Scavenger companions

[Renee]

My office has decided to eliminate the expense of
the sal****er tank and the required "fish guy"
coming and tinkering with it every week. So, they
moved to a freshwater tank, and have me and the
receptionist caring for it.

It's a 70 gallon tank, with a hell of a filtration
system. The "fish guy" took our sal****er fish and
gave us a bunch of smallish cichlids (the largest
is perhaps 2.5 inches long, the smallest about an
inch) in their place. They're happy little beasts,
swimming around begging for food pretty much nonstop.

It is coming to our attention that the filtration
will not help with algae and the like. We're
thinking of adding something to help with algae
and gravel cleaning (we do a gravel vacuum and
partial water change weekly). The last instruction
the "fish guy" left, was that the water had a high
pH, due to the decorative coral in it, but the
cichlids wouldn't have any trouble with it.

Are there any catfish/plecos/whatever which will
cohabitate with cichlids and not be discomfited by
high pH? He did *not* give us a specific number
value of "high". I could haul my home water test
kit in to work if I had to, but if there's an easy
answer, I'll not bother.

Any recommendations?

[Craig Williams]

Most African Cichlids like a PH of 8-9 with high minerals. South Americans
prefer Soft Neutral water.

"Renee" > wrote in message
ble.rogers.com...
> My office has decided to eliminate the expense of
> the sal****er tank and the required "fish guy"
> coming and tinkering with it every week. So, they
> moved to a freshwater tank, and have me and the
> receptionist caring for it.
>
> It's a 70 gallon tank, with a hell of a filtration
> system. The "fish guy" took our sal****er fish and
> gave us a bunch of smallish cichlids (the largest
> is perhaps 2.5 inches long, the smallest about an
> inch) in their place. They're happy little beasts,
> swimming around begging for food pretty much nonstop.
>
> It is coming to our attention that the filtration
> will not help with algae and the like. We're
> thinking of adding something to help with algae
> and gravel cleaning (we do a gravel vacuum and
> partial water change weekly). The last instruction
> the "fish guy" left, was that the water had a high
> pH, due to the decorative coral in it, but the
> cichlids wouldn't have any trouble with it.
>
> Are there any catfish/plecos/whatever which will
> cohabitate with cichlids and not be discomfited by
> high pH? He did *not* give us a specific number
> value of "high". I could haul my home water test
> kit in to work if I had to, but if there's an easy
> answer, I'll not bother.
>
> Any recommendations?

[TYNK 7]

>Subject: Scavenger companions
>From: Renee
>Date: 2/27/2004 9:42 PM Central Standard Time
>Message-id: ogers.com>
>
>My office has decided to eliminate the expense of
>the sal****er tank and the required "fish guy"
>coming and tinkering with it every week. So, they
>moved to a freshwater tank, and have me and the
>receptionist caring for it.
>
>It's a 70 gallon tank, with a hell of a filtration
>system. The "fish guy" took our sal****er fish and
>gave us a bunch of smallish cichlids (the largest
>is perhaps 2.5 inches long, the smallest about an
>inch) in their place. They're happy little beasts,
>swimming around begging for food pretty much nonstop.
>
>It is coming to our attention that the filtration
>will not help with algae and the like. We're
>thinking of adding something to help with algae
>and gravel cleaning (we do a gravel vacuum and
>partial water change weekly). The last instruction
>the "fish guy" left, was that the water had a high
>pH, due to the decorative coral in it, but the
>cichlids wouldn't have any trouble with it.

Hmm...The "fish guy" left coral in a freshwater tank?
Also, did he bother telling you what type of Cichlids these are?

[Craig Williams]

Yeah they are prob. Afircan Cichlids if he put coral in the tank. It is a
good buffer for the PH & also helps to add seom minerals to the water.

> Hmm...The "fish guy" left coral in a freshwater tank?
> Also, did he bother telling you what type of Cichlids these are?

[Renee]

High Flight wrote:

> Renee > says...
>
>>It is coming to our attention that the filtration
>>will not help with algae and the like. We're
>>thinking of adding something to help with algae
>>and gravel cleaning (we do a gravel vacuum and
>>partial water change weekly). The last instruction
>>the "fish guy" left, was that the water had a high
>>pH, due to the decorative coral in it, but the
>>cichlids wouldn't have any trouble with it.
>>
>>Are there any catfish/plecos/whatever which will
>>cohabitate with cichlids and not be discomfited by
>>high pH? He did *not* give us a specific number
>>value of "high". I could haul my home water test
>>kit in to work if I had to, but if there's an easy
>>answer, I'll not bother.
>
>
> You consider monitoring your tank's parameters a bother? Good luck.
> You're going to need it.

Kindly re-read a little. It's not "my" tank. "My"
tank gets all the due care required, as it was my
choice to obtain. You'll note that I *do have* a
water test kit. However, this is a work tank, in
the office's receiption area, for which I am not
being reimbursed any efforts I put forth. Nor am
I exclusively responsible for it.

I may in the future request that the office
purchase testing equipment, and they may or may
not agree.

My question in this post was regarding appropriate
scavengers to cohabit with cichlids in a high-pH
environment. If any.

Thank you, of course, for your comments.

[Renee]

TYNK 7 wrote:


> Hmm...The "fish guy" left coral in a freshwater tank?
> Also, did he bother telling you what type of Cichlids these are?

No, he did not. (And before anyone asks, I was not
involved in the maintenance of the aquarium before
the change-over, nor was I consulted on the new,
"fish-guy-less" setup, or I would have requested
fancy goldfish, with which I have a little
experience). I've had a look at cichlids.com,
though, and the Malawi pics look the most similar
(http://www.cichlids.com/gallery/malawi). The
"fish guy" had been caring for the previous
(sal****er) tank for a couple of years, with
success, so TPTB entrusted him with the selection
of suitable fish. The instructions he left were
pretty much "feed 'em, clean the filter, and do a
water change very week or two. Put in some
StressCoat when you change the water. And when you
start getting algae, you can put in some
scavengers". We no longer have access to his
expertise, which is why I wanted to check in here.

The cichlids are, to my eyes, in darn good shape.
They're active, hungry, friendly (well, they
recognize humans as food-bringers, so they act
friendly). We could survive without scavengers and
just scrape the glass and vacuum the gravel. But
the decor would get fuzzy pretty quick, so some
algae-eating companions would be nice.

Renee

[RedForeman ©®]

> Yeah they are prob. Afircan Cichlids if he put coral in the tank. It
> is a good buffer for the PH & also helps to add seom minerals to the
> water.
>
>> Hmm...The "fish guy" left coral in a freshwater tank?
>> Also, did he bother telling you what type of Cichlids these are?

That and it was probably a FO salt tank, they're probably just hard corals,
not an actual reef tank which would contain the softies, and polyps..

--
RedForeman ©®
Sorry about the troll, the ball is rolling there....