# Tanganyika 75 g - Need feedback



## Louis123 (Jun 13, 2004)

Hello guys,

*Context*
I've been keeping T.Duboisis for almost 5 years now in a 150g. I think I had success with them, starting with a colony of 16 and adding 12 others along the way, I ended up with a tank pretty much crowded (about 60+ individual) Even after giving away 2 dozen of babies and about 10 adults. I can proudly say I never had any loss in that tank 

Now, I always had a 75 g running next to my main tank, it previously had turtles, and recently goldfish for about a year. In the past months I have been setting it up with the same parameter of my main tank. I've put cichlid lake sand as substrate and 2xFluval 404 for the filtration. It is a standard 75g, 4 foot long. I just ordered my fish and would like some feedback on my choices.

12 Cyprochromis Microlepidotus Karilani
8 Paracyp. Neon Nigripinnis Kapembwa 
8 Xenotilapia Flavipinnis Yellow Chimba

They are all wild, I want to know if I should be concerned about adding them in the tank, I just removed 10 T.Duboisis from the tank to give to someone, and the tank will sit for 1 week before I received the fishes. The tank is pretty mature, the substrate has been sitting in it for more than a month, 1 of the fluval came from my 5 year old tank, the other was runing with the goldfishes, I'm pretty sure that the tank is very well seeded (bactera wise).

Let me know if I should have any space contraints or bacteria spike contraints.

Thank you .


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## Fogelhund (Dec 3, 2002)

Personally, I see nothing wrong with your mix of fish. Good Luck. :thumb:


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## Darkside (Feb 6, 2008)

Wow that sure will be an active tank, post pictures if you can!


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## Louis123 (Jun 13, 2004)

I will keep you guys updated when I receive the stock !

I hope it will be as enjoyable as my Tropheus tank... Activity wise I always thought Tropheus were hard to beat.. What do you think ?


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## Louis123 (Jun 13, 2004)

Q :

Should I be concerned by cross breeding (Paracyp w/ Cyp) ?

Q :

Should I be concerned about the survival of possible fry (too much stock ? 3 different species ?)?


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## 24Tropheus (Jun 21, 2006)

I would have thought the Xenos would get all the released Cyps and Paracyps.
Not sure if the Xenos would leave their own young to survive though. ?


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## noddy (Nov 20, 2006)

The cyps and paracyps will not crossbreed. I'm not sure about micro's in a four footer (i am currently keeping 18 in a six footer) not because of aggresion, but because they get as large as a jumbo cyp and I wouldn't keep them in a 4' tank (although lots of guys do). I also have paracyps with them and they get along perfectly well. I'm not sure that I have read this correctly but, if you plan on having the tank sit empty for a week, I would expect the good bacteria to die off.


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## Louis123 (Jun 13, 2004)

I was banking on the fact that the 3 species were peacefull to have some decent level of survival for the fry in the tank 

Perhaps I'll have to enhance their environments with some kind of homemade fry protector, such as eggcrate, or perhaps dense plants (for better looks)

Any suggestions ?


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## Louis123 (Jun 13, 2004)

noddy said:


> The cyps and paracyps will not crossbreed. I'm not sure about micro's in a four footer (i am currently keeping 18 in a six footer) not because of aggresion, but because they get as large as a jumbo cyp and I wouldn't keep them in a 4' tank (although lots of guys do). I also have paracyps with them and they get along perfectly well. I'm not sure that I have read this correctly but, if you plan on having the tank sit empty for a week, I would expect the good bacteria to die off.


Well I left a rather large pleco and found 2 tropheus baby (1cm big) that are still in the tank..


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## noddy (Nov 20, 2006)

I don't believe that will be enough fish to provide enough amonia to grow bacteria to sustain 28 w/c fish. When I did a similar thing, I threw in around 30 black skirt tetras to keep the filters fed. They cost $15.00 and I gave them away when I was done with them. Now I'm going to look up cyp. micro. "karilani". I have kariza.


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## BoostedX (Mar 1, 2009)

If you want some dense plants get some hornwort. That stuff is really nice for fry to hide in..


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## Louis123 (Jun 13, 2004)

Thanks,

I will definitly have a look at those, you have any pictures of what it looks like ?


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Oh if you want fry remove them from the tank. I don't think you'll get survivors, or at least not many.


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## BioG (Oct 12, 2008)

Yeah, I agree, just catch the fry that you can and move them to a growout. Make sure you've got enough caves for your paracyps without covering too much sand for the xenos. Post pics please!


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## Louis123 (Jun 13, 2004)

Rockwork will definitly be redesigned, as it was previously set to host my T.Duboisis while waiting for the new stock.

I'll stack in height to give the chance to Cyps / Paracyps to breed in the upper tank.


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## Louis123 (Jun 13, 2004)

Do you think that Xenos can move as much sand as the tropheus ? The main problem with my tropheus is that high rockpiles are dangerous due to their tendancy of digging all around the rockwork and making everything fall apart.


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## vaypourus (May 20, 2008)

I don't know if xenos will move the sand...I've never kept them.

If you don't have egg crate on the bottom of the tank, now would be a good time to pull out the sand, lay down some eggcrate, and replace everything. With eggcrate down you shouldn't have as much of a problem with rocks sliding around.


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## Louis123 (Jun 13, 2004)

Thanks for the kind replies,

I keep thinking that my tank might be on the small side, but the fish will be there soon, so no time to upgrade right now, we will see how well they fare, perhaps a 125g will be needed, that 6' foot print would be much better.

