DescentBB

Well, I've got a small community tank in my son's room. I was bored with it and decided to do another in my office. I threw in the biggest one I could fit on the wall next to my bookshelves. It's a 40 gallon high. Same dimensions as a 30 long, just taller.

Now I'm faced with picking out some fish. I like colorful, active species. I'm gonna run fresh for sure, I just dont want to deal with salt in my computer room. I was thinking of running some cichlids or something. Anybody here have a freshwater tank, and if so, what do you enjoy raising?

I got 2 tanks, a 20 gallon in my room with a couple black moores and a pleco, while the other tank is in the living room has some massive goldfish, a good sized pleco and a huge black moore.

Some people say goldfish are stupid, but they're easy to raise and they live forever it seems. Black moores are also quite vigorous, the one we have in the big tank has survived several die-offs due to bloat and ick.

as for colorful and active, goldfish will go to you if you get near the tank. they are smart enough to associate the human shape with food, a cool trick to show off with

if you get cichlids, you have to be careful, as they are some of the most vicious fish you can get, any other species in the tank, unless the fish are larger, the cichlids will chew the others apart.

Exotic Tropical Fish are always fun

Ive gone the cichlids/jack dempsy's/oscars.. All cool fish, just remember that they are aggressive. ie, no gold fish mixing.. unless your me

Cichlids rock ... I raised them for profit when I was in college. They are absolutely beautiful fish. Not only are they beautiful but they have amazing personalities ... they are highly spirited.

Yes they are agressive and I would not put non-cichlids in with them. For a 40 gallon tall (less floor space than long) I would recommend that you put in 6 to 8 fish at start. After a while they will define their own boundaries on the gravel and agressively defend their space. They will even get jealous/agitated if another fish looks at their territory. This is normal and desired ... They will fight and you will loose a few fish to such fights. In a year or so you will have a balanced tank with 4 to 6 fish. As they get older and larger (hand sized) you will probably loose another fish or two but that is good ... it ensures a healthy balance in the tank.

Remember that the lakes in S. Africa that they come from are a little alkaline so ... put enough sea salt for 2-5 gallons of water into every 20 gallons of tank. That will help enhance their color some but it also helps a great deal to give them color food (food high in protein and enhanced with beta carotine). The slight alkalinity will also make the water unsuitable for a lot of other freshwater fish ...

I am considering a 100+ gallon tank for the new home and if I do so you can bet your butt that I will stock it with cichlids. If you decide you want cichlids I can help some, it has been a long time since I had them but I am re-educating myself now. Anyhow I wish you luck bro ...

dbl post ... sheesh

woohoo nice dbl post there tough guy

++

I used to have a 55 gallon tank with an Arrowana, a Tiger shovelnose cat and a large tire track eel in it. Talk about goin through goldfish! Even the eel was munchin em down! 200 or so of em every 2 weeks!

Stress and Ice have the ticket for your tank tho.Cichlids make for a sweet tank, Just remember what They said about their aggressive nature.

my neibors got a tank with this big light, and the people on my street think its radioactive.

If I remember right, with cichlids you either have to pack 'em in to control the aggressive territorial instincts or do low numbers especially if you are looking to breed.

try to also balance vertically.

like;
A convict (like to burrow in gravel and stays low)
A Jack Dempsey (will stay in mid to low range)
An Oscar (Will stay mid to high)

We had a large Oscar in a pet shop I worked at in college. He was fun, we fed him goldfish ... He would inhale them then you would see a POOF! of small orange scales come out of his gills. Kids visiting the store never got enough of that nor did I ...

I'd like to get another aquarium someday - a large one... 5 gallons with goldfish just don't do it for me. (they were fine when I was a kid) I don't know much about them tho - figured I probably don't want to deal with saltwater to start off with... there aren't any small freshwater sharks are there?

In a few years I'm going to be looking at building a new house, and I was going to build one into the structure, and make it rise up between floors (from basement to ground floor, in a large tube in the center of the house, will be a dome home)

BTW ... Cichlids.com has most all of the info you need to get started. It even has a lot of pictures of the various types ... though most of the fish in the pix are dull (obviously not fed color food).

Also This Book is a pretty good reference ...

Er... well.. i HAD an aquarium but some wondering samuri got ahold of it and ...

dunt work.

yea.. i know .. exceeded bandwith

I always liked the peacock variaties, especially in the blue coloration:

http://tinyurl.com/58uqd

Betas are very colorful fish, but don't put more than one in a tank at a time. They are very jealous of other bright-colored fish, and they have been known to eat guppies' tails. Goldfish can be interesting, but they tend to expand to fit the tank. Exclusively. Plecostamus (sp?) fish are GREAT for fresh-water, since they eat algae. No more anti-algae tablets... Be warned though, they can also get fairly large and they aren't particularly lively.

my sister had some chinese fighting fish (betas)male +female, and one killed the other...

http://www.aquarium-berlin.de/Galerien/ ... bild14.jpg

http://members.lycos.nl/aquariumoscar/h ... 010070.JPG

The classic "Oscar". Gotta love 'em. A bit messy with live food tho...

Yeah, Mob, Oscars would be cool, but my tank's not big enough. I need fish that top out no bigger than 6 inches. Love Oscars tho.

@Woody: those are pretty fish. I'm going to the biggest and best cichlid dealer in chicago today to look.

