Whats your thoughts

[noddy]

Hi All,

Looking to try and finalise the new display Tanganyikan setup (48L x 14W x 18H) I'm going to filter it with an Eheim 2217 with the following planned stocking which I understand may be on the heavy side. Please let me know your thoughts. I do also understand I run the risk of having 2 lamprologus species but I do plan to split them at each end of the tank and monitor them to ensure no pairs form between the 2 species. I may also look to split all the inhabitants into another tank or expand into a larger tank long term. Plenty of rock while still leaving open sandy area for the sifters and shellies.

10 Cyprichromis leptosoma Utinta

4 Lamprologus ocellatus (Gold) (to reduce to a pair)

4 Lamprologus Meleagris (1m/3f or reduce to 1m/2f or even 1m/1f)

10 Paracyprichromis Nigripinnis

3-4 Tanganicodus Irsacae Moba

2 xenotilapia papilio sunflower Msalaba

5 callochromis macrops ndole red

2 Bristlenose (purely for cleaning but only if needed)

Thanks in advance

Trav

[Andrew]

G'day Trav,

You're right - that is on the heavy side. To be honest, I don't think the problem will be the two Lamprologus species, though. If we examine the preferred level occupied by your selections, we find five species that occupy the floor of the tank, one to occupy the rocks up a bit higher (nigripinnis) and one pelagic fish (Utinta).

T. irsacae is frighteningly aggressive and I feel it would be hard to manage 3-4 of them in that surface area alone. But when we have two shellies protecting their territories (which they do extremely well), as well as two sandsifters trying to go about their business, you are going to have a very busy and bossy tank floor. If, for example, you had a 48 x 24 x 24, I think you could achieve it, but I feel that a standard 4' tank lacks the amount of surface area this combination requires.

Filtration wise, the 2217 will handle the biological load, so no worries there. For cleaning, I would choose one Plecostomus or gibbiceps over two Bristlenoes, as Plecos are more efficient at the job.

Keep us posted.

Andrew.

[brucem]

From the species you've selected I'd go with one shellie, the xeno's and either paracyps or cyps in that sized tank.

If it were me, in a std 4ft I'd swap the xeno's for alto's

[shon982]

To keep the discussion going, this was my response to this thread on another forum

list looks good except for a few things..

Not a good idea keeping occies with meleagris or vice verse. Best to keep one or the other

Bristlenose, up to you but I'd leave them out

And the macrops, they're aggressive and with the occies on the bottom and the rest of the fish they won't get the room they need. I'd opt out in keeping them in thetank OR wait until the end and see if it looks like they'll fit

I'd go with a sandsifter instead like ochrogenys ndole bay or makola

But to add...

This is what I'd go with

10 Cyprichromis leptosoma Utinta

4 Lamprologus ocellatus (Gold) (to reduce to a pair) OR 4 Lamprologus Meleagris (1m/3f or reduce to 1m/2f or even 1m/1f)

10 Paracyprichromis Nigripinnis

3-4 Tanganicodus Irsacae Moba

2 xenotilapia papilio sunflower Msalaba

6 Ochrogenys Ndole bay

It'll be pretty heavily stocked still

Althought I've never found Tanganicodus aggressive at all in my tanks, on second thoughts they just might be a bit too active for this tank setup as the other fish are a bit more calm in their movements

[noddy]

Hey Guys,

Here is the rockwork design. Sand will probably go in tomorrow (hopefully). Will grab some shells tomorrowand start cycling the tank. Plants (anubias, java fern Y some corkscrew vals) will probably go in next weekend. Then the exciting bit... THE FISH!!!

[danielsplakat]

any updates on the tank?

[noddy]

Hi Guys,

Sorry for the lack of updates but I have not been on the site from the comupter, only my mobile. So here goes...

I've decided I wanted to go with tropheus(as I've always loved them). I am looking to use controlled over crowding (as you can also do with Malawians) to reduce the aggression. I plan to upgrade them to atleast a 4x2x2 (have already obtained the financial controllers blessing) in 6months (max). I anticipate having the following stocking.

