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Newbie recommendations for 65g african tank

chris_todd

Members
Well, my wife and I would like to take the plunge and put together our first African cichlid tank. We have a 65g tank (36" x 18" x 25") with a Rena Filstar XP2 (we may need more filtration, we'll see). Our Baltimore City tap water is about pH 7.8, KH 4, GH 8-9, and about 10 ppm Nitrates. The room our tank is in means it's hard for us to keep it less than 80* F in the summer, so the tank will run 78-82* F over the course of the year. This tank has been in constant use for almost a year, is well cycled, but currently has only one inhabitant, a 12" pleco (see my recent post in the Bottom Dwellers forum).

We would like a colorful tank with a good bit of activity (but not too much aggression). To learn more about the multitude of species available, we've spent a lot of time on cichlid-forum.com. We have found their "cookie cutter" setups intruiging, and are particularly interested in the "Blue and Yellow Haplochromine" setup here: http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/cookie_cutter_75g.php (scaling down the numbers somewhat to account for 65g instead of 75g). But we've also been intruiged by Peacocks and Mbuna.

I'm not even sure which questions to ask, so I'll throw it wide open and ask you:
If you were asked to build a cookie-cutter African Cichlid setup for a newbie with a 65g tank and the water parameters listed above, which species would you pick (and in what numbers/ratios)?

Then I would ask whether any of those species is likely to be available in the numbers we require at the September CCA meeting. :)

Also, I would guess that we would want to add all the fish at the same time, so nobody has much of a chance to establish territories?

For tank decorations, we were thinking ColorQuartz black sand, some texas holey rock, and flower pots or other similar rocky structures.

I realize there are probably many, many ways to do this, so as newbies it's all a little overwhelming, and we don't want to make stupid decisions. Any and all help/advice/shared experience is greatly appreciated.

Chris Todd
 

DiscusnAfricans

Past President
Your tap water is great for Africans, it will require little to no buffering. Your decor will be fine, thats a personal preference as long as you have adequate hiding places. One thing to consider is tank shape as opposed to size. Even though the 65 gallon is only 13% smaller in volume, it has a 25% smaller footprint or surface area. The more aggressive the species, the larger a footprint they require for adequate territory space. So you may want to stick with the more peaceful species. Peacocks and smaller, peaceful mbuna would be fine for this purpose. For mbuna, yellow labs, afra and acei would probably work. Some of the haps may get too big for this foot print, but the dolphins may be ok. I have yellow lab juvies, and aulonocara baenschi juvies if interested that could be brought to the September meeting.
 

Sonny Disposition

Active Member
I had a great mbuna tank for awhile in my65 high. Put egg crate down on the bottom, build a big rock reef in the center of it, and then add enough swimming pool filter sand to cover the egg crate. Add a pseudotropheus/maylandia species and a melanochromis species, and maybe even a few yellow labs. Make sure the rocks are fairly small, so there's a ton of hiding places.

The whole effect is like a coral reef. The fish will buzz in and out of the rockwork. You'll have to look at if for a few minutes to see things sometimes, but it's always active and always something new. I would go with species that are sexually dichromic, for variety's sake. So instead of the electric blue Melanochromis caenorhabdotis, I'd with the species where the males are black and the females yellow. (auratus, I think.)

Good luck.
 
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