Punisher, if you buy any post some pics if you can.

I have a 300 gallon with Cichlids, mostly African. It's run by a wet/dry trickle system pumped with 2 2400 powerheads. My lighting is an 8 foot Hamilton Beach hood with 3 200watt metal Halides and two 96 watt actinics. The lighting is amazing! I can only run it a few hours a day,otherwise I'll have algea problems within a 12 hour time period.Not to mention my meter spins quickly when it's on.

I had a southy(cichla temensis) that grew damn near 20 inches in the tank. One day I found an 8" compressiceps that I'd been seeking for almost a year. As soon as I dropped him in, my Temensis ate him. That was a costly mistake.

compressiceps:
http://www.c-u-w.net/jpg/ad_konigs/alto ... onigs).jpg

I got tired of him eating my other fish, so I took him out, whacked him with a rock and fed him to my neighbors cat.


http://stresstest.2y.net/images/barry/RIM00036.JPG
http://stresstest.2y.net/images/barry/RIM00037.JPG

How big do Jack Dempsey's grow? They rock!

I'm also partial to peacocks, my tank is full of them.


Here's some pics(stolen right off the net) of my
Aulonocara. I also have females of each of these and they breed like wildfire.

http://www.c-u-w.net/jpg/ad_konigs/aulo ... onigs).jpg

http://www.cichlidenstube.de/Fische/Aul ... nschiM.jpg

http://www.myarea.ch/cichlidmaniak/pics ... 0eurka.jpg

http://www.aquafarm.de/archiv/fifotos/a ... er_rot.jpg

http://www.pbrueck.de/mal-ta-vi/images/ ... melela.jpg

http://www.aquaflight.co.uk/Photos/Mala ... ji_gif.jpg

Couple of Johanni's
http://www.cichlidlovers.com/m-cyan-maingano.JPG

Couple of Haplochrimis
http://perso.club-internet.fr/burnel/Victo/sp44bis.jpg

http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/img/similis1.jpg

http://www.c-u-w.net/jpg/sciaenochromis_ahli_m.jpg

Couple of pseudotropheus
http://www.saijoto.dk/images/Cichlide%2 ... .11.02.jpg

http://www.akwafoto.pl/konkurs/konkurs0 ... 0zebra.jpg

Pun, check into compressiceps, they're awesome fish and you'll rarely see them larger than 6 inches. They cost a lot, but they grow very, very slowly and if they breed you'll make a killing.

Mutondwe:
http://www.ohiexchange.com/armke/images ... tondwe.jpg

Lamprollogus:
Gold face:
http://www.barsch-zucht.de/images/a_compressiceps.jpg

Zaire black:
http://www.g-hoener.de/images/14%20Afri ... lvus_l.jpg

Good luck!

Jacks get really big, I've seen 2 foot JD's. I hate those things.

Man Pimpster, you are where I wanna be, nice chiz!

Thanks, man. This thread gave me a chance to brag about my tank.

my mom once had a 60 Gallon, and she had a nice assortment of Angel's, Neon's, Koi, Goldfish, a couple of "Sucker" Fish, a Docile Tiger Shark and i cant remember the others....ill have to ask her what all she had in the tank.


they all came to her and me when we walked near the tank. very active fish that loved making their own little "hiding/resting" spots.

Pimpster, this peacock is awesome:

http://www.aquafarm.de/archiv/fifotos/a ... er_rot.jpg

Did yours get to be that colorful? Also did you keep yours in a large community? I'd say you definetly have bragging rights on your set-up.

Woody,
Yeah, mine get that colorful and I'd get pics if they'd sit still. Everytime I go to get pics of the fish they dart about and all I get is a blur. I've probably put a couple hours of time in trying to photograph my cichlids with no success.
The biggest factors in fishes color is the food they eat and the Ph level. I keep my Ph at 9.2 using Baking soda. Baking soda holds better than "Ph up" or other commercial water conditioners. I only have to add baking soda after water changes, I do about 30% monthly.I feed my fish nothing less than 44% crude protein and they eat Omega one. It's a bit costly but it pays off in spades with healthy fish and beautiful colors.
I have a 300 gallon tank and there are(edit) 28 adults and 2 ba-zillion fry. Yes, it's a community tank and there's enough room for all the adults to have their space without fighting. I've turned the temp down from 82 to about 77 to reduce thier breeding, hasn't worked well.

B-

wow. Impressive.

Thanks for all the info, guys. Especially you, Shawn. Oh and by the way, Shawn, you ARE a flake, but I love you anyway.

I put two pairs of Cichlids in yesterday. They're Juveniles. One pair is Labidochromis caeruleus, the other I'm not so sure of now, might be Neolamprologus furcifer, but I forgot. They're a purplish black with yellow fins. They seem to be settling into the tank nicely. No fights yet, which is reassuring. We'll see what happens tonight at feeding time.

They have four species of Compressiceps in their display tank, and the guy told me that they get specimens in quite regularly of five different species. Once I know my tank is safe, I'll definitely be adding some sort of Compressiceps. They are awesome and majestic fish. Man, this stuff gets addictive and expensive real fast.

hehe, the little Labido's are cool as hell. They tried to eat my finger last night as I was sticking a thermometer to the tank wall. Rawr!