# 75 gallon mixed africans with Anubias



## tharsis

Hey guys,

Just joined the site today and I wanted to share my tank that I am currently trying to stock.

It is a 75 gallon tank. I have play sand as the substrate, the rocks are limestone and I have crushed coral in the two HOB filters on the back to buffer the water. I also have a canister for the mechanical and bio filtration. My lights are a 4 bulb T5HO fixture (Odyssea brand) with 2x6700K, 1x10000K and 1 pink aquaflora bulb.

This was initially going to be a planted tank but after having nothing but planted community tetra type tanks for the last 5 years, I decided I wanted a change. I took out the stem plants and left the anubias. They are strongly rooted to the rock and from what I have read, the anubias is largely left alone by cichlids.

*FTS: *










I tried to get a lot of overhangs and caves throughout the two islands. There is plenty of room between the islands and the back wall as well so there is a good amount of space for the fish to grow into. I will probably try to excavate a little to make some of the caves bigger though. I am also contemplating adding a black substrate as a cap..undecided on that.

I just added in some mixed african cichlids yesterday and they are all doing great. I have alot of experience with saltwater tanks and freshwater community tanks, I have kept some kribensis and Dwarf cichlids in the past but this is my first foray into african cichlids. So I need to do a lot of research on the types of cichlids and their compatibilities. I jumped the gun yesterday and got some cichlids without having an ID so hopefully they will be ok together. The ones I got yesterday are VERY small right now, young juveniles I am guessing, the only one I know is the Yellow lab, so any help with identification would be great.

I was playing with a new DSLR so I took a lot of pics haha.

*Glamour shots:*























































*Action shots:*



























































































I know that this is a bit unconventional as far as cichlid tanks go, but I would love some feedback on the set-up...and some suggestions for stocking would be great. I have 6 fish right now and I think i will try for 20 total.

Thanks for looking!


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## smitty814

I love your set up. Very interesting and appealing. Not enough Malawi keepers use plants imo. I like the diversity and find that rock stacks only are pretty drab.


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## fmueller

Welcome to CF! The setup looks awesome! I love planted cichlid tanks, and going by store prices, you have about a million dollars worth of Anubias in there :lol:

Regarding the cichlids, if you bought them as mixed African cichlids, that's what they are. You can't really ID an mbuna just by looking at it, since even if the fish looks like Labidochromis caeruleus, it could be a cross between L. caeruleus and pretty much any other mbuna. Almost all of them will cross-breed readily, and if you want to have genetically pure fish, you need to keep them separate, which a lot of stores don't do. A tank with mixed mbuna will be fun to watch, but the downside is that you will have plenty of fry before too long, and no place to go with them, since the market for mixed mbuna is limited to newcomers to the hobby who buy fish from chain stores. Personally, for a 75G, I would pick 2-3 compatible species, and buy a group of 6-8 of each of them. If you have nice strains of good quality fish, the fry are always easy to sell or give away.

Best of luck!


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## tharsis

Thanks guys! I am glad to be here and learn from all you cichlid gurus.

Those anubias were all grown from 4 small plants over the span of 5 years haha. I had a south american themed driftwood tank for ages and the anubias thrived in there. I have trimmed and added these plants to numerious planted tanks over the years, and this current tank represents the amalgamation of all the descendants. 
I am saving them for my retirement at this point 

Thanks for the advice on the fish fmueller, that is pretty much what I thought about the mixed cichlids. I will look into getting some nicer strains. I would like to get a species similar to the one in the 2nd pic from the top, along with some yellow labs. And then for a third species, I like the one that has the orange top fin, I don't have a glam shot but there is a pic of him in the 8th pic from the top (2nd down in the 'action shots') and 4th and 5th pic from the bottom. Any help on the species names would be great.

I think I will start looking for deals on aquabid.


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## du3ce

how did u mount the anubias on the rock? are those nanas or another species?


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## tharsis

I superglue them to the rock when I can't simply wedge them into a crevasse. I have tried tons of different methods involving tying them in some way, but the gluing is by far the fastest and easiest...and the least frustrating. Just a little dab of glue on the rhizome and then hold it in place for a minute. The only downside with glueing is that it has to be done dry...either taking the rock out or draining the tank to the level that you want to glue. Within a couple weeks though the roots will spread and attach themselves to the rock. This tank has been set up for a couple months now and I can actually pick some of these rocks up by the plant 

These are all barteri var. nana. It might be interesting to add some other longer leaved species like congensis to the back to give it some variation. I also have some java fern in the back that I glued to the rock but it is mostly hidden right now.


