Finally the "Pretty Tank" for the family.

[Oreochromis]

Well, since I have my tilapia running well, and haven't lost a single fish due to the cold, I started working on the "pretty tank" as my wife calls it in our living room. I am running a no name [sunsun] 100 gallon canister filter, and dual 200 watt via aqua glass heaters. I have the filter outlet blowing across the back of the tank over the heaters to keep it circulating The left side is pool filter sand and the right is river rock divided by natural quartz rocks from my home town mountain lake. This aquarium has been up and running for months with no problems ;)

PS - the two "sacks" just to the left of the pick up tube are transplant bacteria sacks I use to quickly cycle new tanks. I leave them in for a while until enough fish have been in the tank for a while to populate the filtration system. These are about ready to be removed and placed in a holding tank.

I stocked it with a few cichlids from our LFS and from the nearby Petsmart. I got the smaller [and less expensive] cichlids and "various cichlids" to add some mystery to what I got, and this is what I ended up with. So far I have found out I have an electric blue, a golden cichlid, and a snow white cichlid. I also got a couple of pink bellied convicts of which I didn't realize were a pair until they cleared out the front corner of my tank in the pool filter sand and made their first nest! I hear they are real easy to breed, so we will see what they do. I did have a brown algae problem that was creeping up, but since I put the silk and live plants [shorter ones in front] and a moss ball in the tank along with two oto's [want a few more] its mostly gone now.

Just thought I would post a bit about my "new" old 75 gallon. :)

http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/l...302_142823.jpg

[~firefly~]

Oh dear. One of those Cichlids is an Auratus. HIGHLY aggressive mbuna cichlid from Lake Malawi.

Moral of the story is not to buy unknowns. Also, you're mixing Cichlids from different parts of the globe. They have completely different water requirements, and often completely different food requirements. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Can you take them back and plan your stocking again?

[steeler1]

+ 1 to firefly for having good eyesite. She gives good advice, please listen to her.

[Sandz]

Please take everything back to petsmart and lets sit down and work out a tank stocking plan here to help you get the tank you want in the end. There is a lot more into this and "pretty"... because those others could end up pretty dead... pretty fast... and thats not a joke.

[Sandz]

PS: If you want a mbuna tank, may I recommend buying Peacocks and doing 1 type of each and making a big community of them. You will get flash, color, and a great number of fish.

[steeler1]

+ 1 to Sandz, we all only want to see you succeed.

[Greentoads41]

+2 to all, but that is a very pretty aquascape you have set up there, in my opinion. Would look even better without aggressive CICHLIDS

[Sandz]

Hey Hey now, agressive cichlids pshaw! I have had 0 deaths via 'aggressive' cichlids and Serpae's have taken out an entire tank of mine. To each their own with propper stocking.

[~firefly~]

Hey Hey now, agressive cichlids pshaw! I have had 0 deaths via 'aggressive' cichlids and Serpae's have taken out an entire tank of mine. To each their own with propper stocking.

Have you kept the mbuna variety of Malawi cichlid, Auratus? You might be surprised at the death toll. They are the most aggressive mbuna available in the pet trade as far as I am aware. I've kept them...and wow, just WOW. They are unpleasant!

[Sandz]

Yeah I have. And Demasoni are really the ones I have always watched out for. I dont disagree that they are agressive, I just agree with propper stocking ... Pick what they want and go from there.