# Your fish series 1: Do you keep Cichlids?



## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Just curious how many Cichlid keepers there are here.

If you keep any, tell us about them.  
Do they affect your aquascaping arrangements at all? Mine don't with the exception of the Africans and I work around that.

I have:
Electric Yellows
Hongsloi Apisto's
Agazzi Apisto's
Kribs
German Blue Rams
I think I'm forgetting some.....

If any of you are members of the ACA (or even if you're not), do you attend the convention?
I've been going every year for the past few years and it's a great time.

Perhaps next week we'll cover a different type of fish like Catfish.


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## glenhead (Jan 29, 2005)

Yup! Well, barely, they're so small...

We have a pair of Golden Rams, which just laid their first clutch of eggs day-before-yesterday afternoon. They're in our 55 gallon, fairly-heavily-planted community tank (I still need to post updated pics - note to self), and have overthrown the right-front corner of the tank, right behind the Bacopa, for their eggs. The pH is right around 5.5, and the eggs now have eye spots, so they're coming along! No fuzzies, but I know several eggs have been turned into snacks by someone. I got some super-close-up shots of the eggs and at least one parent, and last week got some really good pics of both of the Rams looking nice and irridescent. The female had a deep red belly then, so now we know what to look for next time she decides it's spawning time. We have a couple of 5.5 gallons we can set up for babies, if they actually hatch and survive long enough.

The Rams don't impact the plants at all.


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## bharada (Apr 17, 2004)

Just starting off with a trio of Cockatoo Apistos in my 20. I also added an Angelfish to my 125 for guppy-fry reduction.


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

I keep 3 trios of Apistogramma borelli 'Opal' in my 75g. No special requirements for them. 

I have been looking for some more German Blue Rams since moving here from Maryland in December. The stores around here are pretty much worthless unless you want Africans, mollies, platies or Goldfish and I have yet to find a reputable breeder with Rams on Aquabid. I hope to soon have the Rams again, but time will tell


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

MatPat said:


> I have yet to find a reputable breeder with Rams on Aquabid.


I got my German Blue Rams from a breeder on Aquabid (Plantsam), and so far I'm very impressed with the quality and health of the fish. Plus he tossed an extra pair in for me.... [smilie=k:


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## david lim (Mar 30, 2004)

yep.

current:
d. filamentosa 
discus

past:
large cichlids (oscar, jack dempsey, etc)
angels
a. borellii 
a. bitaeniata 
a. trifasciata


ACA's in fort worth!!! W00t! I'll be there!


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

JanS said:


> I got my German Blue Rams from a breeder on Aquabid (Plantsam), and so far I'm very impressed with the quality and health of the fish. Plus he tossed an extra pair in for me.... [smilie=k:[/QUOTE]
> 
> How long ago was this?
> 
> I prefer to get both fish and plants from other hobbyists since the quality is usually much better. I will be looking for Plantsam!


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## jimjim (Jan 25, 2004)

My tanks are devoted mostly to Lake Tanganyikan cichlids, altho I keep a few native plant tanks. My main tank 120 gal (Work in Progress) was just set up about a month ago. It has 10 Cyp. Leptosoma, 6 Paracyp. Nigripinnis, 4 Alto. Calvus(black), 4 Juli. Transcriptus, and 4 Neo. Lelupi. My main focus will be to kepp lots of Tang plants. Luckily 99% of the plants in Tanganyika are cosmopolotin in nature. Like Hornwort, Val. Spiralis, Hydrilla, Aufwachs, Myriophyllum(foxtail) and a few others. It will probably take me several months to get this biotope aquarium looking like I want, but it will be pretty well covered with plants. As you can see below its got a way to go...Jim


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

Discus and a pair of M. ramirazi.

Another tank (90l) has only Lamprologus multifasciatus (Tang shell dwellers).


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## Cichlid Junkie (Mar 25, 2005)

I have 5 Cacatuoides in a 10 gallon. I'm waiting for them to pair off.


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

MatPat said:


> How long ago was this?
> 
> I prefer to get both fish and plants from other hobbyists since the quality is usually much better. I will be looking for Plantsam!


I just bought them 2 weeks ago. He puts them up as a "buy it now" option and they usually go the same day, so it's best to check the SA Cichlid section every day to see if he's posted.



David Lim said:


> ACA's in fort worth!!! W00t! I'll be there!


Maybe we'll run into you there.  You can't miss us "Yankee" gals with the northern accent. ;-)


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## Plattykins (Apr 3, 2005)

I have 2 male convicts and one male firemouth. Aquascaping is definately affected by the convicts and not at all by the firemouth. The convicts love to dig, especially, the larger of the two. I have a three artificial plants, but I am beginning to add more, such as anacharis, java fern and an aponogeton. Strangely, the plants native to the fishes biotope requires high light, which I don't have, hence the alternates. The java fern will be tied to a piece of driftwood and the anacharis is in a corner safe behind a piece of slate. I will probably do something similar with the aponogeton. I also have some larger pebbles in one area that keeps the digging to a minimum, while I leave another area open for digging, since they like it so much.


