# New tank



## Dominateprimate (Aug 27, 2011)

Setting up another 55 but having some different thoughts of what to put in it, some ideas include SA, Oscars, or pirahanas any suggestion favoeing one over another??


----------



## dillon0990 (Jun 11, 2011)

i just got another 55 a week ago. i was so close on putting in an oscar cause i use to have one years ago and loved it. I just feel a 75 might be better for them but the moderator of the oscar section told me a 55 is fine but it has to be bare. now decor and best if no substrate. you also HAVE to clean it every 4 days because they have a lot of waste. if you dont mind doing all that go for an oscar they are very awesome fish. and when you say oscars i hope you mean one. you cannot do more than one in a 55 and they cant have any tank mates. not even a algae eater.


----------



## Dominateprimate (Aug 27, 2011)

Well if i can only have one maybe i dont really wanna do an oscar i guess i really love JDs but i have an african tank right niw so i couldnt put sny in maybe just do a SA or strictly JDs?


----------



## dillon0990 (Jun 11, 2011)

I dont know too much about a JD except that they dont get quite as big as an oscar but very close. So even if you did a JD tank again i think one would be your max. trust me haveing one fish doesnt sound very fun to some people but when you have this huge fish with an amazing personality you would be surprise how much fun it is.


----------



## Dominateprimate (Aug 27, 2011)

If a got a "1 fish tank" could i feed him cool stuff like feeders and such? Necause i know the guy on the oscar section said to watch out about feeders but i know my cousin usedcto feed gis oscar ham and hot dogs.


----------



## dillon0990 (Jun 11, 2011)

mine that i kept in a 55 i did feed goldfish but not alot just as a snack on occasions. he could eat a dozen goldfish in just a couple days but it can cause too much waste if you feed them all the time.


----------



## brinkles (Jan 30, 2011)

Feeders introduce disease, and meat from warm blooded animals is thought to cause problems as well.

I at one time had an oscar, and fed him bugs and worms from time to time. The risk of disease is small because the pathogens that affect them generally won't affect fish, but they may have been exposed to pesticides.


----------



## Dominateprimate (Aug 27, 2011)

My dads friend had a 55 with a tiger O and a cliwn knife by themselves and they did fine for years would that be ok?


----------



## cindylou (Oct 22, 2008)

I have a 55 and a 75 and they are so close to being the same, but I feel the xtra inches you get from front to back make a 75 so much better...


----------



## Guest (Sep 11, 2011)

why is this topic in general african discussion when its not even about africans? :?

oscars and sa fish get too big for a 55 same thing with piranhas.. i dont get why people even like piranhas they arent cool to look at big deal they got teeth and they eat flesh.. wooooooopty doo.. get yourself some peacocks ftw


----------



## Dominateprimate (Aug 27, 2011)

m1ke715m said:


> why is this topic in general african discussion when its not even about africans? :?
> 
> :lol: i misread the section for (general cichlid discussion) *** dismissed the idea of piranhas after further reasearch but i already have a tank of africans and i was thinking of something different, maybe convicts and JDs?


----------



## Nwright36 (Jul 27, 2011)

you could do a tank of electric blue jack dempseys for the hope of breeding to occur


----------



## Guest (Sep 11, 2011)

electric blue jack depseys get huge.. way too big for a 55.. and you can never have enough africans my friend lol if you got malawi do tangs.. theres SOOOO many cool africans i just keep adding tanks cuz theres more fish i want to keep and spawn

what kinda africans do you have now?


----------



## Nwright36 (Jul 27, 2011)

Electrics do not get the same size as regular jacks and you could deffnhouse them in a 55 but eventually you would need more room


----------



## Dominateprimate (Aug 27, 2011)

m1ke715m: 55- 5 mbunas, 2 aratus, 2 yellow labs, 2 venustus, 2 demasoni, 2 zebras, 1 front(know hes gonna get huge), 1 pleco, 1 sulferhead, 1 leporius, 1 electric blue mbuna, 1 BN pleco. its really stocked. but im also running out of tank space i also have a 29 w/ 6 mollies, 2 giant anios, 1 chinese butterfly, 2 algae eaters, 1 angel(quite large, and a minnow. A 40 gal community in progress, zebra daniops, 4 tiger barbs, and 4 rasaboras at the moment. a 10 gal tomato frog tank. a 2.5gal betta. a 5gal pac man frog and a 10 gallon time out. next tanks gonna have to go out into the basement anyways ha.

