Nicolette wants to know:
I want to start a cichlid tank in my 75 gallon. never had em before. any advice? Like do they require more work than community fish, how many should i get, and do they all have to be african, and what do they need?
And why the weekly water changes or whatever? are they necessary? Are you supposed to do that with community cuz i dont?
Do they have to be from the same lake in Africa? Like they cant be from two different African Lakes?
I want to start a cichlid tank in my 75 gallon. never had em before. any advice? Like do they require more work than community fish, how many should i get, and do they all have to be african, and what do they need?
And why the weekly water changes or whatever? are they necessary? Are you supposed to do that with community cuz i dont?
Do they have to be from the same lake in Africa? Like they cant be from two different African Lakes?
September 28th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
so many questions first ciclids take less work all you need is rocks they hate plants and will destroy them you may have about 60 inches of fish about 12 fish if you consider the size of full grown chichlids plenty of aquarium salt for that tank and now all you need is a good store to buy the fish if they are chiclids in the tank at the aquarium shop then they may go in your tank. there are a few that have a meaner side you may want to avoid them
September 30th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
Go here it has everything you need to know best of luck.
October 3rd, 2009 at 7:27 am
We have a 125 gal with all African Cichlids and yes, it is a lot of work. They are very beautiful fresh water fish, so if you can handle the work, it’s worth it.
African Cichlids are very agressive fish. Some people say that you should either have an all-male tank to eliminate them competing for female attention. Other people suggest crowding the fish, so they don’t really develop territories, which is what we decided to do.
25-50% weekly water changes is best to maintain good fish health, but you can stretch it to 2 weeks, depending on the amount of fish. As for as the number of fish, a good rule of thumb is 1″ of fish for every gallon of your tank, so in your case, 75″ of fish. Remember to allow room for growth- they grow very fast (sometimes several inches in a year!). However, if you are going to go with the overcrowding method, you can forget about that rule of thumb. Obtaining the right pH can be tricky, and you will need to monitor the ammonia level.
We have fish from both Lake Malawi and Lake Tanganyika in our tank. In general, the fish from Lake Malawi are more agressive. It is important to try to have fish with the same temperment. So, don’t have extremely aggressive and peaceful fish in the same tank. Extremely agressive and mildly agressive may or may not work. The mildly agressive fish may get stressed out in that environment.
You didn’t ask about breeding, but some of the fish are easy to breed as well. Frequent water changes encourage the fish to breed.
October 3rd, 2009 at 6:07 pm
I have 15 various Cichlids in a 120 gallon tank, they all get along just fine, other then rearranging gravel, they are wonderful fish.
If your new to Cichlids, I suggest start off with 2 then increase.
Weekly water changes are not required, if you purchase a good filteration system, to keep the tank clean, undergravel kits, or keep fish to a minimun. Too many fish can produce alot of debris, especially with no filteration system, or undergravel kit. Which is why I recommend starting off with two, if your new to the fish hobby.
I use the Magnum 350 canister filteration system and never cleaned the tank at all, filter does all the work, I’m lazy Lol. But my tank stays cyrstal clear.
As long as you keep freshwater fish in a fresh water enviroment, they can be from any where in the world, same with salt water.
As any of us fish hobbyist, you will learn from trial & error, have fun with your new fish.
October 4th, 2009 at 2:26 am
The larger the tank the better for keeping cichlids. If you are planning on rift-lake cichlids you should limit your tank to fish from Lakes Malawi, Tanganyika, and Victoria. Rift-lake cichlids require a very hard (dH 15-20), very alkaline (pH 7.8 - 8.2) water chemistry. Fish from other parts of Africa require lower pH so they do not fare well here.
Buy a high range pH test kit, as well as a water hardness test. You will need to test the pH every other week initially, and after every water change. Buy a cichlid water buffer product (3rd link below) to maintain proper pH. Buy an external filter if you don’t already have one. Cichlids are more work than “community” fish. Some are very agressive, and will chase and “beat up” others till they die. Dead fish will quickly cause ammonia levels to rise which could cause the death of the rest of the tank inhabitants.
Changing your water is essential to fish health. Imagine you are in a room with only one window. There is no toilet, only a bucket in which to releave yourself. How many days do you think you could stand to stay in that room? Well, you are making your fish to live where their waste products accumulate. Even though bacteria are changing ammonia to nitrite, and then nitrite to nitrate, an ever higher amount of nitrate is building up. The only thing keeping your fish alive is a built up tolerance to the nitrate. Any new fish are likely to perish when added to this aquarium. Every aquarium should have 25% of its water changed once a month; that’s 18 gallons removed and replaced with new, treated water for your 75 gallon tank.