Possible african cichlid tank... questions

[DARKPHREAK]

Its been a few weeks since the cycle has completed on my 29g and I've moved everyone over to a 75g planted. I bought some small labyrinth fish(honey gourami,2 male,2 female) to keep the bioload going. Now I am considering on setting the 29g up for african cichlids, namely johanni and yellow labs or that type because of the nice colours. Im thinking between 3 and 5 of them possibly. Now I guess my questions are, is the Eclipse hood good enough for filtration and how difficult are these fish to keep. Would between 3 and 5 be too many? I dont plan on breeding them, I just want to look at nice fish in a tank that I will scape myself with wood and rock that my girlfriend and I will select from local waters. Am I digging myself a big hole here with these ideas or is this something that I can actually do with the equipment that I have.

P.S seems like my girlfriend would like some pufferfish, can I mix these in with the cichlids to make her happy?

Any suggestions

Thanks
James

[Eirikre]

Absolutely no way you can mix puffer fish and Rift Lake Cichlids.  They will not be happy roommates and fighting will be quick and vicious.  In any case the puffers are mostly brachish I believe.  You will have to choose one or the other but both would make a great pet.

In my opinion the 29g is too small for the Cichlids you've chosen.  There are some much smaller Rift lake Cichlids which you could keep in a smaller tank though.  Two of my favourite dwarf Mbuna are Pseudotropheus demasoni and Pseudotropheus kingsizei, which only grow to 3 inches (8cm) and are both very colourful.  You could Easily keep a male and 2-3 females for each species whcih means 6-8 beautiful cichlids in your tank!  I got mine at Al's here in Ottawa and they often cary them.  I saw them at the Innes Rd. location today in fact.

Here you can find out more about both species.
http://www.tropheus.info/riftlakes/cichlids/demasoni_e.htmlhttp://www.tropheus.info/riftlakes/cichlids/kingsizei_e.html

Good luck,
Eric

[DARKPHREAK]

Thanks Eric,

I just didnt know the sizes of the cichlids I picked but knew that max 3 inchs would be nice with those types of colours. Living in Hawkesbury and going to Ottawa every 2 weeks to pick my girlfriend up from college allows me to shop around which we did Friday night in all that darn snow. We headed west to the Big Al's and SuperPet in Kanata where I saw some really nice cichlids. She loves those brackish water puffers but Im not willing to keep a dirty looking tank. We headed back east to do that tour, SuperPet to see if Drew was there(he never is, I'd like to meet him) and saw some more cichlids. I like them alot and kinda wish now that I had made the 75g for these types instead. Last stop was Innes Big Al's and more cichlids. If you or anyone else thinks that my setup can handle 6 - 8 fish I think I am going to do it in the near future. Sorry for the long winded post and thank you for the suggestions as they were exactly what I was looking for.

James

[dpatte]

A friend of mine (who goes by the name of Theresa, or 'Miss Iowa' [inside joke] ) liked puffers with their cute yoda-looking whimsical faces until she saw them being fed.  :twisted: The puffers ripped their live food apart so viciously she was almost overcome right there in Big Al's.

She has since decided their are some of the meanest things on earth.

[ambushman2j]

clearly she has not run into red snakeheads heh, I dropped a kids jaw feeding them a rosey red today lol

I work alot of day shifts mon, thurs and fry are 9-5:30 and tuesday is my night shift 12:30-9 and then I work on sundays so if you would like to see me those are the times to go, later in the month I will be working nights on fridays tho mid month I beleive after the 19th

and I beleive you could easily house that many fish, johanni wouldn't be a good choice tho as they get 7" long yellow labs might be alright they only get 5" and aren't too aggressive..

best thing to do if you want puffer fish to make her happy is pick up a 10 gallon tank very inexpensive setup

[Eirikre]

Are there Puffers which can be comfortably kept in a 10g?  Is it difficult/expensive to keep a small bachish tank?  Just curious.

Eric

[Eirikre]

Ok you answered my question while I was writing it :lol:

Thanks

Eric

[ambushman2j]

from the puffers we have gotten at our store they don't seem to have a problem being in a smaller tank, especially if your only going to get 1.. brackish water tanks are simple to setup, tho, what should the salinity be of a brackish water tank?.. I know for marine it's suggested 1.21

[Eirikre]

I guess it's time to do some research.  I've got a cycled 10g that's ready to be planted and I'm trying to decide what to get.  It looks like maybe a puffer!  Time to do some research.

Eric

[Pisidan]

From what I have read for brackish tanks you can keep about 2 puffers in a 10 gallon and for salinity it depends on the puffer because diffrent types of puffers have diffrent types of salinity and come from diffrent eco systems some from swamps some from rivers ect you would have o find out what kind of puffer you want it is very interesting!...I was thinking of starting a small brackish tank still may puffers are cool. From what I read to you can slowly over time reducing salt make it fresh water as well! But im no expert lol!! Let me know how it goes I would like to see some pics of a brackish tank...I think the dark kinda water looks neat reminds me of when you go to one of those Big aquariums and they have fish from South America with light brownish water!! Here is some info on keeping puffers I found seems helpful!!

http://fish.orbust.net/forums/index.php?s=1ae3447154560d47880d289ed14ceb3a&showtopic=6919&st=0&#entry66518