New To Tanganyika

[Newo]

I recently won the Perth Cichlid Society chrissy raffle, 6'x18"x14" tank and stand.

Im only new to fish.. atm I have 4x2x2 with Maingano, Yellows + Red Emp.

Im interested in setting up a Tang tank.

From what I have read im assuming most people use stuff to buffer their water... can people tell me what the costs are for these products... I have heard of pool salts and other stuff like bicarb being used instead. Although what are the costs for the proper ones from the stores?

Now for the more important issue... what fish can I put in the tank.

I like the look and sound of the following fish (not all in the same tank).

C. Frontosa

Trets

Sexfasciatus

Leleupi

Calvus

Comps

Because im new on the fish... im not too sure about keeping such a slow growing fish such as the fronts, a.calvus and comps and the tank will probably be too narrow for them when they are at full size. (im not ready to test my patience yet)

I like the Trets and Sexfaciatus, although from what I have read... You can only really keep one pair in each tank. Im not really keen on a 6foot tank with only 2 fish in it.

What im hoping is you guys can tell me what can go with what and how many of each in the tank.

I have read about having two shell beds on each side and rockwork down the middle and having 2 types of shellies and a cave spawner down the middle... although is it just as easy to put a partition down the middle of the tank and have Trets on one side and Sexfaciatus on the other?

Does anyone else Partition tanks to keep aggressive tang spawners?

Thanks all.

Owen.

[trofius]

Hi Owen

Welcome to the world of tangs. as you see more different types you WILL want then too. I find Tangs are addictive. With the water treatment stuff, I use heaps of crushed coral in the filter to help buffer and raise the pH, a course sand substrate as it is easier to keep cleen and heaps of rocks. Which means that you have to be confident of whats going in, as there hard to catch in the rocks! I have two large tanks 6x2x2 and 6x18x18 in the smaller tank I have 4 Julidiochromis regani, 7 Foai "magara", and 12 leptosoma, also at the moment because of a lack of tank space there is a Neolamprologus cylindricus and 7 N. pulchers also in the tank. Sounds like a lot, 37 fish I think, but they are mostly juviniles (5cm average) and they get along great, also there is a 50 liter canister filter on this tank, water needs to be perfect!!!

The beauty of tangs is that there are many fish from lots of different biotopes, ie rocks, in them , on them, over them etc and then there are sandy area fish and shellies etc.. In general i would have an open water type fish like the leptos, a rock dweller like julidiochromis sp.,/neolamprologus sp. such as pulchers/cylindricus/leleupi etc and a sand sifter/ shell dweller.

A lot of tangs like to be in schoals, or large groups so you can keep a few, for some thing extra you could also add some syndontis catfish!

Or you could make it a species tank and have a colony of some thing.

In my bigger tank there are 4 leleupi, a large female pulcher and a colony of duboisi, again good filtration heaps of rock work etc... all works fine.

From What you want I would suggest some leptos 8-12, a few calvus or compresscips, 2 leleupi, and maybe 1 sexfasciatus.

If it is just a display tank different types will be cool but if you want to breed them (ie both sexes of each) then they may get a bit fisty, or eat the others young.

Having fish that grow slow is good,,,you get to keep them longer!!

As for dividing the tank why??? keep it a nice big tank, Trets can be a handful, a single sexfasciatus would work better in a community setup.

This is my ideas, others may have different suggestions but hey different things work for different peoples, when all my fishes get mature I will prob have to move things around, but I expect this!

Good luck

[csmacd]

I, too, am looking into starting a Cichlid tank. What opinions can anyone give on the stocking ideas from CichlidRecipe?

I'm curious about these suggestions since, in the 55 Gallon at least, it seems they mix Tanganyika and Malawi species.

Thanks!

[nannat]

i think putting 2 trios of pseudotropheus or aulonacara is inviting them to crossbreed as suggested on the site :o

[csmacd]

Ok, cool. It's not a great concern - I have no intentions on becoming a breeder, this would be just a show tank.

Do you have any comments on mixing the lakes? I've read that this is a bad idea...

In practice (and thinking about it for another couple of minutes :-), I might omit one of those species just so it wouldn't be a concern about giving away fry at any point in the future.

My real concern is agression in the tank and thinking forward to a possible future upgrade ot a 120+ Gallon tank. The goal I have in mind is a larger, possibly underpopulated tank, with more smaller species instead of fewer larger ones.

It is still a few months away, got to find room in the house! :-)

Thanks!

[Sutalleco]

i have a 129 gallon mixed lake tank, i have Astatotilapia nubilus in there too which are Victorian, none of the fish are fully mature though so we'll have to wait and see if it works in the long run...i do know that mixing tang and malawi is usually a bad idea because people want to mix things like pseudotropheus and melanochromis with things like brichardi and calvus, they have completely different dietary needs, calvus need tons of protein, in the wild they live off other fish's fry...but the malawians need a very low protein diet as to not get bloat and die...they need vegetables

but i have peacocks in my tank and there is gonna be a few labidochromis when its all done and they dont need the vegetarian diet like the others