatus or similis shelldwellers on a sand substrate with a bunch of escargot shells,  build up some rock work and pick a julidichromis species like j. Transciptus or j. Ornatus. And then if you want a single 'centerpiece' you could do a single altolamprologus calvus. They're slow to grow but handsome adults.

Usually you star with 4-6 shellies and they colony breed in the shells. You usually get 6 young juliis, let a pair form and return the rest to your LFS, and the pair will breed and rear their young in the rockwork. It results in a tank with a lot of fascinating behavoirs going on.

[Post a silly pic]

I'm a cat. I dare you to tell me otherwise.

[The ol 150]

Angels, discus, denison barbs, rainbowfish... thise are the main big schoolers I know that are typically put at those temps.

But with 8.4pH? Drop the temp back down a bit and you could swap it up and run a lake Tanganyika tank, no need to soften the water at all if you did that. Frontosas or tropheus for your big midwater swimming fish. Then if you wanted a still good sized but not as big schooler, cyprichromis leptosoma - there's several varieties.

[What did you get done today?]

😤😠 So my day didn't start off great, but it got better. I started out doing a little gravel vaccing in one tank because it appeared that all of the corydoras in that tank decided to poo in the same corner overnight. It was unsightly. Figured I wouldn't need to take out a ton of water to clean that up, so didn't grab the python, just a hose and bucket. Took out maybe two gallons, the bucket wasn't even half way full. Figured I'd swish out the pre filter and filter sponges too while I had a bucket right next to the tank. Picked up bucket by the handle to take it out to the slop sink and dump it... and it broke! Dumped nasty brown fish poo water all over the floor! I said some not very PG things. 

Spent a while shop vaccing up that mess...

But then, the USPS alert came in, my package was out for delivery today! Finally! Because it was supposed to be here Saturday and that sure didn't happen.

So my last Co-Op order included pleco caves and coconut caves, and the reason why I wanted those showed up today!

Why is the coconut cave propped up on the side of the glass? Because I watched an interesting three part video on YouTube about breeding plecos in reptile hide caves siliconed to the glass so you could observe the whole process. Figured I'd see if it worked with coconut caves too. There's other traditional caves in there as well.

A pair of longfin red bristlenose! The female is actually a calico red and she has the coolest pattern. When she colors back up from the stress of shipping I'll get better pics of her. Quarantining these in their home tank because there's nothing else in there save for a random molly fry that can't be caught and snails.