I definitly want some breeding in there, that is my main concern about the tank size.. A little less than a week to go and they are there !


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## 24Tropheus (Jun 21, 2006)

I do not think you will have any more problems with these fish in a 75g than you would in a larger tank in the short term. Weather they and you would be happier in the long term with a larger six foot tank is I guess your call. But I wish you luck with the 48" long tank and think it has as good a chance of success as a six foot tank in the short term (Couple of years or so). :thumb:
I would think it clear that you would have on average more fry survival long term in the bigger tank with this mix. But you may have enough to keep you happy in the 48" I guess see how it goes.


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## Louis123 (Jun 13, 2004)

Hey guys,

After a long trip in the plane the fishes are finally here... They missed their transit while coming to montreal (very bad timing) and we got them about 5 hours later then scheduled...

They are now sitting in 3 tubs, being acclimated to their new home (drip + amonia lock)

I have some pictures but they suck, ill get some when they are in the tank...

Wish me luck !!

No death on arrival 

The para and cyps move a little bit they seem healthy, the xenos are chilling not moving at all, but they are alive ;P


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## Louis123 (Jun 13, 2004)

I'll give you news tomorrow, I covered the tank and will be waiting to see how it looks in 24 hours


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## vaypourus (May 20, 2008)

For me, the first 24 hours was the roughest on the fish. I lost one cyp (they don't seem to travel well, especially as juveniles) and haven't lost any since.

get some pictures up! opcorn:


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## Louis123 (Jun 13, 2004)

Actually,

I got 3 deaths some of the para did not do well, i was acclimating slowly, and the rest of them were doing good, but 3 or 4 were really affected by transportation, I was hoping that my long acclimatation and good parameters would bring them back, I was wrong.. 

But the guy I bought them from is really a great guy, he gave me credit for those 3, wich is very nice, I will definitly buy more fish from him. 

Pictures coming soon


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## vaypourus (May 20, 2008)

Did you treat with ammonia remover before you added tank water?


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## Louis123 (Jun 13, 2004)

Yes,

First I put the airstone for 5 min to let the oxygen exchange occur, I also put some ammolock with the bag water. I added a little more ammolock midway through.

After the first 5 minute with bubbles + ammolock I started dripping really slowly, it took me 1h30 to fill the 3 tubs.

The paracyps were the only one that were not fully grown fish by the way, they were very small, perhaps 2 inch max.. It sucks to loose some fish since I never lost any, but it was inevitable I think.

Im not home now, but will give you updates later tonight


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## Louis123 (Jun 13, 2004)

Hi,

Little update as of yesterday night, the fishes are doing good, I'm down to 5 paracyps but that's not too bad..

The cyps are HUGE, I'm going to take pics once they are a little bit less stressed, tomorrow during the day should be a good time...

Out of all the fish, I like the xeno the most, they are really good looking fish.


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## Darkside (Feb 6, 2008)

When I get fish shipped I usually just net them and dump them into the new aquarium. Anyone else do this?


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## Louis123 (Jun 13, 2004)

Darkside said:


> When I get fish shipped I usually just net them and dump them into the new aquarium. Anyone else do this?


HUH!

Do you get losses often ?


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## Tshethar (Jul 20, 2009)

I'll be honest with you, I've tended to be careful with my own fish, but I have worked part time for two LFS, and both places tended to float for a few minutes and then pour the bags through nets into 5-gallon buckets and release the fish. One of these places was run by a very knowledgeable guy who had been a partner in a Manhattan store, was doing tons of corals 15 years ago, etc., etc. Marine crustaceans were the only thing he was careful not to do this with.

Part of the reason of course was logistics--you don't have the buckets, the driplines and the time to be super careful with all the livestock that comes in at once--but part of it was also based on the fact that the water in those bags can get bad enough that it is of no benefit to the fish to spend a second longer than necessary immersed in it. I think in principle a slow transition is a good idea, but I also think that common sense (and circumstance) sometimes calls for getting the fish out of those bags, and fast.

Personally, I think if you were dealing with a delayed shipment, or if you had cloudy water or any fish in the bag showing signs of trouble, you would be better off getting them out of really bad conditions right away and into what should be the ideal parameters awaiting them in your tank.

OTOH, if they look super great and happy and had a quick trip, maybe it wouldn't hurt to try to match the pH and such ever so slowly. I'll probably be floating, dripping, ammo-locking, etc. when I order expensive new fish in the next few weeks, but it may depend on how many are in each bag and how the shipping goes. Like most things, I don't think there is only one way to go for all circumstances.


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## noddy (Nov 20, 2006)

Good to hear you got all your fish in, can you post a couple of pics? I would love to see the cyp micro's.


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## Louis123 (Jun 13, 2004)

Im heading home with my girlfriend, we will take some pictures and see how well we can make them look 

We reworked the rocks this morning, 1 of the xeno was really terriotorial and had pushed all of the fish in the rock piles.. I thought those guys were peacefull !!!


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## Louis123 (Jun 13, 2004)

Here is a little preview with my crappy camera

overview






paracyps






xenos


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## Louis123 (Jun 13, 2004)

Hey guys a quick update

The paracyp were the first to reproduce, i got 9 healthy fry in 1 batch... I'm waiting for the others to follow the example !

I unfortunately got a death..... While my father was cleaning one xenotilapia did a hail mary for the floor and he did not notice it until 1 week after... HAHA ! :X


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