Nwright36:I<3 JDs, espically electric blue idk if i already said it but *** been thinking about the JDs with convicts as a thought.

-Also, *** been thinking i can have something a little bigger than a 55 out there i could proabably get a 75 or even push it to a 125.


----------



## jd lover (Mar 11, 2011)

Dominateprimate said:


> My dads friend had a 55 with a tiger O and a cliwn knife by themselves and they did fine for years would that be ok?


im sorry but your dads friend is an idiot.

tht being said a 55 would be perfect to house some discus if you know how to handle them. if not i would try peacock awesome color alot of variety.

maybe an angel tank? or did what i did fill it with a shoal of tiger barbs =p


----------



## Dominateprimate (Aug 27, 2011)

I wanted something a little more active than angels, i love the activity of my africans at the moment, but i asked thd guy at my LFS about discus but he said they were real hard to take care of


----------



## Guest (Sep 12, 2011)

Dominateprimate said:


> I wanted something a little more active than angels, i love the activity of my africans at the moment, but i asked thd guy at my LFS about discus but he said they were real hard to take care of


they are and extremely expensive.. *** seen things like when you do a water change the water cant be more than 1 degree off or it will kill them


----------



## Dominateprimate (Aug 27, 2011)

Oooohhh  doesnt sound like me... How about a 75 w a large mouth and some bluegill


----------



## Tadgo (Jul 31, 2011)

Dominateprimate said:


> Oooohhh  doesnt sound like me... How about a 75 w a large mouth and some bluegill


Let me know when the large mouth is over 12lbs. I'll bring my fishing pole.


----------



## jd lover (Mar 11, 2011)

Dominateprimate said:


> I wanted something a little more active than angels, i love the activity of my africans at the moment, but i asked thd guy at my LFS about discus but he said they were real hard to take care of


depends on the size of the dicus. most of the time when juvie they just need pristine water and about someone sayin if theyre a degree off durin a water change they die. thats not true when adults. they reason people shy away from tryin discus is because of the price tage. youll find that once a discus is good size its pretty hard just as most other fish


----------



## Dominateprimate (Aug 27, 2011)

Well still if a discus doesnt like the temp change that much its gona be really hard for me to keep it stable. I live in the basement and with winter fast approaching it gets to be like a meat locker down here.

And to tadgo, how about i feed it till it gets to be gigantic and go ahead anf mount it


----------



## jd lover (Mar 11, 2011)

well i suppose you could always try some peacock?


----------



## Dominateprimate (Aug 27, 2011)

I have o e peacock in my 55 with about 12 other africans and he looks really cool alone but this guy i get fish from has a 50 with a school of them and i dont really think it looked that good


----------



## dillon0990 (Jun 11, 2011)

he must not have an all male tank then. checkout and all male peacock tank and it will blow you away...its pricey though


----------



## Guest (Sep 13, 2011)

none of my peacock tanks look bad lol


----------



## chinds78 (Jun 22, 2011)

If you already have the african tanks go for SA. They are great fish. I had a pair of JD's when I was kid in a 30g for several years. They are cool fish and the electric blues are esp cool. Plus they don't get as big, they are kind of a dwarf JD. I think a few JD's and convicts would look cool in your tank.

Speaking of which, I would get as big of a tank and you can afford it. If a 125 fits and you can afford it, get it! You won't regret it!


----------



## Dominateprimate (Aug 27, 2011)

If i get the 125. How maby of each can i put in


----------



## chinds78 (Jun 22, 2011)

Depends on what kind of fish you want and if you plan to add more tanks later when the fish grow out. If you did peacocks you could probably put around 30 in there and be ok for a while. They would eventually need more room. Do some research on this site on the type of fish you want to keep. There are several tank size recommendations.


----------



## Dominateprimate (Aug 27, 2011)

I was leaning towards the idea of convicts and JDs(proably elecrric blue) lets just say a $5gal because even if i get a 125 id like to have room to breed (saying this i still dont to put the 75 at the max number i could have at the full grown stage and take out all the fry or turn it into food  . I just reread this and i reLize it doesnt make much sense but basically i want to know what the max numner of Jds and convicts i can have in a 75gal 

Thanks


----------



## Dominateprimate (Aug 27, 2011)

Ok found a 120 so thats definatly what im gonna get but i dropped the idea of breeding


----------



## Guest (Sep 14, 2011)

if your have males and females they are gona breed wether you like it or not.. thats half the fun of fishkeeping anyways raising the fry


----------



## Dominateprimate (Aug 27, 2011)

Ok *sigh* i guess i can make do  isnt it like a 1-5 m f ratio?


