Cant Decide Between Amazon Themed Tank And An African Malawi Theme :(

[o0Faraz0o]

alright guys my parents purchased me a 300 liter tank which is like 80 gallons on the calculator thingy lol. its 3 foot but tall that is why it can hold soo much water.

I originally was going with a African malawi cichlid tank and told the guy that i wanted light gravel and white rocks and blah blah. But know im kinda having second thoughts and im picking it up early Jan so I got few days to make some changes to my orders. Sooo can someone like help me kinda decide. From what I know african malawi cichlids are low maintenance? and thats what I was going for from the beginning. But I think the cichlids are equally great, is a amazon themed tank lightly planted harder to take care of than a african one like I would have java ferns and stuff plants that dont need much care and all that jazz.

pros and cons would really help..


oh and is it possible to have an amazonian themed tank without the CO2 thingy and the fertilizers?

 

[shroob]

Certainly is possible to have an amazon theme'd tank without CO2 or ferts.

First thing I would do is find out your local water stats (if you don't know already), as this might be important in choosing stock.

Whats the dimensions of the tank, I ask because width is imporant and would be interesting to know the height. Though as it's tall I can pretty much say angels would feature in the tank. I'm going to say what I pretty much say about a SA theme'd tank 95% of the time (a centrepiece pair/type, group of tetra and group of cory) so in this case I would suggest: A pair/group of angels, one shoal of a single type of tetra eg. cardinal or rummynose, one shoal of a single group of cory's. I would also consider adding a pair of dwarf cichlids in there either rams or apistos as I think you tank has room. You could say have a shoal of say 15 or so tetra and 12 or so cory's depending on the actual dimensions of the tank.

I also think amazon tanks look alot better than rocky malawi ones, but thats personal choice. Some pieces of bogwood, some roots, sandy substrate and green plants looks great in an aquarium. Plants arn't that hard to take care of (here for very easy or here for easy) should be ok.

About the maintinance, I would have thought they were just the same, possibly easier than malawi as they tend to be "overstocked" to keep aggression down, so they would require more water changes due to the large amount of fish in the tank.

 

[dirtydogg]

I've never had a Malawi tank, but they are beautiful when done right. But with an 80 Gallon tank you've got so many choices for NW Cichs, I'd have to go NW with some large personable fish!

As for plants, it really depends on the type of fish, as well as the fish itself. I've had success with Amazon Sword and Java Fern in with some large Cichlids, but some fish just will not tolerate it if they don't like it.

 

[o0Faraz0o]

yeah I think my minds on NW. for plants im going for the java ferns and moss only because i dont want to plant any of the plants into the gravel to much hassle from experience.

can someone recommend me some fish for my 80 gallon I dont want cory cats for now and only like 6 rummy nose tetras give me some cichlid combo choices please.

 

[shroob]

Do you want one larger cichlid, a few medium or dwarf cichlids (I would only advise the rummy nose tetra with dwarf cichlids and possibly some medium ones).

The tank only being 3ft long limits you to what larger/medium cichlids you can have, whats the dimensions of the tank length x width x height? The width is more important than height, as height doesn't really affect stocking possibilities as much as width (unless its tall fish like angels of discus, then a high tank is a must).

 

[joshjames]

malawi tanks are great and the fish are less aggressive iv just set up my 300 litre tank and would have gone for a malawi set up but decided i wanted a mixture of loaches and tetras instead