# New member, new tank, new to cichlids, fish pics



## olzkool (Jul 30, 2013)

Excuse the giant wall of text beforehand, just thought I would be as specific as possible

Hello,
Just thought I would introduce my self since I am new here. My name is Chris, I am from Maryland and recently set up a Cichlid tank. I have had plenty of fish in the past. Mostly large aggressive species i.e. Black Piranha, Wolf fish, Snake heads, etc. I also had a community freshwater tropical tank. About 12 years ago, I got married, moved out of the house I had with my brother, and left my fish there. Ever since then I have wanted another tank. Now I have a 18mo old daughter and an excuse to get one lol. After thinking long and hard I decided to go with an African Cichlid tank. Seemed like a good compromise between a standard community tank and another aggressive fish. So......I spent hours combing the internet, mainly this site, and set up my tank. It is a 55 gallon. I have several larger tanks but since this is my first try I figured I would start small to see how it goes. 
So here is my setup. PLEASE let me know if I am messing up or doing something wrong. I used white silica sand, washed thoroughly, from the local road supply store. I have a 250w heater. 1 Aqua clear 70 with sponge, carbon, bio, and a mesh bag of coral for buffering. 1 Aqua clear 50 with sponge, carbon, ammo chips, and another bag of crushed coral. An air stone. PH is right around 8.2. I have an old fake mangrove in there temporarily until the 50 lb of Texas Holey rock comes in later this week. I started it with a little stress coat, let it run for about a week, added some starter , then my fish. They have been living happily for about a week now. I am using Omega 1 cichlid flakes and they are tearing them up. I started out with cichlid staple small floating pellets but they would not eat them. Any other food suggestions? 
Now the fish......The one thing I should have researched to death but did not. So far I think I have gotten plain out lucky in my fish selection. A Coworker of mine was not so lucky. He set up a tank for the office and and lost half of his fish to an evil killer cichlid lol. We have narrowed the suspects down to 2 of them but that is for another post. I have 6 fish in my tank now. All are getting along in perfect harmony. I have no idea of the sex, nor did the person at the pet shop. I know nothing of there species. Only 2 are Yellow Labs and the rest were referred to as "Peacocks". I have no idea if they are as the fish store guy is not really that knowledgeable on the subject. I believe they are all Malawi Cichlids. I have since been to several pet stores and the majority of the fish I scoped out then came home and read about should not be going in my tank. I really liked the bumble bees but I understand they may not be a good choice. There are a few Black Peacoks with different color dorsals that I picked out and I think they will be ok. What I am really looking for are some blue ones and some red ones to add once I get my rock in. My coworker has what I believe is a blue Johanni and I like him but he is one of the thugs I was talking about earlier. I absolutely love the Demasoni but don't know if he would be a good fit. 
*So in summary if you guys could give me any advice on my tank setup, my food choice, my fish choice or for that matter what kind of fish I have, and what I should be looking to add in a blue fish like a* *Demosoni PLEASE give me your opinions.*
Thanks a lot and I am looking forward to being a member here.

PIctures are not that good because they are moving around so **** fast

This black one is my favorite. Its weird sometimes his head is blue, sometimes its not
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My orange one and a white one with some orange in it
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Marble colored one
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Yellow Labs
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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Hi Chris and Welcome to C-F!

It does appear that you have a variety of Aulonocara peacocks, the mottled ones are called OB (orange blotch). Hopefully you all males as cross-breeding is common in peacocks. You may run into problems with similarly colored ones when they fully mature.

As far as food goes, you can try different brands though this can be costly. Many members use New Life Spectrum pellet food as it comes in different sizes and I don't have any fish that refuse to eat it.

You may find that you are under-filtered with the two power filters you have so definitely keep an eye on your water parameters using a quality test kit that includes tests for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.


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## olzkool (Jul 30, 2013)

Thanks for the insight! How many gph should I be looking for? Right now I am at 500 gph. How many fish can I get? 
Thanks


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## Bowfront (Jun 3, 2013)

olzkool said:


> Thanks for the insight! How many gph should I be looking for? Right now I am at 500 gph. How many fish can I get?
> Thanks


Filter gph should be 8-10 times the size of your tank.

.


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## olzkool (Jul 30, 2013)

Good blue fish to go with my peacocks? Can I get a Demasani??


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## olzkool (Jul 30, 2013)

How bout a maingano?


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## brinkles (Jan 30, 2011)

You did get plain lucky with the fish you chose! Peacocks and yellow labs are some of the more peaceful Malawi cichlids, and generally don't get too big for the 55. A demasoni, maingano, bumblebee, etc. will likely start to kill off what you have now.

Some people have reported success with a breeding group of yellow labs and some male peacocks/haps, so that's the direction I'd head. You already have some nice yellow labs, I'd add about 5 more just like them and remove any extra males if they become a problem in the future. Any female peacocks will cause the males to fight, so make sure you don't have any, and only add male peacocks that look different from one another. Blue is an easy color to find!


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

Do you know your water readings other than pH? What kind of starter did you use? Just asking since it sounds like your tank may not be cycled yet, which could lead to some serious problems.


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## olzkool (Jul 30, 2013)

Just checked as I am doing a water change tomorrow and wanted to get a before and after. 
Ph 8.0
Ammonia .25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5.0

Anything else I should be testing for?


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## olzkool (Jul 30, 2013)

Starter was called "start smart complete"


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

Any ammonia reading is a concern. Try testing your tank water against bottled/purified water. I have difficulties verifying a 0 ammonia reading.


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## olzkool (Jul 30, 2013)

Well I'm doing a 20% water change tonight. Is there anything else I can do for the ammonia? Any additives or anything I should be looking for? I don't want to kill my new fish with ammonia I just got the **** things and I kinda like em.


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

Seachem Prime


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## brinkles (Jan 30, 2011)

It's nearly impossible to tell between .25% ammonia and zero on the average test kit. You have nitrate in your tank, so I would assume it is cycled.


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## olzkool (Jul 30, 2013)

Its all over the **** place lol. Yesterday my ammoinia level was way up around 1 so I did another water change last night. Checked it again today and ammonia was fine but nitrites were crazy high. I guess that means the cycle is working turning ammonia into nitrites but its **** slow getting to nitrates. Hopefully this stables out soon as these almost daily water changes and tests twice a day are stressing me out so I am sure the fish are stressed as well. Funny thing is they all seem like little kids at the playground running all around without a care in the world lol.


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

It's going to take time. Or you could just order some Dr. Tim's One and Only bottled bacteria and be done with it....


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## ilm121209 (Jul 23, 2013)

Do you buy your fish locally or online? The selection in Philadelphia isn't that great and I'm looking for some different fish. Pm me please and thanks


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## k7gixxerguy (Jan 12, 2012)

Feed very minimally until your tests indicate no ammonia and no nitrites. You can be doing permanent damage to the fish even if they dont look stressed. I second the thought of using prime to detoxify the ammonia and nitrites. Just keep in mind that they will still show up in tests though. What part of Maryland are you from? If its the western end, I can recommend a shop to get more peacocks near pittsburgh, PA. I'm switching from mbuna to peacocks and haps now and have been breeding Demasoni and won't keep even a single one with the new setup when its all said and done. There are a couple nice blue haps and peacocks. Are you looking for a dark blue, an electric blue, a powder blue? Give us a direction to point you towards.


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