----------



## chinds78 (Jun 22, 2011)

Yup, 1m/5f is a good ratio.


----------



## Guest (Sep 14, 2011)

depends on what you are doing.. if you are doing sa/ca they usually pair bond... if you are talking africans then yes most species are harem breeders... some tangs you need more than 1 male or the 1 male is lazy and not interested in breeding like with cyps and some sandsifters


----------



## Dominateprimate (Aug 27, 2011)

Well would 6 convicts and 6 electric blues do good in the 120? I dont plan on getting any more tanks.


----------



## Dominateprimate (Aug 27, 2011)

Ok im starting to think the people in africans are starting to get annoyed with my post so im going to post the question in tank setups at this point

THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP AND CONSIDERATION


----------



## jd lover (Mar 11, 2011)

6 jd in a 125 wont work


----------



## Guest (Sep 14, 2011)

i think most people that keep sa/ca keep a pair.. *** seen threads where people use convicts as dithers in all sorts of setups


----------



## Dominateprimate (Aug 27, 2011)

Ok what other kind of fish could i put in with them besides other SAs could i put in a ghost knife or cat?


----------



## jd lover (Mar 11, 2011)

Well depends what you're after but for a 125 stock list I would go with 6 discus a black ghost knife and 6 loaches or 12 cory cats


----------



## Dominateprimate (Aug 27, 2011)

Wel i wanted to stick with the jds and convict but i was wondering if they woulx be good tank mates for them


----------



## jd lover (Mar 11, 2011)

1 jd and 1 convict can work but unless its a pair you can't have more than 1 jd maybe more than 1 convict but it all depends on the fish temper


----------



## Dominateprimate (Aug 27, 2011)

Well i was kind of wanting this tank to be a kind of "show tank" so to speak. I was looking for some active fish, some intresting fish, some flashy colors, maybe some large ones, and pretty many fish. (i know large and many is kind of hard to do) but if i saved up the money could i do it in a 180. Not making any promises on the 180 though... Proabably going to be skmewhere closer to a 120/125.

Some things that i was trying to do with it was have a 3in black sand substrate, a buttload of river rock. Some day lights and some night lights. I was really hoping i could put in a BGK because i love the way they swim and the electric bkue JD because i lobe the coloration. Is there skmething that i could pet in with them that i could put in like grlups of 6-8 and be pretty active???

Maybe im going in the wrong direction about stocking his tank.

Ps: mind i live in kentu ky and my LFS doesnt really have a large selection of fish(i was exfited when they got the BGK in the first place) (i dixnt dven know what shellies or green terrors where until i joined C-F) and JDs tend to be scarce also. But i bet i could do some digging/special orders.
for fishh if i cant find them.

Sorry for so many typos typing from the iphone at he moment and at quite haste! Thanks for reading i know it was quite extensive


----------



## jd lover (Mar 11, 2011)

The only fish I can think of with a bgk are discus other than those peacocks are excellent with both colors and being in groups. Not sure how they do with bgk


----------



## Dominateprimate (Aug 27, 2011)

I dont know if this is a dumb question or not, but are peacocks more than just the full yellow one i have...


----------



## jd lover (Mar 11, 2011)

Those are yellow labs

Google search "all male peacock tank"


----------



## Guest (Sep 15, 2011)

lol if you have a yellow lab thats not a peacock at all...

here start with looking here
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/r ... p?genus=17
theres so many awesome peacocks you cant go wrong with a good all male tank


----------



## chinds78 (Jun 22, 2011)

Peacocks are all the species in the genus aulonocara. Usually they don't do well with mbuna such as your yellow lab, but you might be ok since they are one of the more mild mbuna.


----------



## Dominateprimate (Aug 27, 2011)

Ok i think i may have mbuna with peacocks. Saying this could i movs the peacocks into this 120 or 180 that i already have? 
Here is my stock list for my 55:
5 blue mbuna( i think blue dolphin)
2 yellow labs
2 black splotch zebra
2 aratus
2 venustus
1 yellowish peacock(may just be albino)
1 demasoni
1 front
1 sulfur head
2 electric blue 
Pleco and i will be adding a cat soon

Are the venustus and sulfer head types pf peacocks? Also i know the yellow labs and zebras are mbunas. But i dont know what the aratus are.


