# 55g planted cichlid tank update 4-14



## Bavarian3 (Oct 21, 2004)

*My african cichlid tank...need plant suggestions*

hey guys im just getting going my new 55 gallon 4ft long tank.I finished up all the rockworking and i am getting the fish this weekend. For any cichlid guys out there im getting some haps/mbuna/peacocks. Its going to be a show tank with all males so it should be interesting. I know its better to get the plantation going first before fish but im getting them from a breeder and wont be able to get any of the species from anyone around here especially for the price. 
So basically with this tank theres some conditions...Im only going to have 2 48" coralife trichromatic bulbs over the tank so about 1.5wpg. No co2, a PH of high 7 or low 8, hard water, and cichlids possibly digging up plants could be a problem but i doubt it. Im looking for a ground plant that will work in this setup, all i can think of is java moss. Im open to any suggestions...right now theres only some narrow leaf java fern and jungle val. I plan on getting some anubias nana for the rocks but ill definetly need more plants 

rocks were extremely brown from all the brown algea/diatoms which is finally starting to clear up some. only a ruby red peacock and 3 synodontis petricola catfish currrently are in the tank. Along with some hiding shrimp that manged to survive (peacock ate em all)


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## tsunami (Jan 24, 2004)

More Vallisneria sp., Anubias barteri var. barteri, and Anubias barteri var. nana are all excellent choices for your setup.

If you can find one, an Anubias hastifolia can make a stunning specimen plant. You can also try some Cryptocoryne wendtii, walkeri, petchii, or beckettii for some additional contrast in texture and color if you like.

Carlos


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## Phil Edwards (Jan 22, 2004)

Bav,

That tank would look spectacular with Jungle Val behind the rocks. I would almost say that Val alone would be sufficient in that setup, depending on the type of fish and your aesthetic desires. Carlos' suggestions are good ones for other plants.

Best,
Phil


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## Bavarian3 (Oct 21, 2004)

thanks for the replies guys....i was wondering if you think i could grow Echinodorus tenellus in my tank. Im looking for some variety after getting just the typical java fern, anubias, and jungle val. Im also looking for a ground/grassy plant to make a carpet around some areas. Anything that would work?


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## Urkevitz (Oct 26, 2004)

I love the rockwork! I have been seeing small corkscrew vals used as foreground plants recently. I can't remember the specific species but they seem to only grow to about 6 inches.


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Nice job setting up your rock-scape.  
About all I keep in my African tank is Anubias, Java Fern and Hornwort, but someone not too long ago had some photos of a beautiful tank that I never thought would be possible with Africans. If I can find the link I'll post it.

One word of caution - you might want to keep a close eye on the Haps so they don't harass the Peacocks too much. The Peacocks are so meek that even some of the mellower Cichlids push them around.


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## Bavarian3 (Oct 21, 2004)

JanS said:


> Nice job setting up your rock-scape.
> About all I keep in my African tank is Anubias, Java Fern and Hornwort, but someone not too long ago had some photos of a beautiful tank that I never thought would be possible with Africans. If I can find the link I'll post it.
> 
> One word of caution - you might want to keep a close eye on the Haps so they don't harass the Peacocks too much. The Peacocks are so meek that even some of the mellower Cichlids push them around.


travis's tank? if so yeah i saw it and its amazing. I was inspired by that tank and by Jay Lutos. Mine is alot like jays in a way. I suppose the fish will be fine, they are all small 2" or so males so no females to fight over  Do u dose any ferts? I was suggested to use seachem flourish and flourish excel although it probably wont be NEEDED. Id like to give the plants that extra edge, and i want to keep algea growth at a minimum.


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## jcolletteiii (Jan 30, 2005)

I know that you said you wanted to try male only tank, but beleive it or not, there are some africans in which the female is the more attractive of the species. Pseudotropheus lombordoi "kennyi" is one, the male is either monochromatic orange, or orange with some slight vertical barring. However, the female is a pale neon blue with darker blue barring.








Your africans shouldnt touch too many of your plants at all provided you keep them well fed with what they like to eat. For vegan fish, I like OSI spirulina flakes, though I find even my so-called vegitarian fish like Hikari frozen vitimin enriched brine. Africans are gorgeous fish, and they can take some crowding - they may actually be less abusive to one another when they are slightly crowded. I have 8, 3 inch fish in my 29 gal., and they get along much better than when I just had 4 or 5. Watch how many Pseudotropheus demasoni you put together though - they really like to whack each other.


