Cichlid Lips
Members
Hello CCA
Originally from Washington DC, I transplanted to CA in 86 and became a member of the PCCA out there. Got my 20 year pin and came back to the east coast about eight years ago and built my dream home with my wife and daughter in Wild and Wonderful West Virginia.
Decided after 35 years or so keeping Cichlids I would try my hand at Saltwater, so I built a 450 gallon reef system. Had a lot of success with that and had it set up for about six years until I went on a business trip for three days and came home to a tank that had not been running in 2 days. Needless to say, the tank crashed in a bad way and I had lost about 50% of the corals and a couple of fish. Over the next 6 months I would end up loosing just about everything, although I was able to salvage lots of coral frags and was able to get those to many of the members in my saltwater group. That was just over a year ago now.
I've known for a while I was going to go back to my true love and convert everything over to an African tank, so about 10 days ago I tore everything apart and eliminated one of the 100 gallon tanks I used for frags, and a 100 gallon homemade sump and am going back with a little smaller system for this new setup.
My main display is an in-wall setup that is 220 gallons acrylic tank which is 5 feet wide 3 feet deep, and I wanna say 27" tall maybe, I forget that measurement exactly, and I just finished a custom acrylic sump for this build. Behind the wall I have a fish room that is 16'X6' which is a little narrow, but gives me plenty of room to get around. At the tear down this room was all bare studs and since I know I will never do salt again, I decided to completely renovate the entire room and rewired everything, and am in the process now of finishing the drywall work, and the project is moving along nicely.
I truly love all of the Cichlid species, but my favs are the Tropheus species. Over the years I have had most of the common ones, and several others that I was able to obtain through the club in one way or another.
This new system will surly have some Tropheus, as well as other types in what I hope is a fairly heavy stocked setup with as little stress as possible. I also love the Synodontis species and plan to have several.
I believe we have a total of one store in the area that has a decent selection, but it's still about 40 miles away in Winchester VA. I will be looking to obtain most of the inhabitants through locals, but I am still maybe a coupe of months from that as I need to finish up the room, and get the tank set back up and cycling so if you can help down the road be sure to hit me up.
While Cichlids have always held my hearts sweet spot, I have also kept the aggressive fish and started keeping fish in 68 when my father brought home a Red Belly Piranha. He was a bit boring so I traded him for a Black Piranah who was just the opposite and was pretty scary as he was about 10". After him, I ended up with my first tank over 100 gallons and went with a school of 12 red belly's. No filter at the time could keep up with the mess that made. I also dabbled with some Snakeheads which were also pretty messy so someone suggested that I go with a fish that was a little less aggressive and recommended Cichlids. Been hooked since.
In any event, hope I can add to the community and share my journey as well as yours.
Tanks for having me,
Mark
Originally from Washington DC, I transplanted to CA in 86 and became a member of the PCCA out there. Got my 20 year pin and came back to the east coast about eight years ago and built my dream home with my wife and daughter in Wild and Wonderful West Virginia.
Decided after 35 years or so keeping Cichlids I would try my hand at Saltwater, so I built a 450 gallon reef system. Had a lot of success with that and had it set up for about six years until I went on a business trip for three days and came home to a tank that had not been running in 2 days. Needless to say, the tank crashed in a bad way and I had lost about 50% of the corals and a couple of fish. Over the next 6 months I would end up loosing just about everything, although I was able to salvage lots of coral frags and was able to get those to many of the members in my saltwater group. That was just over a year ago now.
I've known for a while I was going to go back to my true love and convert everything over to an African tank, so about 10 days ago I tore everything apart and eliminated one of the 100 gallon tanks I used for frags, and a 100 gallon homemade sump and am going back with a little smaller system for this new setup.
My main display is an in-wall setup that is 220 gallons acrylic tank which is 5 feet wide 3 feet deep, and I wanna say 27" tall maybe, I forget that measurement exactly, and I just finished a custom acrylic sump for this build. Behind the wall I have a fish room that is 16'X6' which is a little narrow, but gives me plenty of room to get around. At the tear down this room was all bare studs and since I know I will never do salt again, I decided to completely renovate the entire room and rewired everything, and am in the process now of finishing the drywall work, and the project is moving along nicely.
I truly love all of the Cichlid species, but my favs are the Tropheus species. Over the years I have had most of the common ones, and several others that I was able to obtain through the club in one way or another.
This new system will surly have some Tropheus, as well as other types in what I hope is a fairly heavy stocked setup with as little stress as possible. I also love the Synodontis species and plan to have several.
I believe we have a total of one store in the area that has a decent selection, but it's still about 40 miles away in Winchester VA. I will be looking to obtain most of the inhabitants through locals, but I am still maybe a coupe of months from that as I need to finish up the room, and get the tank set back up and cycling so if you can help down the road be sure to hit me up.
While Cichlids have always held my hearts sweet spot, I have also kept the aggressive fish and started keeping fish in 68 when my father brought home a Red Belly Piranha. He was a bit boring so I traded him for a Black Piranah who was just the opposite and was pretty scary as he was about 10". After him, I ended up with my first tank over 100 gallons and went with a school of 12 red belly's. No filter at the time could keep up with the mess that made. I also dabbled with some Snakeheads which were also pretty messy so someone suggested that I go with a fish that was a little less aggressive and recommended Cichlids. Been hooked since.
In any event, hope I can add to the community and share my journey as well as yours.
Tanks for having me,
Mark
