what kind of cichlid tank should i start?

New to cichlids, interested in starting a tank 55gallons or so, and am
wondering what kinds of setups are best. Malawi? Tanganika? I'd like
to have fish that stay relatively small (no oscars, please) and
possibly some plants, but beyond that I'm looking for suggestions on
where to start. I'd like to keep fish from relatively the same natural
locations.

It's largely a matter of personal preference. I'd prefer a Tanganyikan
tank with *lamprologus, julidochromis, and the like. Lotsa rockwork,
sand substrate. As for plants, java moss and java fern do well. I've
also had good luck with Vallisneria, and imagine Sagittarius would do
well. There are other plants which would tolerate the hard water with
enough light, but can't tell ya off the top of my head.

If you go Malawi and you want plants, you'd probably wanna stick with
haplochromines rather than mbuna, as the latter would probably chew up
your vegetation.

wrote:
New to cichlids, interested in starting a tank 55gallons or so, and am
wondering what kinds of setups are best. Malawi? Tanganika? I'd like
to have fish that stay relatively small (no oscars, please) and
possibly some plants, but beyond that I'm looking for suggestions on
where to start. I'd like to keep fish from relatively the same natural
locations.

On 1 Oct 2006 21:28:37 -0700, "
wrote:

New to cichlids, interested in starting a tank 55gallons or so, and am
wondering what kinds of setups are best. Malawi? Tanganika? I'd like
to have fish that stay relatively small (no oscars, please) and
possibly some plants, but beyond that I'm looking for suggestions on
where to start. I'd like to keep fish from relatively the same natural
locations.

Go for a Tanganyika tank but stick to the small rock dwellers and
avoid the mouthbrooders. Stack the rocks up to the surface. Most of
the small Neolamprologus will live and breed in the rocks and not
usually dig plants up.

Steve

--
Steve Wolstenholme Neural Planner Software

EasyNN-plus. The easy way to build neural networks.
http://www.easynn.com

Pretty much what everyone else suggested. Malawians will dig more in
most cases then Tangs. I always use rock, with plenty of caves, and
plant work usually within the rock. If your avoiding "size" then you
probably don't want Frontosa, or mbuna.

wrote:
New to cichlids, interested in starting a tank 55gallons or so, and am
wondering what kinds of setups are best. Malawi? Tanganika? I'd like
to have fish that stay relatively small (no oscars, please) and
possibly some plants, but beyond that I'm looking for suggestions on
where to start. I'd like to keep fish from relatively the same natural
locations.

Go here, scroll down to cichlids, look, read.
http://www.aquahobby.com/e_gallery.php
I'm like a kid in a candy store when I start clickin' on this page.

steve

wrote:
New to cichlids, interested in starting a tank 55gallons or so, and am
wondering what kinds of setups are best. Malawi? Tanganika? I'd like
to have fish that stay relatively small (no oscars, please) and
possibly some plants, but beyond that I'm looking for suggestions on
where to start. I'd like to keep fish from relatively the same natural
locations.



55 Gals is a nice tank to start Cichlids, if this is a new setup for
you, I would go with (Mbuna) they are very colorful reds, yellows,
blues, silver, pink, albino....I have 2 of them setup and I call them my
Crayola Tanks, because of the colors......get them small and let them
gwt along or weed them selves out early, you will know in a short time
who will get along and play nice, I have around 30 or so in both my 55's
a bit overstocked with very good filtration, but let me tell you the
action is non stop...the tank looks alive 100% they never ever stop
moving, as far as agression, I remove the bullies and put them in my
125, or you can take them back to the LFS for another....

Electric yellows are very peaceful, Kenyi, zebras, and such...(Damasoni)
are NOT a good idea, they are the meanest fish I have ever had, even the
fry kill each other, socolofi are also a bit nasty buy very nice to look
at...goto cichlid-forum.com and you will find a lot of info there...

wrote in message
oups.com...
New to cichlids, interested in starting a tank 55gallons or so, and am
wondering what kinds of setups are best. Malawi? Tanganika? I'd like
to have fish that stay relatively small (no oscars, please) and
possibly some plants, but beyond that I'm looking for suggestions on
where to start. I'd like to keep fish from relatively the same natural
locations.


I'd say start with a nice malwai mbuna setup.
get some tough, aggro, colourful fish
try your hand at breeding, then sell them off as colonys and fry and try for
some thing tricky that has caught your eye
mbuna are ridiculously tough and beautiful
they spawn to spite you!
an example with ample filtration and weekly water changes that would give
heaps of fry would be...


Melanochromis interruptus x3
hongi x3
blue pindani x3
rusty x3
throw in some electric blues x3
red empress x3
and a lake victorian male like a crimson dawn or nyerie or xmas fulu or
brownea... but only one! and maybe a girl for him

or
just buy random peacock males
and feed colour food for an incredible display

or
just a colony of one species


or a tanga biotype
they can be pretty but are a tad harder than malawi or vics due to higher pH
aragonite sand makes a sweet substrate as it buffers nice and high

I agree with the other posters. A good mbuna tank is always a nice
start, and in fact, always nice period. I've been in the hobby since
1988, and still have an all mbuna tank today, they are beauty's. 55
gallon is perfect. As the others said, keep good filteration, a weekly,
no worse then bi-weeekly water change ( 50% to 60%), a good 7.0 PH or
so, give them plenty of rocks ( natural habitat look), I like to stack
them to the top, making caves here and there. And toss in some good
plants here and there, might as well grab just a few plastic ones, as no
doubt, mbuna's dig, dig, dig. Enjoy.