Topic: Greetings to everyone!

[thewass]

Hello everyone, great community you have going on here. I'm glad to be a part of it now.

Just a little about my fish-life: I first bought a fish tank about 3 years ago, it is a 20 gallon freshwater tank. Right now I have a white/blue swordtail, a red/black platy, an orange platy, some guppies, some neon tetras, some rasbora, some danios, a chinese algae eater, albino coryfish, a balloon molly and a silver molly. I also have three black baby mollies and seven baby guppies, but I dont know what color they are yet.

Since I have no cichlids, why am I joining this community, you ask? well I heard that cichlids lay eggs so i wanted to buy some and put them in with my fish and when the eggs hatch maybe my cichlid babies will play with the guppy babies!

HOLD ON WAIT I'M JUST KIDDING! haha..... i wonder how many of you face-palmed. no but on a serious note, I just bought a 75 gallon fish tank and want to do some extensive research on cichlids before I start a cichlid tank. this should give enough time for my water to start cycling, but I thought a 75 gallon tank is a good start.

Well, thank you for reading up to this far. If anyone would like to point me in the right direction of some starting points or good threads you think I should look at, that would be much appreciated. Now if you will excuse me, I am going to go get lost in the forums 

[fnesr]

Welcome aboard and congrats on the new tank 

The first tough decision with cichlids is whether you want to get New World (American) cichlids or African cichlids. Once you decide and get your cichlids the second tough decision is how many pieces of your furniture you should replace with more cichlid aquariums.

Hope you enjoy the forums  .

[blob]

HEY MATE!! welcome to the community! im new aswell!!!

like fnesr said u'll need to find out which cichlid you'd like to keep, they have very good personalities i can tell you that!

[Gerry]

Think fnesr has you covered as its hard to guide you until you pick the rout you want to go.

Generally, Africans need harder water and can be slightly overstocked (in fact recommended) where as Americans prefer a bit territory they can claim as their own and prefer a more acid to neutral Ph.

If you read the cleaning a tank post it gives important information on filtration and water change requirements for cichlids  (as they are a bit messier than general community)

[Gem997]

hello and welcome 

[Katt]

Welcome.   

[Dale]

Welcome to the site 

[thewass]

Well, hello to everyone and thanks for the warm welcome. It seems as though I want to go the African cichlid route after reading about them, going to the pet store and checking them both out, and as Gerry mentioned, they can be crowded which means i'll have more fish 

So I have made up my mind. Its the Africans. Now, are there any specific recommendations as far as substrate goes? I wanted to go with a natural colored gravel, but not the small rocks, they are a bit larger but still small enough to use as a substrate.... would that be okay? I read somewhere that I should use sand..... but I don't like that idea

As far as plants go, I absolutely love live plants (I have more plants in my 20 gallon tank than I do other decorations), but from what I am finding out, plants will just serve as expensive (and pretty) feed for cichlids. Are there any specific live plants that people have success with keeping? Or should I just stay away from them all?

As far as filtration, I have two filters (the kind that hang on the back of the tank)  however, I may want to buy new ones because these are used. I haven't decided yet, but if I want new ones, what filters are best in your expert opinions?

And lastly (at least for now) what is your opinion on buying that bacteria starter liquid that you simply pour into the tank and instantly cycles the water and allows for instant addition of fish? Thanks in advance for all your help

[blob]

well for substrate it is up to you, you can use CC (crushed coral) is is sand like except the grains are abit bigger, do you know what your waters ph is? crushed coral is usually used in cases where the tank's water is acidic, it is used as a buffer..the rift lake africans require alkaline water

there are also rocks you can use to buffer the water if you don't want crushed coral as a substrate

the chiclids will shred plants, there are some which i've forgotten that sometimes work with chiclids but its up to the fish, usually they'll shred em so go for fake ones 

for filtration you should over filter the tank becuase africans are messy! you your going to buy a new filter you should invest in a canister filter and a internal or Hang ones mostly to move the water around and pick up debris

less chemicals you add to the aquarium the better it is, usually the the bacteria chemical things don't work, its better to cycle the tank normally without chemicals----- just read the line again IS there even an instant chemical?? :O   <---(IMO)

im starting an african tank myself! i bought some crushed coral yesterday any found some rocks which i've washed and added today gonna buy fishies on the weekend!! i might post a pic

[thewass]

Oh I most definitely will be posting a picture or two or three as soon as it is set up, but as for the fish, I don't know when they will be added yet. I might put a few feeder guppies in there to cycle the tank, and once it is ready for the cichlids, I will just go ahead and add them

You mentioned the canister filter, and I was actually thinking about just buying one and adding it to the two hang-on filters I already have, but I still want to research more on them.

Now there is one thing that especially concerns me. And that is adding new fish to the cichlid tank once there are already some in there. Now, I was hoping I could put thirty, possibly more fish in there but there is no way I can put 30+fish in there at once. And what if a month down the road, I see a new fish I like and want to add him in there and he's smaller than the rest? This is one specific topic I feel is most important to me and would love some guidance/clarification

[Katt]

Am not a Africans person, but can help some. 

As for cycling the new filters you can add one to your already cycled tank, and when the time comes move it over to new tank... Then rinse old filter out in tank water from old tank, add this dark gumps to new tank with new filters running.
This will give you a good jump on the cycle.  If not fully cycled.. this will depend on how many fish is in new tank.

[Stormbringer]

hi and welcome to the site 

[blob]

Oh I most definitely will be posting a picture or two or three as soon as it is set up, but as for the fish, I don't know when they will be added yet. I might put a few feeder guppies in there to cycle the tank, and once it is ready for the cichlids, I will just go ahead and add them

You mentioned the canister filter, and I was actually thinking about just buying one and adding it to the two hang-on filters I already have, but I still want to research more on them.

Now there is one thing that especially concerns me. And that is adding new fish to the cichlid tank once there are already some in there. Now, I was hoping I could put thirty, possibly more fish in there but there is no way I can put 30+fish in there at once. And what if a month down the road, I see a new fish I like and want to add him in there and he's smaller than the rest? This is one specific topic I feel is most important to me and would love some guidance/clarification

when you first add you first set of african cichlids u'll have about 1 month before they'll gang up on the new guys and claim there territory, (by first set i mean say, 10 out of the thirty u want to put in) if you see a new fish that you want to add say e.g 6 months after you'd added your thirty the best way to add the guy is to pretty much destroy there caves and want not so u some of the rockwork around so that there territory is all messed/gone, then feed them while there eating add the new guy once the new guy is in u can fix the rockwork to ur liking-------- reread your line im not entirely sure about if the new guy is smaller.. it reackon that will depend on what sort of africans your going to keep. MAKE sure u try and get juvinles, if you get them all big THEY WILL FIGHT becuas there not used to each other.

you can put a canister with the 1 or 2 HOB that'll be fine, i got 1 canister and an internal running

would love to see ur tank!

[Katt]

If I understand it right you want to over stock with Africans to spread the aggression.   So the more filtration the better.

[thewass]

I'll put pictures up soo, as soon as i figure out how to make this picture less than 600kb lol.....

i bought 6 cichlids today, and they are smaaaallll. I love them. I will be buying more and will fill it up with fish sooner than i thought. I found a pet store that sells them cheap because they are small, but i am not worried about that because they will grow quick.....

and as for the guppies, they are still alive. they havent been eaten yet. We'll see if thats the case tomorrow morning