African Display Tank? Help me out

[Anonymous]

Redoing a 200 gallon display tank. Had a boring run of the mill Mbuna tanlk before and I'm wanting to start over from scratch and do something different. It's been awhile since I've paid very much attention to African cichlids. Anyone have any ideas on a different type of biotope that would make for an interesting display?

Pictures would be much appreciated.

 

[Anonymous]

I've always found the stacks of slate and lava rock in most african disaplys to be really boring. Anyone know of an appropriate fish for a root/anubias setup?

 

[Anonymous]

one of the stores i worked in years ago had an amazing setup for tanganyikans (specifically brichardis, cylindricus, and some other lamprologus/altolamprologus's) that had ceramic decorations all along the back, from bottom to top,and wood pieces, overgrown and fully carpeted with java fern and java moss-it was beautiful-and used just those two plants for a very striking display-also providing lots of hiding spots for those fish, which are a bit 'shy-er'

any tank with mbunas will eventually have any and all plants most likely destroyed, including anubias-they just take longer to get eaten, usually

peacocks (aulonocaras) and shell dwellers are also 'plant friendly', as africans go

hth

 

[Anonymous]

Before I changed my 50g over to a reef, I had a guy come in (from my hockey team) and hooked me up with AC's. He got ALL fake plants/flowers, and fake houseplants (wandering jew, pothos, etc), and dressed the tank. It was beautiful. Not only did it give it lots of color, but ACs had plenty of cover, and when they started to breed, the babies had no problem surviving.

His trick was to overstock, which cut down on the agression. That worked really well, believe it or not.

Easy maintaince too. Keeping the lights off at all times, except when viewing kept algae almost nonexistant, and when it did show up, ya take out the piece, bleach it in the bathtub, rinse, and let it dry before ya put it back. Worked Great!

...then I got the idea to go Reef, and now... well, I'm broke.

~wings~

 

[Anonymous]

Actually I'm moving away from the cichlid idea and looking for something a bit more unique. I've got a nice bed of sandy and river gravel a couple of large pieces of root and I'm going to ad a couple of large aubias (in addition to the ones I already have). I'm thinking west african river? Maybe a group of 15 or so kribensis with some congo tetras, barbs, and synodontis cats? I'm wanting to go with a lot of a few striking species.

 

[Anonymous]

I love syn cats! I do know that they like a high PH...just something to keep in mind. Cool. Take some shots when you're done.

~wings~

 

[Anonymous]

Actually I'm moving away from the cichlid idea and looking for something a bit more unique. I've got a nice bed of sandy and river gravel a couple of large pieces of root and I'm going to ad a couple of large aubias (in addition to the ones I already have). I'm thinking west african river? Maybe a group of 15 or so kribensis with some congo tetras, barbs, and synodontis cats? I'm wanting to go with a lot of a few striking species.

you will end up with one pair :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

I've always liked shell dwellers but you'd have a lot of unused space in a 200 gallon.

 

[Anonymous]

Actually I'm moving away from the cichlid idea and looking for something a bit more unique. I've got a nice bed of sandy and river gravel a couple of large pieces of root and I'm going to ad a couple of large aubias (in addition to the ones I already have). I'm thinking west african river? Maybe a group of 15 or so kribensis with some congo tetras, barbs, and synodontis cats? I'm wanting to go with a lot of a few striking species.

you will end up with one pair :wink:

Ya think? Even in a seven foot 200 gallon tank with tons of root work?

 

[Anonymous]

ok, mebbe 2 pair :wink:

seriously, kribs can be far more vicious than most people think-i'd allow at least 3-4 sq ft minimum per pair, and you'll still most likely get serious fights between pairs-keep in mind that some of the 'odd ones out' will get detsroyed as pairs begin to form, as well. :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

This is a neat site.

http://fish.mongabay.com/biotope.htm

 

[fishfanatic2]

I agree with vitz on the kribs. Once put 1 male and 3 females, all about to mature (but not quite there yet) in a 20 gallon tank. I did this because I thought they were a peaceful cichlid (it's all relative). I soon ended up with a one pair even with a tank divider.

Moral of the story-Kribs can be mean. A great fish, stays small, but they don't hesitate to kill other kribs.

 

[Anonymous]

Redoing a 200 gallon display tank. Had a boring run of the mill Mbuna tanlk before and I'm wanting to start over from scratch and do something different. It's been awhile since I've paid very much attention to African cichlids. Anyone have any ideas on a different type of biotope that would make for an interesting display?

Pictures would be much appreciated.

What did you end up doing here? If done right, I can't imagine anything more stunning than a mbuna display.
I think you're problem is that you're not getting good mbuna from the right places. Run of the mill F5 crap from the wholesaler won't cut it.

 

[Anonymous]

It ended up really nice. We had a good bit of mongo root (200#), a school of about 12 Congo Tetras, a large (12" +) Distichodus sexfasciatus, a group of knife fish, a few elephant nose, and a group of buffalo heads. We had the root on one side with a rocky sandy area for the buffalo heads. It was working great, until the back seam on the tank busted. So we had to tear it down right quick. :? I'll have it back up with pictures as soon as the new tank arrives. We had a very nice mbuna tank, but I just get bored with africans after a while.

 

[Anonymous]

Great Glenn, can't wait to see it. One of these days I'm going to set up a large, planted community tank. Strangely enough, a community tank with tetras and such is the one thing I haven't done in 20 years. I started off wih cichlids and saltwater and didn't look back. I hated community fish and called them "wimp" fish. :lol:
Now I can't wait to explore that whole area of the hobby.l

 

[Anonymous]

pics!!!!

 

[mark78]

I'm a big fan of shell dwellers and lake tanz fish. Large gray rocks (I love lace rock) and some java fern...

 

[Anonymous]

Polypterus, maybe a few ornatipinnis and a delhezi. Buitikofferi too. Some of my favorite fish from west africa but you might not want to put anything mouth sized in with them.

Also maybe some ropefish - make sure it's covered!

 

[Anonymous]

We tried the ropes, but couldn't keep them out of the overflows.

 

[skylsdale]

http://www.killifish.f9.co.uk/Killifish ... _Index.htm

Click on each genera, then species profiles, and you'll find a decent amount of West African habitat photos to help you out.