Mscott19833 Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 Hi guys, I'm slowly putting together a African cichlid tank (250ltrs/66gal) and am wordering if anyone has any ideas of what I should fill it with. Leaning towards lake Malawi species but am open to any ideas of combinations that can live together quite peacefully. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donny Brasco Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 Hey mate i would start off with a bunch of young male peacocks and some peacefull haps, If your still in the stages of setting it all up you may need to wait a bit yet to cycle the tank and have your filter working good, then its time to start introducing fish slowly. i would probably start off with say 5 or 6 nice male peacocks around 5-6cm and give them a good month or so before putting anything else in just to give your filter a chance to work out the new bio load, then maybe chuck in a few species of haps with a good mix of male and female, like maybe a couple of taiwan reef and some spilo tanzania or something like that, best to do some googling and find some species that tickles your fancy's and then research there diet, temperament and compatibility with your peacocks. generally speaking as long as your staying away from the larger more predatory style of hap you cant really go wrong with a hap and peacock tank in terms of comparability, there dietary needs are almost identical and can get along peacefully together. as for which species you choose its really just going to be a matter of your tastes as everyone likes different things, some people like the rare stuff which times isnt all that appealing to look at, some people go for the more common get anyway type stuff but imo can be quite plane and drab. cant go wrong with a nice aulonocara lwanda male and will most likely be your center piece fish as they are quite attractive and vibrant to look at. some other nice peacocks that can be quite attractive, aulonocara stuartgranti blue neon, aulonocara stuartgranti ngara and maybe mix it up with an aulonocara kadensae as most of the fish above are predominantly blue. for haps im a big placidochromis fan so fish like mdoka white lips, phenocilus tanzania, gissel, electra etc are all stunning fish but not always available for purchase from your local aquariums and living out in shepparton your not really going to come across these type of fish with out going for a descent drive.... If i was you i would get incontact with a bloke named Devon, he has a facebook page called Barnesys cichlid heaven, he has a business out in bunyip which is a good 3 hour drive from you but he is going to have everything you want and can do you some good prices on a bunch of fish. He always has great stock and a lot of different stuff you would normally find in a shop. He breeds fish on site but also buys a lot of interesting juvies off breeders all over aus so it is sort of like a well a heaven for cichlids. note* dont bother with mbuna, everyone told me at the start and i was niave and wanted to get some anyway because there quite vibrant in color and generally both males and females are colorful but man it gets old. anyway thanks my opinion mate im sure there are lots more people who can give theres Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mscott19833 Posted February 9, 2016 Author Share Posted February 9, 2016 Your opinions and advice are greatly appreciated. It is going to be my first cichlid tank so I need as much advice as I can get. Once again cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mscott19833 Posted February 9, 2016 Author Share Posted February 9, 2016 Your suggestion of starting out with 5-6 male peacocks.... My question is, does it matter if they are all different sub species or should I get the same kind? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donny Brasco Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 Na you can have all different types of peacocks but try to stick to all males if your doing that. Males will still stir each other up and you will end up with a bully/tank boss but they will survive. Unlike mbuna who will pester each other until the other dies lol Just male sure your getting all males as you don't want to end up with 2 males from one type and 4 females from another you will end up breeding a bunch of random hybrids. If your not interested in raising.any fish you can leave a few females in there which will stir the males up a bit and will possibly make them color up a bit more as well. Just let them spit the fry or let them get eaten Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mscott19833 Posted February 10, 2016 Author Share Posted February 10, 2016 Do you think it's ok if I get like say groups of 5 of the same kind. And have a few different groups and then have like a center piece fish. What are the male to female ratio's? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donny Brasco Posted February 11, 2016 Share Posted February 11, 2016 you can but if your talking about groups as in say a couple of male and a couple of female peacocks of the same species then ideally you dont want to put any other kinds of peacocks in there at all. you can probably get away some some haps but haps can still hybridize with peacocks as well i believe so i guess its a matter of if there is some cross breeding going on you ideally need to cull the babies if its getting out of hand. If your just doing it for a nice looking display tank then stick to all males and enjoy the variation in colors and behavior, as i may have mentioned before as well, female peacocks are generally grey/brown with black bars, not the prettiest fish to look at so if your not interested in breeding then your just taking up stock for drab fish. Its completely up to you mate, but if you have a bit of a search around on this page and specially with the new import laws coming in its ideal that people start to crack down on hybridizing random fish colonies so the last thing i would want to suggest to you is mixing colonies like that in the one tank. If your thinking lets say a colony of 5 or 6 blue neons or something with a 2/3 or 2/4 ratio and then just a couple of nice male haps then sure, just keep an eye on spawning and make sure that the male haps arnt getting stuck into the female peacocks and you should be sweet. Another note i will make if you are planing on putting a small colony in there to breed and possibly sell some of the offspring i suggest getting some fish from keysborough aquarium thats fresh out of his import this month, get your self a descent quality colony to begin with instead of buying random fish from an aquarium and trying to breed them. he had some aulonocara stuartgranti ngara red's on the list im not sure if he has any extras to sell but if he does i would be grabbing a colony of them, there a great looking fish and will have no trouble selling the fry if you start with a fresh german line or even better some wild caughts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Link2Hell Posted February 11, 2016 Share Posted February 11, 2016 what are the dimensions of the tank you only list as 250lt as the other said you need to decide if you want to bred fish or just display if you breed you will need more tanks for the fry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teamsherman Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 On 9 February 2016 at 11:19 AM, Mscott19833 said: Hi guys, I'm slowly putting together a African cichlid tank (250ltrs/66gal) and am wordering if anyone has any ideas of what I should fill it with. Leaning towards lake Malawi species but am open to any ideas of combinations that can live together quite peacefully. I have a successful Malawi tank and it's got quite a few different fish. Saulosi, Hongii, Acei, Azureas, mirrorball haps, Kribensis, a lion head pair, a massive lonely male peppermint BN and a pair of normal BN which I discovered last night are breeding and have eggs in a cave!! And a single red claw yabby that's happy as larry and grown from about 3cm to just over 12cm! In total there is about 40 fish or so in approximately 4x2x2 tank running a 1200lph canister filter and a small internal filter. Live not had a single death or issue with them and the only thing I have to keep an eye on is the bloody Saulosi keep having mouthfuls and I feel too bad to not strip them and give them a chance at life! At the rate I'm going I'll have had over a few hundred fry by the end of the year and will eventually have to set up another tank just for e Saulosi fry!! Im using coral, wood and fake ornaments with heaps of hidey holes for them all to choose from and for substrate I'm using white crushed quartz. at first I thought there was too many fish and got a few of each as I was expecting some deaths along the way but haven't had any so I just keep on top of water changes and filter cleans and he tank pretty much runs itself I have however got a few bio-balls in the tank to help with that little extra bio filtration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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