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I managed to quit my seven-tank aquarium addiction years ago, but they are simply gorgeous.

You're on your way. At least you're not considering a saltwater tank... yet.

I keep Saulosi cichlids but they hail from lake Malawi. I like them because unlike most cichlids the females aren't a drab grey. They are solid yellow and resembling the more popular electric yellow labs minus the black stripe on the dorsal fin . The males are dark blue with black stripes resembling the popular convict cichlid. They are also more docile than most cichlids, theyre herbivores except when fry are present, and they are also mouth breeders meaning the females hold the fertilized eggs in her lower lip like a snuff dip until they hatch then she spits them out and the fry hide in the gravel. So u can tell when one is holding babies by her fattened lower lip. Some get eaten but I've had success getting some into a nursery tank and currently have 3 generations of them in my main tank. I previously had cichlids that would lay eggs on flat rocks but those eggs never last more than 10 seconds. You have to quarantine the female if u want to breed egg laying cichlids and even then you have to immediately remove her because she'll eat her own children if she gets hungry enough. Eggs are like their favorite food. I was only able to find these online on aquabid. Yes you can have fish mailed to you. They ship overnight, with a oxygen,food, and cleaner tab in the bag and if necessary a disposable hand warmer. (They check weather along shipping route) Shipping is about $30 but u can find anything on Aquabid. I bought 6- S2's meaning they were 2nd generation from wild caught. 2 males and 3 females survived transport so I now have S2s, S3s, and 4th gen Saulosis and they are beautiful.

Delicious! Do you fry or bake them?

I have kept fish since I was around 7 or 8. My uncle got me into it-- never had cichlids. Kept a lot of different tropical fish though. My buddy had a 55 with both African and South American Cichlids. Beautiful fish when they arent fighting each other Lol

Right now I have a 30 gal long with a Bluegill in it. Lol Named him Vince Gill. He is actually from Hivelyland. I caught him in a minnow trap in my creek. He was a tiny fry when I put him in there. Bout 1 1/2 yrs now

Did you know that black bass (largemouth, Smallmouth and spotted) and bluegill are in the cichlid family. They act the same as cichlids from the pet store--just aren't as colorful.

All of the rocks (not gravel) in my tank are from all over the mid atlantic or southern states. I would pick one up here and there when I went hiking or wade fishing.

Yeah. Beautiful to look at... a giant pain in the ass to maintain.

Just a five to ten gallon watter change ever 4 weeks or so. Maybe 10 minutes?

I always over-plumb, over filter and such. No problems with a large tanke (different than small tank) becuase the great or the gallonage, the more stable the tank.

I also use only the right substrate and rocks and keep different kinds of fish to make it as PH and water hardnes, and maintainance free, as possible.

Maybe 30 minutes per month maintenace. That's all.

It's a good idea to over-plumb. That is a big part of keeping the maintenance time low. That and not putting too many fish in the tank. I run a filter and heater meant for 60 gal tanks in my 30 gal.

I still have the pet store gravel (kind of a brown natural) in my tank, plus some of the rocks I have collected over the yrs on top of the substrate. I boiled the rocks and then let them dry in the sun. Never had a problem with them.

I don't test water quality anymore. Kinda like once you get to a certain level of comfort, with cigars, you don't really care if you have a hygrometer or not. The only thing I add to the aquarium water is 1.5 tblsp of aquarium salt bout once a month, during a water change.

I have a weird mix of fish at the moment as I am in between set ups. For many years I had a Silver Dollar tank, and now I'm in the process of making a native tank. I figured that since I went native, so should the tank.

I have 1 Silver Dollar (9 yrs old), 2 Green Cory Catfish (5 yrs old) a Bluegill, and a big crawfish. Crawfish lives in a rock cave, does a good job cleaning up the bottom of the tank. They all get along too. Not what I expected.

Next spring, if/when I have time I'm going to try and trap another Bluegill fry or maybe a Smallmouth Bass. There are several different species of fish in my creek. Fished for and caught some decent Smallies and I've even seen Brook Trout in there... Ultimately, once they grow out, I'm going to upgrade to a 75 gallon tank.

^^^^

Yeah, I should have said I've doubled my water filtration and heating element. Bc I have one of those hang off the back pumps/filters. It has 2 filters within it and is rated for a 60 gal tank. No problems with it though, or with water clarity.

You are talking about actual plumbing, like one of those Fluval pumps. The bigger the tank the more something like that really helps.

Good luck with it man. Let us know how it goes.

Have you seen some of the Hybrid peacocks and haps they've bred in the last few years? Unbelievably colorful. More colorful than some marine species. Check out snakerivercichlids.com.

I used to have about 10-12 tanks with plenty of cichlids. They are beautiful. Downsized to just one little musk turtle next to my desk in a twenty long. Lots less trouble. More time to smoke

Good luck. Show some pics when you're done.

Post us a picture

^^
Yeah I'm pretty sure they do have the same footprint, bc the stand I was looking on Amazon said it fit both 55 and 75 gal tanks.

It looks awesome in the living room. Amazing how clear the water is... I've never had a filter system this nice...

Took forever to level the tank yesterday. Had to use a couple dozen shims. Lol! Those old Walnut floors look nice and level until you actually put a level on em. We have the original flooring in the living room, one of the bedrooms and the kitchen.

Anyway, I'm really happy with my find. I'll try to post a pic one day, when everything is the way I want it.

