# Cichlids ideas for a 40 gallon tank, possible paludarium?



## luver_of_fish (Mar 16, 2009)

First of all I would just like to say "HI" because I am new to this forum.

Next, I have recently acquired a free 40 gallon tank. The dimensions are 36" x 15" x 17". I have been talking with folks on a couple of other forums as well trying to come up with a good setup for this new tank so let me tell you the basics of what I would like.

1) I would like to make this a planted tank.

2) I would like to have something other than just community fish because those are the only types of tanks I have had. 
(I currently have a 55 gallon freshwater planted community tank, a 20 gallon hex goldfish tank and a 2.5 gallon natural planted tank that houses 1 male betta.)

3) I would like to find something that in not a prolific breeder because the only place I have I could find that would take the babies is an LFS that is about 45 minutes away.

4) I am obviously a beginner with cichlids and so would like to stay away from anything that is more difficult to take care of.

I have been doing some research on some South American cichlids, Bolivian Rams and some Lake Tanganyika species, but would love some input from some experienced folks about other cichlids species as well.

Another thing I was considering doing with this tank is making it a paludarium. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paludarium

I don't know if there are any types of amphibians or reptiles that would work with this biotype but I really don't want to have anything but fish anyway (I donâ€™t want to deal with feeding crickets and stuff). I have seen some absolutely gorgeous pictures of some paludariums and I'm really excited to try it.

I have not seen one dedicated to cichlids though and I am anxious to try and see if I can accomplish it. I would probably need to size down my fish load to perhaps a 20 or 29 gallon tank as that would probably be about the amount of water it would include. I was thinking that this would give me a good way to have the plants and not have to worry too much about any substrate being disturbed. I think this would also be an easy set up to use sand as a substrate and I don't think it would really cost any more than a total aquarium setup. We'll see about that though... I am going to do some more research now on the different biotypes that cichlids come from and we'll go from there.

If anyone has any ideas or thoughts about this idea I would love to hear them.


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## Manoah Marton (Feb 17, 2009)

See my post on the Central American forum. I pretty much covered all cichlids there.

Manoah


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## Manoah Marton (Feb 17, 2009)

You should get bolivians. They are small, hardy, not picky, and easy to sex.


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## samaki (Oct 25, 2002)

Hi in Amphibians yu may try with one or 2 pair of Xenopus species as X.boubaensis, victoriannus, muelleri, wittei or clivii, but talking about the african's cichlids, I'm not sure that it will be appropriate to house them in this type of tank because even the smaller ones are prolific brooders.
xris


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## luver_of_fish (Mar 16, 2009)

Thanks everyone for the advice.


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