18 F2 Tropheus moliro's (which I pick up today)

4-6 cyanostictus 'kasanga'

4-6 occie golds (to reduce to a pair with the others to be sold off if I can bring myselff to get rid of them - I can see a 20gal sitting on my desk at work beautifully)

I plan on removing some of the males (when I can identify them) from the colony and reducing it to 10. Once that is done I plan to add 10 lufubu's. I will also be adding a second 2217(1,000lph without media rated for a 600ltr tank) to the tank which should give me about 1,200lph filtration once the media is added along with doing weekly water changes to manage the nitrates. I plan on feeding them NLS cichlid formula twice daily (gotta love auto feeders) and ocean nutrition spirulina flakes twice a day along with a vege clip to graze on with either spinach/lettuce/zucchini throughout the day. I also have some frozen mysis shrimp which will be a once a week treat (looking for everyones thoughts here as I miss read a mates message)

Looking down on the tank

Here is the sand I'm adding (rinsed & boiled). Its more brown than it really looks on here.

After I added the sand

Here are the shells i'm adding for the shellies

After the shells have been added

And finally after I have added a couple of anubias. May add more but will just see how they go.

Sorry for such a big update. Please let me know your thoughts/concern/criticisms (I'm a big boy )/complements.

Thanks

Trav

[TimB]

Very nice! What pH will you be running?

[noddy]

pH is stable at 7.9

[TimB]

ok

[noddy]

I do plan to lift it a little by adding some shells to the filter. The fish i have just picked up were ran at 8 so i figured for the short term at least 7.9 was close enough for acclimatising the additions.

Here they are happy and eating 15mins after being added to their new home. Hard to capture a decent pic on my iPhone but you get the idea and a little of their colouration.

[Jason130497]

Real nice fish!

Just on little thing...

With the scape a scape that is pleasing to the eye is one that is not symetrical and yours is definitly symetrical. Try, if you want, adding some more rocks to one side and maybe do a kind of rising sort of rock work with one side of the tank having the big rock work and the other side having a gradual slope down with smaller rocks.

Just a segguestions, awesome fish and will definitly need to do some for myself one day!

[noddy]

Thanks Jason. I've finished putting all the fish in so at this stage it won't be changing too much. I do plan to move the fish to a larger tank in about 6 months time so I will look at a different design then although 'pleasing to the eye' is what I was going for as it is a display tank. I now have 19 moliros, 6 gobies and 6 gold occies (purchased 2 days ago) in the tank and everyone is very happy to the point the occies have already laid eggs.

Thanks for your thoughts

Trav

[Jason130497]

Oh nice! I love the gobys and well done on the spawn definitly looking forward to photos soon!

[noddy]

This iPhone 3 seems to take really nice pics of the fish for some reason...

[Jason130497]

Woah thats awesome! Congratualtions! I love the blue sheen on the fish!

[noddy]

Yeah pretty stoked. The photo doesn't do them justice though. The sheen is so much nicer...

[dogboy]

Hi. Nice tank and fish.

Tropheus will outgrow that tank really quickly so a 4x 2x2 would be a minimum size to keep them in IMO. And keep the colony at 19 fish. You may find cutting numbers to 10 may lead to aggression. And good to have a rock pile at each end and a clear space in the middle to allow the dominant males to have a territory each. Also if you do get a second type of tropheus they may interbreed so fine if display only and you cull any fry but not good if you intend to breed them.

Good to see more people keeping gobies. Awesome fish. So much personality.

Enjoy!

[noddy]

Thanks dogboy. I've got the approval from the financial controller to go to a 4x2x2 in approx 4-6 mths so i've just started conditioning her to a 6x2x2 instead...baby steps... At this stage I may look to try and vent them and potentially source some male or females (depending on venting) to split the bloodlines a bit (although they are only F2's but always good for the lines) and increase the numbers to about 30-40 (maybe) but not another species as once I get the 6x2x2 i'll start the conditioning for the 2nd 6x2x2 (muhahaha) which I'll put in a separate troph species move in a pair of gobies and some shellies and go again and start building a room in the house.

Cheers

Trav