# Help! basic knowledge on setting up Victorian tank



## freude88 (Jan 23, 2014)

Where can I get some good basic knowledge on setting up a Victorian tank. I have googled it and haven't found much. I don't want to put a bunch of incompatible fish together!


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## lkelly (Dec 20, 2012)

Why don't you list the species that you have available (and are considering) and people can comment on compatibility.


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Please also list the tank size and dimensions for the best advice.


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## freude88 (Jan 23, 2014)

Oh my goodness...I haven't even gotten that far because I am just in the beginnings of going with this type of setup. I have a 72 gallon bow front. I just wanted to read some basic articles that may touch on female to male ratio, species compatibility, their aggressiveness, do you go all male etc... Is their really not much out there on that? If not I guess I can start looking around at the victorian fish more and come up with something.


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## Mschn99 (Dec 24, 2012)

An all victorian tank with 2 species is possible. You MIGHT get away with three if you pick and choose VERY VERY carefully. Typically you will mix a species like a zebra obliquidens or a species 35 with another species that has silver females. Because most victorians have silver/green females, mixing most species wont work. It has to be very carefully picked. Your generally going to want 4-6 females per male depending on species. An all male tank would be an option (and much more colorful) but a breeding tank very much limits you.

The 72 bowfront would work for 2 species for sure.


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## freude88 (Jan 23, 2014)

If I went with an all male tank how many species can I go with? Or does the same apply?


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## Mschn99 (Dec 24, 2012)

freude88 said:


> If I went with an all male tank how many species can I go with? Or does the same apply?


in an all male tank, you could over stock it similar to a mbuna tank. The downside is with no females, not all of the males will color up. You will end up with many many drab males.


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## StructureGuy (Jul 27, 2002)

My recommendation would be to go with a light colored sand as the substrate. Either pool filter sand or some of the larger grained (but expensive) sands from CaribSea. A fine sand like play sand might ruin the impellers if you have any HOB filters. Then have rocks stacked with lots of caves/hiding places. I like having some plants like Anubia or Java Fern (tied to some rocks).

A good looking somewhat commonish Victorian might be a rock kribensis (Haplochromis savaguei) or Astatotilapia latifaciata (zebra obliquidens). Reasonably peaceful, not huge and females have color. Then pick something else that isn't too aggressive like maybe Haplochromis sp. "red tail sheller" or Ptyochromis sp "salmon" or Haplochromis sp. "ruby" (ruby green). Victorians aren't easy to find, but these 5 species aren't totally impossible to locate either.

2 males and 7 females of each species for a total of 18 ....... that's my totally biased opinion, anyway. Given a 4 ft tank with lots of hiding places and not-extremely aggressive species, all 4 males have a chance to show good color. (Forget the all male victorian tank.)

Kevin


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## joescaper1 (Feb 14, 2013)

I didn't get the opportunity to navigate the entire sites, but they look promising.

Google search term: lake victoria cichlid tank setup

Yielded: 
http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/cichlid/victoria.php
http://www.tropicalfishsite.com/categor ... -cichlids/

Happy reading.
Joe


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## freude88 (Jan 23, 2014)

This is awesome... Thanks for all of your help. This gives me a good place to start. Any other help is much appreciated. I love this forum!


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## fishy_foo (Jan 16, 2012)

joescaper1 said:


> I didn't get the opportunity to navigate the entire sites, but they look promising.
> 
> Google search term: lake victoria cichlid tank setup
> 
> ...


 Thanks for the links, they are quite informative. Here is another one.
http://www.african-cichlid.com/Lake_Victoria.htm

Looks like I'm going to have a Lake Victoria cichlid set up sometime. :lol:


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## freude88 (Jan 23, 2014)

Excellent!


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## namvet4 (Feb 20, 2011)

Thanks everyone for the great info. We are looking at establishing a 120 gallon. Just not sure if we want to setup as breeding or show...


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## samaki (Oct 25, 2002)

Hi yu can perfectbly house a rock cichlids comunity in a 120G, it works well with differentiated species such as H.sauvagei Mwanza, P.nyererei, P.macrocephala, H.chilotes, Neochromis rufocaudalis or omnicaruleus, a ton of rocks, very fine sand and few plants in the middle of the tank.
fishy some things has to be corrected .H.riponiannus isn't this species at all, Ole Seehausen said it doesn't look at all like the real riponianus,there's no H.sp"red back scraper" in Kyoga Nawampassa, it's a lithophilic victorian species living in Makobe island, and Ugandan part of the lake, H.sp"red parvidens" comes from Kyoga Nawampassa,the day glow fulu is synonym with H.phytophagus, the fish on the pic under the name phytophagus isn't this species.
xris


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