New to the forum/hobby and I need help!!

[zurus]

Hello All,

I am new to the forum and fairly new to the "aquatic world". I have had an African aquarium for about 2 years now but still don't know much (it was given to me by a friend who didn't know much either) and have lost many fish along the way.   So I have now decided to get more serious about my tank and I am looking for help. It is a 45 gallon, right now I have what I think to be 3 Malawi's (not sure though, I got them at Super Pet on merivale and they were under "assorted chiclids...maybe someone might know what I am talking about?), 2 parrot fish (looks more like a blood parrot with a zebra twist, also got it from super pet) and 2 bottom feeders. I am hoping to stick with a mostly Malawi tank even though I have the parrot's. I have had yellow lab's in there before and they all seemed to get along fine so I am hoping it will continue. If not then I would look into giving them away..

Now after that long intro, I am wondering what I should do/look for to make sure my tank is healthy before I start getting more fish. I have rocks, etc but right now I am more concerned about the water quality. I have a PH test kit but wondering if there is anything else that I should be checking? When I do water changes I add cycle, water conditioner and cichlid lake salt to increase the PH. Anything else??? Also, what food should I be giving them? I have been giving them the general tropical fish flakes and once in awhile frozen shrimp.

Thanks for any tips/advice you may have...

[Rudy00]

i'd recommend nitrite, nitrate and ammonia tests as well as the pH test, those are the basical fresh water test kits in my opinion

i'd suggest looking into some nitrogen cycle information it will give you lots of insight as to what these kits are finding and why regular maintenance is needed

other than that i'm not an african cichlid type of person so i'll leave that part to the others

oh and welcome!

[darkdep]

Welcome!  Always glad to meet another African fan.

Fish from the "Assorted African" tanks at pet stores are often in there because they are hybrids, or can't be ID'ed.  This isn't usually a problem if they are "pet" fish, just don't try to breed them.  If you can take some pics and post them we might be able to help ID them tho!

Once your tank is running stable you should not need to add Cycle; also, there are much cheaper ways to add buffers to the tank than using store-bought Cichlid Salt.  A very common, very effective formula is:

1 Tablespoon Epsom Salts
1 Tablespoon Baking Soda
1 Teaspoon Salt (not table salt; Coarse Salt, Kosher Salt are both good.  You basically want salt with no added iodine).

Add the above to every 5 gallons you change out.

[Adam]

There are really two kinds of Malawi cichlids, haps and mbuna.  The most common, and the ones you probably had are the Mbuna.  The main difference is that Mbuna are strictly vegetarian.  If feed too much animal protein (like regular flakes or shrimp), they will develop what is called bloat, and generally never recover.  I would suggest a spirulina algae diet, spirulina flakes, pellets, etc.  This will give them what they need.

Adam

[kennyman]

Also there is the issue of male aggression in Mbuna. A 40 gal is a bit undersized for these very active fish and you need to make sure that any territorial aggression is not causing undo stress on your fish. Allot of times people loose fish because of what seems like a serious disease but in fact the fish was not able to cope with a minor illness because of stress.

The best way to deal with fish disease and death is to keep them in a clean environment with ample space and the proper food. Many Mbuna should live 7 years or more 

Use that gravel-vac and try to change 50% of your tank water each week. You need to remove the pheromones and other organic compounds that fish give off. If you have not been doing regular waterchangers then start off slowly with 20% every couple of days or you can shock your fish.

[zurus]

Thanks for all of your advice. I'm bringing back the blood parrot's to SuperPet today (and hopefully finding out what my other ones are) so I can stick with an all African tank and I'm planning on getting a bigger tank in November. I can see lots of $$ being spent in the near future....

For now I will buy the other tests and make sure my water is healthy until I make the big change, hopefully next month.

Thanks again for the advice. I'm sure I will be back with more questions.

[luvfishies]

Great advice so far, but "the" best thing you can do to maintain health is to do weekly waterchanges, of anywhere from 30-50%, adding some water conditioner. Gravel vacuum at the same time, and rinse the filter sponges out in the water you removed from the tank.

Reuse the sponges, there's NO need to keep replacing stuff, as actually, by doing so, you remove the good biobugs that keep the tank cycled.

Cycling a tank is basically this:
Fish give off ammonia, thru respiration. Decaying food and solid poo also decompose into ammonia. Ammonia is deadly to fish in small amounts. Bacteria #1 are attracted to the ammonia, and start eating it. They give off nitrITE which is also toxic at low levels. Bacteria #2 then come along and eat the nitrite, giving off nitrATE. NitrATE is not nearly as toxic as the ammonia and nitrITE, but it does accumulate, and needs to be removed via those partial waterchanges we do every week.

Now, these little bacterias need a place to live. While they will gladly live on solid surfaces in the tank (rocks, decorations, etc), their preferred home is in moving water with lots of Oxygen. That would be the filter in a fishtank.

These little bacteria are the reason you very very very rarely ever completely dismantle and "clean" the decor in an established tank. They are also the reason we advise to NOT throw out the filter stuff, but to rather rinse the floss or foam in "used" tankwater that you've removed when doing maintenance (partial water change). Hot, Cold, Chlorine and some medications can and will kill off our friendly bacteria. We need to treat them with some care if we want the fishies to be happy and healthy.

So that's the short and sweet version of what goes on. There are a few ways to make this happen in a new tank, from adding ammonia from a bottle (NO FISH!!!) to adding a couple of hardy fish and testing like mad and changing water when needed - ie the ammonia and/or nitrITES get over 0.5-1.0 ppm

There is also a new product out by Marineland, called BioSpira, which adds the necessary bacteria right from the beginning.

IMO all other "bacteria in a bottle" are a waste of money, so you don't need them. Spend the money on tests for ammonia, nitrITES, nitrATES and pH, instead.


RED denotes a very toxic substance. Keep the level below 1.0ppm  in a new, cycling tank.

GREEN denotes a less toxic, but still problematic substance. Keep the level below 20 ppm for most fish.

[zurus]

Thanks for the great info "luvfishies".  I know that I have been mostly doing the right thing, just missing a few things here and there. I think the most recent mistake is that I took out the (fake) plants and a couple rocks to clean them and maybe put too much cycle in. It's funny how you get so much different information from people who work at the pet stores. With all the new info, I hope there won't be any casualties.