Advice Needed for Setting up an Afraican Tank

[Kribbie]

Hi All,

I'm planning to set up a 3ft / 3.5ft African tank, but since I'm really new into the world of Afraicans, so I need some advices on what requirements that I need to paid attention on....

I mainly want to keep some afraicans that are small in size, not relatively aggressive and easy to care... So that I can have a "community" of Afraicans in my tank. So any suggestions?

Thanks!

Heidi

[YeW]

Hi Heidi -

I'd recommend you keep a species tank ie: just one african species.

Here are a few fish on my suggestions list for your tank size - pick ONLY one from the list:

1. Pseudotropheus saulosi

2. Pseudotropheus saulosi (I know I mentioned these before, but I think they'd be so good it is worth mentioning twice!)

3. Neolamprologus multifasciatus

4. Neolamprologus brichardi 'Any Morph'

5. Cynotilapia afra 'Cobue'

6. Any Julidochromis species.

Bascially (excuse the pun) the water needs to be alkaline... so use a shell grit or crushed marble substrate instead of plain gravel in the tank.

HTH -

[Serial-Cichlid]

Hi Heidi

I really like the idea of the Pseudotropheus saulosi as well. It would be a good introduction to Africans and you also get a colourful tank if you keep a decent colony i.e 1 male and a few females. The male will be a light blue with dark stripes along the sides of the body and the females a nice orange colour.

I'm also a fan of Julidochromis, as they have very very interesting characteristics and behaviour. You'll see for yourself if you get some.

Cheers

Paul

[canerod]

my intro to rift lake cichlids was a colony of 1 male and 5 female lombardoi in a 3 ft tank and while everyone else says that lombardoi are evil fish i loved them and thought they had a ton of character, and in a species tank their behavior was very reasonable and they were easy to breed.

[Serial-Cichlid]

Heidi

You maybe in luck. Panga is selling some P. salousi if you decide to choose that path.

Check out his for sale post here: Salousi 4 sale

Cheers

Paul

[Kribbie]

Thanks guys for the opinions! They are very helpful as i've no idea on which type of afraicans that I should try as a beginner.

I really like the suggestion of Pseudotropheus saulosi since both males and females have beautiful colours and looks really attractive to me! So....can I keep a colony of 1 male and 3 females along with a few E.yellowes? I've done some research and found that yellow labs will be good tankmates with P. salousi, is that true? Or I can't keep any other smaller speices in the tank? because I really would like to keep E.yellows and N. multifasciatus (they are so cute since they live in shells! hahaha..)...will all of them work well together in the tank?

YeW,

Thanks for the suggestion of substrate, I think I'm going to use white coral sand to begin with and put some rocks in there for them to play with~

canerod,

Lombardoi looks similar to P. salousi but males and females have opposite colours instead! hahahhaa~~~ i've did search on the net and found that lombardoi male has yellow colour while the female has light blue with darker blue strips! But I reckon this fish is will grow too big for a 3ft, so I would prefer smaller speices~ but thanks for your opinion anyways~

Serial-Cichlid,

I still haven't found a nice 3ft tank yet... so i don't think I can get some nice P. salousi from Panga~ Thanks for the notice though~ Oh.. which Julidochromis speices is the most interesting? Can they be kept with P. salousi too?