How many cichlids do you plan to put in your 65? I'm always worried about being overstocked. Ive seen 55 and 75 gal tanks with 5 or 6 full grown oscars or big cichlids and it seems kinda small for them.

So, I was thinking maybe just try to trap 1 more Bluegill to give me two. I'm trying to think how it will be (size wise) with two full grown fish plus more rocks and maybe some driftwood.

Glad it looks nice!

I may have to shim because the tile floor probably isn't level and I don't know whether my cabinet has adjustable feet.

75 would make an active, real nice, african cichlid tank! I am so not into Oscars anymore. You can catch them in the lakes around here after people release them. My passion is the activity of the tank, so I want a lot of fish to keep it busy


I plan to start out with maybe some combination of:

3-4 small lelupi (or breading pair)
3-4 small brichardi (or breading pair)
3-4 julidicromus (or breading pair)
3-4 small tropheus
1 small frontosa
1 small compreciceps
small catfish, snails or any other clean-up creatures necessary

My goal is to stock the tank once so the fish can grow-out in proportion to the tank; inevitable losses over the years won't leave the tank empty; the tank will be active with fish that all behave differently; and at different levels; to have a great chance of breeding pairs and not to overload the tank.

I'll probably stock with 20-25 total inches of fish-length with fisht that will generally double in size. All in consideration that the tank will only have like 55-60 gallons after water displacement by rocks.

Or, at least that is the current plan...

I believe so, but will be doing whatever the owner of the aquarium store I bought my tank and filter from tells me to d to start off. Been doing business with him for over 40 years and have the upmost confidence in his advice. It will probably depend on the surface are of the media with all the micropores like coral has...

But, I won't be buying all my fish from him. Some, but not all. There are a few cichlid only breeders and stores within an hour of here and I am going to go directly to the source, so to speak, to find exactly what I want.

Waiting for tank and stand lto come in- maybe today? Going to paint the back wall black and then set it up after painters are finished with the inside of the house- don't want any fumes or the like affecting the tank.

^

Sounds good man. You using sand for substrate and then adding the bigger rocks on top of that? Still going with the same lineup of fish as you mentioned in post 30?

I have mentioned this before, but you would really enjoy this guys channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC29pFKzymRAAwbPVXNaKCBA

Ben Ochart. He's originally from California but now lives in Nashville, Tennessee. I think of him as the Mr. Rogers of cichlids. He's super chill and has some beautiful tanks. Every Sunday he does a livestream called "Cichlids and Coffee".

I have spent a lot of free time this winter working on the hobby...

I resealed my 30 gal tank with food grade silicone and it holds water now. Moved it and the stand to the man cave, bought a 200 watt heater and some gravel substrate. Moved the pumpkinseed bluegill, the giant silver dollar and the crawfish over to that.

Started a South American community tank in the 75 gal. Got some dwarf cichlids (German Ram and Bolivian Ram), tetras, cory cats and some hatchetfish. You ever seen hatchetfish? They are really interesting--I kept them when I was a boy.

Here's my lineup:

Selected species:
2 x Blue Ram (Mikrogeophagus ramirezi)
2 x Bolivian Ram (Mikrogeophagus altispinosus)
6 x Panda Cory (Corydoras panda)3 x
3 x Sterbai Cory (Corydoras sterbai)
2 x Bronze Cory (Corydoras aeneus)
8 x Black Skirt Tetra (Gymnocorymbus ternetzi)
6 x Von Rio Tetra (Hyphessobrycon flammeus)
9 x Silver Hatchet (Gasteropelecus sternicla)

Other than the two bronze cory cats, I bought all of my fish from here: https://aquahuna.com/collections/all?aff=2

Great prices and fast, cheap shipping. They are out of Renton, Washington, a suburb of Seattle. Perfect for a guy like me that doesn't have a pet store within 60+ miles... Of all the fish they sent me, only one single hatchetfish didn't make the journey.

Over the last couple months I've lost a few tetras but that's to be expected. This will be my tank for yrs probably. 38 fish. When you consider tank size plus filtration I'm about 60% stocked according to aqadvisor.com. I also rebuilt the FX4 with the components I mentioned in post 29.

I look forward to seeing the pics of your new setup. Here's a pic for you, and Jake: https://imgur.com/a/bvLVSCF

The next step for me will be live plants. Probably wont buy any until next fall, as lawn and garden season seems to take all of our spare time.

I have a breeding pair. They have already spawned twice.

Eventually I'd like to get a 10 gal tank for them. Then I can stock my tank with next gen Rams--kinda like you did with those Saulosi cichlids. I checked those out btw--really nice looking fish...

^

Those Frontosa's are nice. I like the black and white ones too.

Finished stocking the tank yesterday. Final set-up is:

N. Lamprologus Lelupi X 7
C. Frontosa x 5
L. Brichardi x 6
J. Marlerie x 7
Golden Compressiceps x 2
Synodontis Jaguar x 1
Tropheus Moori- Bulu Point x 5

That's a lot of fish for that size tank. You'll be doing a lot of cleaning but I see what route you're taking. Overpopulating will help spread aggression as well.

You may want to think about having 2 females per male when all is said and done tho. That's the recommendation with cichlids and they will still breed at the same pace. They will breed even faster if you have 3 females per male. Plus you'd be doing the male fish a great service.

Maybe some pictures on the Refugee site?

https://cigarbid.freeforums.net

In this Everything Else picture section:

https://cigarbid.freeforums.net/board/5/

Done.

Gene, THANK YOU!