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## halffrozen

Whoa....

AMAZING tank.

I wish I could get that much Anubias!!!! lol

I think the "species only" with the nana's, looks fantastic!


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## tharsis

Thanks halffrozen!

So any suggestions on the some good species to go with the yellow labs? The species profiles section on here is quite daunting haha...so many different species to consider.


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## royrusso

tharsis said:


> Thanks halffrozen!
> 
> So any suggestions on the some good species to go with the yellow labs? The species profiles section on here is quite daunting haha...so many different species to consider.


Yellow Tail Acei go well with them. The contrast of blue, yellow, and your setup should look nice and colorful.


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## tharsis

thanks for the reply, I was just going through some of the pseudotropheus species', there are some really nice looking ones. I think I want to stay in the 4"-5" range for the fish.

Some of the ones I saw that I thought would be cool are:

Pseudotropheus saulosi
Pseudotropheus sp. "Elongatus Yellowtail"
Pseudotropheus sp. "Elongatus Masimbwe"
Pseudotropheus sp. "Elongatus Linganjala"
Pseudotropheus sp. "Elongatus Boadzulu" 
Pseudotropheus sp. "Elongatus Bee"
Pseudotropheus cyaneorhabdos

I think i liked the elongatus haha. I am not sure if these are easily obtained or not though.

Should I be getting different species? for example:labidochromus group, pseudotropheus group and melanochromus...or should I get all from the same general species ex. only get variations of labidochomus?

I realize these are probably simple questions that I should be able to find answers to relatively quickly, I guess I am asking here to get a conversation going


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## 748johnd

A very nice natural looking tank. The rocks and way you have them set up are so natural looking. I like the color of your sand and I would not go with a black sand. To me, it would not look natural. I give your tank a 10.


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## metricliman

Now I must go get another tank! Remind me to never click on your threads! :lol:


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## tharsis

748johnd said:


> A very nice natural looking tank. The rocks and way you have them set up are so natural looking. I like the color of your sand and I would not go with a black sand. To me, it would not look natural. I give your tank a 10.


thanks!

I am really waffling back and forth about the sand issue haha. I agree that it would take away from the naturalness but it would certainly make the fish pop more...hmmm I wish I could see it before I committed.



metricliman said:


> Now I must go get another tank! Remind me to never click on your threads! :lol:


Do it! You can never have too many tanks


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## Michael_M

Your better off with non-black sand, you made the right choice! I don't even want to think about how much those anubias cost.

Looks great though. I agree with fmueller about the stocking, groups of mbuna. Lots of ones with pretty boys and girls and you get all the fun of breeding behaviour.


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## cichlid-gal

Absolutely beautiful....anubias envy here :lol:


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## tharsis

Thanks 

So I decided I will do yellow labs and demasoni, not sure on the third species though.


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## metricliman

Go for a lot of dems and labs, no need for a third species!


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## tharsis

Sounds like a plan! No need to over think it, I like the contrast that the yellow and blue (fish) and green (plants) will have.

I am trying to track down some labs and dems locally to avoid shipping. I found someone on craigslist selling juvie labs for $4 apiece...not sure if that is reasonable or not.

I have been having trouble finding dems locally, I actually saw that the petsmart near my place is selling them for $6.99 a piece...not sure if I should trust them though. I have had success with petsmart/petco fish in the past but I am not sure about the cichlids.


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## halffrozen

You make me hate my driftwood man...

Every **** time I see this thread I want to return my DW... lol


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## tharsis

dude...your driftwood looks great!


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## austings

You make me want anubias now... Been checkin on aquabid.



tharsis said:


> Sounds like a plan! No need to over think it, I like the contrast that the yellow and blue (fish) and green (plants) will have.
> 
> I am trying to track down some labs and dems locally to avoid shipping. I found someone on craigslist selling juvie labs for $4 apiece...not sure if that is reasonable or not.
> 
> I have been having trouble finding dems locally, I actually saw that the petsmart near my place is selling them for $6.99 a piece...not sure if I should trust them though. I have had success with petsmart/petco fish in the past but I am not sure about the cichlids.