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## Bavarian3 (Oct 21, 2004)

jcolletteiii said:


> I know that you said you wanted to try male only tank, but beleive it or not, there are some africans in which the female is the more attractive of the species. Pseudotropheus lombordoi "kennyi" is one, the male is either monochromatic orange, or orange with some slight vertical barring. However, the female is a pale neon blue with darker blue barring.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


thanks for the input, and i actually got the fish yesterday. U seem to know about cichlids so ill give the species.... fish stock is now as follows...
-peacocks
Aulonocara jacobfreibergi Otter Pt.
Aulonocara Stuartgranti Maleri
Aulonocara stuartgranti (Rubescens)
-haps
Otopharynx lithobates
Sciaenochromis fryeri
-mbuna
Cynotilapia Lumbila
Cynotilapia cobue

Ill try to get some pics today, the cynotilapia cobue is one of the most beautiful cichlids ive seen. They are all juvis have alot of growing and coloring to do though. 
One other interesting thing is i was worried about howd they react to the plants, i saw one of the pulling at the java fern and was pretty pissed thinking he was eating the plant until i went and took a closer look. I noticed he was actually just pulling at the roots that had all the particles/scum on it. They really showed no interest in the plant itself but they were just cleaning the roots off in search for food, i even saw them cleaning off the sides of the jungle val. Pretty interesting stuff :razz:


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## jcolletteiii (Jan 30, 2005)

Going with alot of blue! Are your O. lithobates more solid, or mottled? All of the fish I've seen are highly varied. Did you get the "yellow blaze" variety of the Cyanotalipia lumbila? I have never seen one of that variety. Quite interresting how the stripes between the eyes turn a yellow color. Nice variety of fish. I cant wait for some pics.

-joe



Bavarian3 said:


> thanks for the input, and i actually got the fish yesterday. U seem to know about cichlids so ill give the species.... fish stock is now as follows...
> -peacocks
> Aulonocara jacobfreibergi Otter Pt.
> Aulonocara Stuartgranti Maleri
> ...


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Do you know the sex of your different Aulonocara's? If you have male/female of the different ones, you have to be careful of them hybridizing. It's not such a horrible thing if you plan to keep them strictly within your own tank, but if you run out of room and need to sell some of the kids, it's a no-no in the Cichlid world where they are trying to keep the strains pure.  

Sounds like a beautiful tank though.


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## Bavarian3 (Oct 21, 2004)

jcolletteiii said:


> Going with alot of blue! Are your O. lithobates more solid, or mottled? All of the fish I've seen are highly varied. Did you get the "yellow blaze" variety of the Cyanotalipia lumbila? I have never seen one of that variety. Quite interresting how the stripes between the eyes turn a yellow color. Nice variety of fish. I cant wait for some pics.
> 
> -joe


yes there are many primarily blue fish they all have a great mix of color. The otopharynx is a mottled or blochy if thats what youre refering to, he has no color yet but its gona be great when he does. The cyno lumbila is a yellow blaze. This is the breeders website i got the fish from, she has an insane amount of tanks and is really well known, i just lucked out that shes local to me  http://homepage.mac.com/pamchin/PhotoAlbum4.html

here are some of the parent fish of mine...
cobue..
http://homepage.mac.com/pamchin/.Pi...-04 20.20.28 -0800/Image-394CED65467011D9.jpg

lumbila
http://homepage.mac.com/pamchin/.Pi...-04 20.20.28 -0800/Image-394D9A26467011D9.jpg

fryeri
http://homepage.mac.com/pamchin/.Pi...-02 18.25.28 -0800/Image-446A80AA5D2C11D9.jpg


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## Bavarian3 (Oct 21, 2004)

JanS said:


> Do you know the sex of your different Aulonocara's? If you have male/female of the different ones, you have to be careful of them hybridizing. It's not such a horrible thing if you plan to keep them strictly within your own tank, but if you run out of room and need to sell some of the kids, it's a no-no in the Cichlid world where they are trying to keep the strains pure.
> 
> Sounds like a beautiful tank though.


Just to clarify this is an all male tank, i only have 1 male of each species..i guess i have no interest in breeding and besides the females are butt ugly :mrgreen:


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Sounds like it will be a beautiful tank, but....


Bavarian3 said:


> besides the females are butt ugly :mrgreen:


Ahem, is there such a thing as a butt ugly female of any species?...... :axe: LOL!


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## Sugarnails (Feb 7, 2005)

JanS said:


> Sounds like it will be a beautiful tank, but....
> 
> Ahem, is there such a thing as a butt ugly female of any species?...... :axe: LOL!


Actually, Male Kenyis (yellow, sometimes with pale stripes) are quite ugly when compared to the Females (pale blue with dark stripes). {that's already been said..} The same goes for the "Bumble Bee". The Female keeps the vivid yellow & black pattern, but the male turns really dark and "muddy" looking. :razz:


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## Bavarian3 (Oct 21, 2004)

Alright guys, a little update here. Alot has happened this week. I received my lighting. I think they look great, a little more yellow than i prefer, but im very happy with them, brought out the colors of the fish and plants big time. I also received the plants i ordered from aquaticplantdepot.com. I got 5 anubias nana (they skimped me on 1 im gona call tomorow), 12 dwarf sag, and 6 jungle val. all for only $32 shipped. I was very impressed with the anubias, perfectly healthy, and clean, quite large as well. The dwarf sag is very small, but healthy so its ok, just will need time to grow in, and the jungle val was mediocre. A couple large plants, mostly small plants, i assume i wont have any trouble growing it though. I also went over to local APC member IUnknown house (great guy) and he gave a bunch of java moss, and a ton of eco-complete.

