# New to the Forum: My current 37 gallon Tanganyikan cube.



## 02redz28 (Dec 21, 2012)

Good evening. My name is Patrick and I'm new to this forum but not new to fish or Tanganyikans. I've kept roughtly 20 species of Tanganyikans and bred a few including N. melagris, N. cautopunctatus, N. brichardi, J. regani kipili, and Cyphotilapia "North" Burundi. I've only recently returned to cichlids since entering the final phases of medical school. I got out completely in 2009 when I started.

Anyhow, I've had to keep it small at the moment eventhough I still have my 135 and 240 gallon tanks at my folks house as I live on the third floor of an apartment complex and having that much water over peoples heads just isn't right.

Tank: 37 gallon Marineland Cube
Lighting: 12 LED Marineland fixture 
Heater: Finnex 200 watt submersible
Filter: Whisper 3 with a whisper 40 with airstone for airation.
Substrate: 5mm crushed coral
Decore: Lace rock and smooth granite stones stacked.

Stock: 
1 x N. brichardi
1 x N. tretocephalus
1 x N. calvus "black"
1 x Cyphotilapia sp. "North" Burundi
1 x T. duboisi
1 x T. sp. "Ikola"
1 x Ophthalmotilapia nasuta "Namansi Orange"
1 X Eretmodus cyanostictus "Ikola"
4 x S. lucipinnis

I realize most of these get far too large for the tank they are in and plan to move them in 6 months. Most of them are juveniles and are less than 2 inches each at the moment.

I'll post some pics soon.


----------



## LouIE82 (Nov 6, 2012)

Is it soon yet?


----------



## 02redz28 (Dec 21, 2012)

Now its soon. I've decided to leave the algae on the rocks since the Tropheus and Eretomodus like to pick at it all day between feedings. I rather enjoy watching them quarrel over the best turf. Some didn't want to pose when I did my 5 minute shoot with my SD 1000 without flash. I'll get the DSLR out later and get some better ones. Tank is due for an overhaul and rescape.


----------



## Floridagirl (Jan 10, 2008)

Those fish may come to blows before their 6 month term. Best of luck.


----------



## 02redz28 (Dec 21, 2012)

Its a calculated risk. The aggression is a minimum at the moment.


----------



## 02redz28 (Dec 21, 2012)

Cleaned the whole tank and rescaped yesterday.


----------



## metricliman (Sep 3, 2012)

Looks good! This is the rimless Marineland 37 cube right? How does it look from a distance?


----------



## 02redz28 (Dec 21, 2012)

I recently moved the tank and culled out a few critters to make room for the growth of those that remain. Since the last set of pics, my Tropheus are coloring up nicely. My Frontosa has grown but remains shy. Its excavated the entire center of the tank moving about 20lbs of gravel to the edges.

I'll get some pics up soon.


----------



## 02redz28 (Dec 21, 2012)

I decided to blow it up this weekend. Sold off all the cichlids. Kept the catfish. I'm going to reinvent this tank with smaller species that are better suited for the long haul. I'm thinking maybe some J dickfeldi, N caudopunctatus, N ocellatus gold and a species of Altolamp.

Now I just have to find these. In the mean time, I've rescaped the tank and added quite alot of shells. I have also kept my 4 Synodontis lucipinnis


----------



## NJmomie (Jan 17, 2013)

02redz28 said:


> I decided to blow it up this weekend. Sold off all the cichlids. Kept the catfish. I'm going to reinvent this tank with smaller species that are better suited for the long haul. I'm thinking maybe some J dickfeldi, N caudopunctatus, N ocellatus gold and a species of Altolamp.
> 
> Now I just have to find these. In the mean time, I've rescaped the tank and added quite alot of shells. I have also kept my 4 Synodontis lucipinnis


I think that is a very wise decision indeed. As for your comment about keeping the catfish, isn't S. lucipinnis a catfish or do you have 4 S. Lucipinnis AND another type of catfish? If it were me, I would have made it a species tank for the brichardis. They are beautiful and are great parents.


----------



## 02redz28 (Dec 21, 2012)

I've only got 4 S. lucipinnis, which are Tanganyikan catfish. Im still working to keep it a Tanganyikan biotope community tank. I've bred N. brichardi in the past. They are pretty fish but it's time for some new species. I'm hoping that once I get settled, I can start to do some small species breeder tanks again with interesting pairs.


----------



## Darkskies (Mar 17, 2012)

Props on making a wise decision to have fish that will work out in the long term in your tank. I know you're probably going to hate hearing this but if you want your future fish to breed and have many(or maybe even any) of the fry survive in the main tank, you'd have to get rid of the catfish(S. lucpinnis).


----------



## 02redz28 (Dec 21, 2012)

Darkskies said:


> Props on making a wise decision to have fish that will work out in the long term in your tank. I know you're probably going to hate hearing this but if you want your future fish to breed and have many(or maybe even any) of the fry survive in the main tank, you'd have to get rid of the catfish(S. lucpinnis).


I'm very much aware of the issues with fry and catfish. I've kept both S. lucipinnis and S. multipunctatus in the past. I only had my multis pirate one mouth over 7 years though. Fortunately, I have no plans to proactively save any potential future fry that would be produced.

I've thought about trying to do the marble bowl breeding method some day for the S. lucipinnis, but I have no plans for that at the moment either.

All I want is a nice community setup.


----------



## 02redz28 (Dec 21, 2012)

Picked up a few new critters today.

2x N. multifasciatus
1x A. calvus white
1x A. calvus black
1x Julidochromis transcriptus

I'm looking to pick up 4 more multis and a pair of N. caudopunctatus to round out the tank.


----------



## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Looking forward to the new setup. Nice to see you back in the game again.


----------