$4 each for labs is a pretty good deal. And, you know exactly what you're getting. With labs at the chain stores, they're usually ok, I haven't had any problem with my labs that i got from there. But, a lot of times, (atleast here) they mix yellow labs with red zebras in the same tank. So just make sure they're yellow labs. I would personally get them from a private person. As far as Demasoni, again the chain stores sell them, but here, they usually only have 2-3 in stock at a time, so it takes awhile to get a decent sized group of them.


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## halffrozen

I dug this up, since I love this tank!

I am so going to make my 75 look like this!

lol


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## ratherbfishnjp

Amazing tank and the first fish that came to mind for a tank like this are some Metriclima Msobo Magungas! The females will give you your yellowish orange that you like with the labs while the males will give you your blue and black. Add one more species and you would be set! That would be a stunner of a tank! check em out!


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## tharsis

Thanks for the bump halffrozen! Did you get your anubias? How did they look?

Thanks for the tip on the fish species. My wife kind of balked at the idea of stocking this fish with 'expensive fish' since I am already unloading tons of cash on my other tanks...so I unfortunately had to stick with the mixed cichlids. I know this is tantamount to sacrilege but I had to appease the wife. I tried to get similar looking species, I realize that doesn't say much because they are basically mutts but atleast it is somewhat consistent. I also added an albino bristlenose pleco to the mix yesterday which is doing really well.

The tank is doing good, I had to raise my light up though because I am starting to get algae on the leaves. I also blew a ballast a couple days ago, I think some dog hair or something got in and caused a short circuit. I was in the other room and I started to hear a loud crackle, I ran into the dining room and saw the puff of blue smoke coming out of the ballast. I was pretty pissed to say the least... but in the end it will probably be fine, 2 T5HO bulbs over this tank should be more than enough light. It will just take some getting used to the dimmer lighting. I will probably end up stringing a few 3W LED's together though to add a bit more pop (I am thinking some 10000K's and some Royal Blues).

I finally got a lens for my camera so I have been taking tons of photos of the tank and the pics...please indulge me 

FTS:









FTS with slow shutter speed...I call it the ghost shot









An overprocessed FTS


















Semi FTS shots



























This is the blarney stone, I call it that because the orange guy is always nibbling on it. 


















This guy was nibbling at the algae on the glass



























Thanks for looking at all the pics haha. I am liking this camera (Nikon D3100 with a stock 18-55 Nikkor Lens) but I am already wanting a higher end lens. I just can't get the pics of the fish crisp enough.


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## GTZ

Nice pics and tank. I have the same camera (looking to upgrade soon). About a year ago I picked up a Tamron AF90mm f/2.8 Di Macro. Detail shots were much improved.


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## tharsis

Thanks, yeah I am looking at some Tamrons as well. I really want a 70-300mm lens or a prime haha, hard to decide...


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## Stussi613

Hate to dig up an old(ish) thread...but you can get rid of that black beard algae on the annubias by spot treating with Flourish Excel with the filters off (I use a syringe). Just follow the directions for the max dose for your tank size and treat a small area at a time every other day. Leave the filters off for 20 minutes, then turn them back on. It won't harm the plants, or the fish and the added benefit is more carbon for the plants. I had a long battle with it when I had my tank planted, my entire driftwood and all my annubias was literally covered in it.

I have the new Tamron 90mm macro with image stabilization for Nikon and I love it. Works great on my D600, but I prefer it on my D7000 backup camera for the extra reach. The best part is that it works on DX and Full Frame so it will grow with you if you ever upgrade to full frame. Also a cracking portrait lens at f/2.8 with the macro off.


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## NJmomie

tharsis said:


> I superglue them to the rock when I can't simply wedge them into a crevasse. I have tried tons of different methods involving tying them in some way, but the gluing is by far the fastest and easiest...and the least frustrating. Just a little dab of glue on the rhizome and then hold it in place for a minute. The only downside with glueing is that it has to be done dry...either taking the rock out or draining the tank to the level that you want to glue. Within a couple weeks though the roots will spread and attach themselves to the rock. This tank has been set up for a couple months now and I can actually pick some of these rocks up by the plant
> 
> These are all barteri var. nana. It might be interesting to add some other longer leaved species like congensis to the back to give it some variation. I also have some java fern in the back that I glued to the rock but it is mostly hidden right now.


I love your tank. Do have one question though on the rhizome... my anubias didn't come with a rhizome, they already had roots so how do I attach them to the rocks? For now, they are in the gravel and the mbunas have left them alone so I am hoping the roots will flourish but not sure when it will become your tank though...so jealous.


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