----------



## Guest (Sep 15, 2011)

no they are haps... theres 3 kinds of fish in lake malawi.. mbuna, peacocks, and haplochromines these are categorized by the way they look, where they are found, their feeding and spawning behavior and by their actual anatomy as well all goes into determining which genus a fish falls into

mbuna for the most part are herbivores meaning that in the wild they feed from the algae mats on the rocks but will eat meat if given and are only found near rocks

peacocks for the most part hunt small crustaceans in the sand floor by using small sonar pores in their chins and are also found near rocks or caves

haps have a big variety in what they eat most are open water fish meaning they dont live near the rocks but come back to shore to spawn... alot of them eat plankton in the wild.. some prey on other fish... some hunt in the sand for crustaceans...

nimbochromis venustus gets very big and is a predator and will hunt small juvenile fish when it gets big enough.. it will try to eat anything big enough to fit in its mouth.. it actually does it in a way no other fish does in the lake. it lays on its side in the sand motionless as if dead and then when juvenile mbuna come to check it out to pick meat off its "dead" body it strikes and eats them... 
if you dont plan on having small fish with the venustus when it gets bigger then you are fine.. people keep yellow labs with peacocks and haps as dithers.. yellow labs are no threat to anyone
im not a fan of them but alot of people love them because of their mello demeanor

the frontosa is from lake tanganyika and will quickly outgrow a 55 gallon and need a 6ft tank so will the venustus..


----------



## Dominateprimate (Aug 27, 2011)

Yeah i didnt do my reasearch before i bought the front and im probably going to end up selling it when it gets to big or if somebody starts getting bullied. Im thinking that im probably going to put thd venustus and albino(i think) into this new tank and fill it with peacocks and turn my 55 into a mbuna tank (keep the 5 blues, add 3 labs) maybe put some more stuff in the 55 if i have to remove some stuff, did you say the venustus are haps, the zebras ar haps, or the auratus are haps haha im confused


----------



## Guest (Sep 16, 2011)

blue dolpins are haps not mbuna, sulferhead and venustus are haps, the rest other than your peacock and front are mbuna


----------



## Dominateprimate (Aug 27, 2011)

Could i have a peacock and hap tank?


----------



## chinds78 (Jun 22, 2011)

Yes, haps and peacocks do well together. Just be sure to research their individual needs and try to meet them.

The only mbuna that really do ok with haps and peacocks are yellow labs.


----------



## Dominateprimate (Aug 27, 2011)

Ok this is my planned species:
Venustus
Sulferhead
Blue dolphin
Synodotis catfish
BGK

I only want 1 knife but how many of each species can i put in or should put in


----------



## Guest (Sep 17, 2011)

chinds78 said:


> Yes, haps and peacocks do well together. Just be sure to research their individual needs and try to meet them.
> 
> The only mbuna that really do ok with haps and peacocks are yellow labs.


'
i have a group of around 9 tropheops elongatus boadzulu in with my male peacocks and haps and they are doing fine

whats a bgk


----------



## Dominateprimate (Aug 27, 2011)

(black ghost knife) i'm pretty sure they can go in with pretty much any africans. he's probably gonna be 4-5in at first


----------



## chinds78 (Jun 22, 2011)

m1ke715m said:


> chinds78 said:
> 
> 
> > Yes, haps and peacocks do well together. Just be sure to research their individual needs and try to meet them.
> ...


There are exceptions to every rule!


----------



## Dominateprimate (Aug 27, 2011)

What?


----------



## chinds78 (Jun 22, 2011)

Sometimes you can break the rules that experienced hobbyist suggest. For example, there are some mbubna u can get away with keeping with haps and peacocks.


----------



## jd lover (Mar 11, 2011)

be careful as bgk are territorial but cant really hold its own againt africans


----------



## Dominateprimate (Aug 27, 2011)

What could i put with a bgk? Because i know he'll hill my tetras,barbs,and mollies.


----------



## jd lover (Mar 11, 2011)

Depends on the size of the bgk but mine is at around 6 inches and he's fine with discus diamond tetras and columbian tetras


----------

