I purchased a rather small 28 gallon bow front fish tank. I am sold on african cichlids but I've yet to add ANYTHING to the tank. What type of rocks, plants, cichlids should I look into? What can I expect and are their any general problems with this type of fish?
Answers:
with a 28 i'd go with dwarf mbuna or go with lake tanganyikans.
Say if you want more fish, i'd find a pair of neolamprologus brichardi and let them start a colony (juveniles will take care of their younger siblings). Or you could always go with shell dwellers from Lake Tanganyika. n. ocellatus, brevi, multifasciatus are all fine.
With dwarf mbuna, you can go with demasoni, although i have to warn you that they are a bit on the aggressive side and i wouldn't recommend housing them with other peaceful mbuna. You could also do kenyi/lombardoi, saulosi. You might get away with rusty cichlids and yellow labs since they are peaceful.
Whatever you get, make sure you have a good ratio of male to females. 1 male to 3 or 4 females
Avoid: Chipoke, Auratus and Johannii. They are just too aggressive and will either terrorize your other fish or kill them.
Before adding any fish, make sure to cycle your tank. Fill it with water and let it run for a few days so that the nitrates/nitrites/ammonia levels all go down. While you're doing that, do your research and visit some fish stores look at the fish and just come back and google them all.
No plants, they will be eaten by the fish especially mbuna. (unless of course you use synthetic then that's up to you how to decorate your tank.) Go with finer substrate like sand or crushed coral. Mbuna do like to sift through them and It helps bring the pH up needed for the rift lake cichlids. Rocks it's up to you what to decorate it with. You can make it look as natural as their environment and cover the whole back with layered rocks/stones.
Good Luck!
PS. 1 inch of fish per 1 gallon can NOT be applied to cichlids. Everything will go wrong. With cichlids, you have to base the amount of fish you can put there by temperment, size of territory they like to occupy, whether they are open water swimmers or if they like to stick by the rocks.
I had these fish a few years ago, they are fascinating fish to watch and mine use to dig tunnels in the gravel , throw rocks at the glass and were very entertaining. Just be careful as they can be agressive and not everyones cup of tea. I found my females would get really stressed and spend their time hiding from the males so make sure you have lots of hideholes and rocks , purchased from the aquarium shop as you cant just put any old type in. I just went to the acquarium shop and took their advice i cant remember what types they were but the best one was a little orange guy i also started with a small tank but then transferred them to a 3ft tank which he loved and he grew to a beautiful fish Enjoy!
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