So here it is, still of course a work in progress, but hey its a start. just gotta get something to put in the middle. Im thinkin rotola rotundifolia




























Also a couple decent fish photos i was finally able to get after the new lighting.


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## tsunami (Jan 24, 2004)

Thou does not have enough light to grow stem plants. I think the middle looks better empty anyways. 

Carlos


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## skylsdale (Jun 2, 2004)

If you really want to use plants, I would stick with Ceratophyllum and Vallisneria spp: http://www.hull.ac.uk/cichlids/Malawi_Habitats_gallery.html


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## Bavarian3 (Oct 21, 2004)

tsunami - the more i look at it the more i like the open middle, more swimming room as well. we'll see....

awsome like skysdale. pretty neat seing them in the wild and their habitat


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## travis (Oct 5, 2004)

Bavarian - excellent set up! You've picked some incredibly brilliant fish. IME mbuna (specifically herbivorous mbuna) will readily eat Valisneria so you may want to avoid them if possible. With the selection of fish you've got it might be a good idea to avoid mbuna for several reasons. Most mbuna do not tolerate the high protein diet that Haps and Aulonocara prefer and may suffer from Malawi bloat if they get too much animal protein. Besides, they may consider your Vals and Ceratophyllum a salad bar. Also, mbuna can be very territorial and aggressive - peaceful co-existence with open water Haps and Aulonocara is not likely unless you have a massive tank. I'm interested to see how this works out for you. Keep us posted 

BTW, your C. afra 'Cobue' is absolutely gorgeous:


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## Bavarian3 (Oct 21, 2004)

travis said:


> Bavarian - excellent set up! You've picked some incredibly brilliant fish. IME mbuna (specifically herbivorous mbuna) will readily eat Valisneria so you may want to avoid them if possible. With the selection of fish you've got it might be a good idea to avoid mbuna for several reasons. Most mbuna do not tolerate the high protein diet that Haps and Aulonocara prefer and may suffer from Malawi bloat if they get too much animal protein. Besides, they may consider your Vals and Ceratophyllum a salad bar. Also, mbuna can be very territorial and aggressive - peaceful co-existence with open water Haps and Aulonocara is not likely unless you have a massive tank. I'm interested to see how this works out for you. Keep us posted
> 
> BTW, your C. afra 'Cobue' is absolutely gorgeous:


thanks travis! heh i like your setup better though :razz:

im a noob to plants, but have been keeping cihclids for a while. As most mbuna are primarily herbivorous, the cynotilapa species arent strict herbivores. They are even considered to be carnivores. Also, they are dwarves, just like your demasoni they wont get too big, which will also help control their aggression as the haps and peacocks will grow larger. I feed spirulina 20 as an everyday flake and feed NLS a few times a week. Haps/Peacocks are better off on a veggie diet anyway. So far there isnt really any aggression, but the question is whether to add more fish or not. They have a ton of room in the 4ft long tank, only 7 fish total. So far so good, no plants getting eaten and so agggression so we'll see what happens


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## travis (Oct 5, 2004)

Let me know if you ever want to trade any C. afras for a few 'supposedly' domesticated Ps. demasoni. I've got all sorts of fry. I'm sure they would keep things hoppin' :razz: Very nice work!


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## Bavarian3 (Oct 21, 2004)

*55g planted cichlid tank update*

here is the old thread.
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/showthread.php?t=4785&page=2&pp=10

This is a low light non-co2 tank for now using 2 48" NO coralife trichromatics. I plan on adding pressurized Co2 soon, but am torn whether or not i want to do a DIY setup until i can get the pressurized setup. Im afraid of the PH fluctations and what it will do to my fish, i spent alot of time and money getting these fish so im a little hesistant as its not just some tetra where i can just replace it at my LFS if some die. 
Problems with the tank as of now is algae, the rocks were previously grey, but now covered in brown algae. Algae is also all over teh anubias nana, although growth is going quite well. My fish dont touch any of the plants unless they are looking for food or algae in them, or if they feel the need to redesign the scape to make a home for themselves. Lots of growing to do still but let me know what you think for now. :razz:










oh and have to throw in this shot i got of my cynotilapia afra cobue.


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## thaerin (Dec 12, 2004)

those are some nasty looking teeth...pretty fish and tank though.

I like how the 2 sides slope towards the center, with the single large plant as a centerpiece. It works for me =)


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## StrungOut (Nov 8, 2004)

Lovely cichlids you have there. I think you should move your sword straight right dab in the middle and maybe add a little more caves. Nice tank = )!


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## Bavarian3 (Oct 21, 2004)

i would prefer if these threads were kept seperate but if its against the rules to post a seperate thread for an update then i apologize for that.

thaerin - thanks for the compliment on the scape. and yes his teeth are quite nasty good thing he has no interest in the plants!

strungout - thanks, and youre right about the sword, the tank is acrylic and has a center brace that i previously lined it up with, then before the pic i moved it around to get it to sit the way i wanted and now i noticed it is off a little to the left so ill make sure to fix that.


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