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## jcolletteiii (Jan 30, 2005)

I have cichlids from both Malawi and Tanganyika. Malawi: Scienochromis ahli, Pseudotropheus crabro, P. lombardoi, Labidochromis caeruleus, Melanochromis chipokae. Tanganyika: Neolamprologus brichardi, N. leleupi. I also have a red clawed crab, Sesarma bidens that I only see about once a week. I'd like to get a Malawi crab at some point, but they are a bit larger, unsure if I'd put one in my 29 or not...

They have their pecking order, but they get along quite well. The only plant that I can't keep on the tank seems to be Potomogeton perfoliatus. The mbuna munch it 'till nothing but stem remains.


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## vancat (Nov 5, 2004)

Apistos: Cacatouides - 3 females & 2 males in a 72g.
One lonely female looking for a guy in a 10g. 

The fish in the 72 have spawned many times, and the times I get the fry out before mama lets loose of them, I have successfully grown them out.

Anybody have Latacara curviceps out there? I hear they are good planted tank inhabitants.


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## Tiptoptank (Mar 28, 2005)

Discus 
SAE 
Ottos 
Cory
Kullie loaches


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## Simpte 27 (Jul 16, 2004)

I have just recently delved into the L. Tang cichlids. I currently have a trio of N. Brichardi and am in the process of acquiring 2 or 3 species of shellies.


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## Bavarian3 (Oct 21, 2004)

i have the following in my 55g show tank

Cynotilapia afra Cobue
Cynotilapia afra Lumbila
Pseudotropheus Acei Msuli.
Aulonocara stuartgranti Rubescens
Aulonocara stuartgranti Maleri
Aulonocara stuartgranti Mdoka
Aulonocara jacobfreibergi Otter Pt.
Aulonocara Lwanda
Otopharynx lithobates
Sciaenochromis fryeri

There are 3 Synodontis petricola catfish in there as well. Very hyper catfish and fun to watch.


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## fishdude1984 (Feb 17, 2005)

German Blue Rams, thats what i keep in my 50gal, there great fish


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## Error (Apr 16, 2004)

I've kept some dwarfs from time to time, but my true passion is for central American cichlids. I am especially a fan of the Thorichthys genus:

T. aureus
T. aureus 'Blue'
T. sp. 'Mixteco Blue'
T. maculipinnis (_incorrectly_ known as "T. ellioti")

Some of the Madagascan cichlids I've seen are pretty neat too. My girlfriend keeps Ptychochromis nossibeensis 'Tsipoy' (sp?).


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## imatrout (May 12, 2005)

Sorry for this semi-cross post, but Cichlids in a planted tank has been a passion for a little while.

I keep many Tanganyikan Cichlids in a heavily planted CO2 injected tank including:
Neo. Gracalis
Neo. Leleupi
Neo. Buerschi
Alto. Calvus
Jul. Marleiri
Cyp. Leptosoma

along with...
SAEs and a lonely pencilfish.

First of all these fish like to dig and will do so unless you provide some rock cubby holes for them to "hotel" in. I have 50 lbs. of petrified wood and 4 terra cotta flower pots in the tank and you can't see them at all due to the plant coverage. Even then, they will still dig. They will eat shrimp as fast as you can put them in the tank. I experimented with some ghost shrimp and as soon as I released them, the fish turned into pirahnas. Of the 10 I put in a 150 gallon tank, they were ALL eaten within 48 hours and most within the first 2 hours.

You can inject CO2, by increasing the quantity slowly over the course of a couple of weeks. I have hard water with a ph of 8.1 out of the tap and I inject CO2 that drives the Ph down to 7.1....very low for Tanganyikan Cichlids. You can see an old picture of my Tanganyikan tank here:

http://tropicalresources.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=10759

Today there's 20 times more plants and most of the ones in the pictures have been changed out. I'm now growing:

Bacopa Carolina
Limnophila Aromatica
Sunset Hydro
Willow Leaf Hydro
Hemianthus "Pearlweed" and HC "Cuba"
Ludwigia Repens
Apon. Crispus
Anubias Nana
Corkscrew Vals
and a few Crypts

All are growing very nicely.

Here's the catch:

The fish are healthy and happy even with 30 ppm of CO2 and a Ph of 7.1. They have basically stopped spawning except for the Cyprochromis Leptosoma who do so every few weeks. I feel like I am sub-optimizing the conditions for both the fish and the plants so I'm thinking about tearing it down and changing to fish that enjoy softer water and a new plant friendly substrate such as Eco-Complete.

It can it be done and look very nice, BUT....

You'd probably be better off creating a biotope where fish and plants and inverts all are happy instead of forcing them into an environment they were not evolved for.


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