Hello

[Zebbydog1]

Hi folks
I am a long term marine fish keeper and fancy a change.I have just pilled down my marine reef system and fancy a go at rifts.I have a 48"x15"x24" deep tank empty at the moment.I was thinking about putting in a under gravel filter with two 1000l per hour powerheads and a small internal filter.I have also 3x42" lighting tubes in,1 power glo,1 actinic and 1 white tube.Also I have approx 20kg of fine coral sand.Would this be suitable for rifts?.What kind of rock work would be suitable and how much of it?.Browsing the net two species particularly appeal to me.Aulonacara and frontosa.Any suggestions or comments would be most appreciated

 

[aberdeen aquarist]

firstly welcome to the forum.

the 2 familys of fish you have asked about are different, they both need space to swim so having a pile of rock at one end of the tank should suffice. aulonocara are very well known for interbreeding so its recommended that you have only one species per tank, the females are very plain and different species look very similar (if we can't tell them apart, what chance do the fish have!!) they are more peaceful than mbuna but don't develop colour until they are older/bigger, and even then only the dominant male is going to show full colour. that said when they are fully coloured up, they are stunning fish.
if you go for frontosa, then make sure you have enough hiding spaces for each fish, clay pipes work well as long as they are different diameters. they are piscivores by nature so not really suitable for smaller tankmates, they will eat pellet and even flake food though. they need harder more alkaline water than aulonocara as they are from lake tanganyika, not lake malawi.

i'd forget about the u/g filter if i were you if you decide to keep mbuna which need the big piles of rock.
a good way to start is to get some of the more peaceful mbuna, such as yellow labs (labidochromis caereleus), rusties (iodotropheus sperengae), yellow tail acei (pseudotropheus acei), or some pseudotropheus saulosi. start off with juveniles of about the same size, that way they will grow up together and will be less likely to start open warfare on their tankmates as they mature.

as for rocks, you have a fair choice, it depends on your tap water pH and hardness really, if it comes out at above pH7.5 you should be fine with only a couple of rocks to buffer the water, but if its soft and acidic, you will need more. tufa or ocean rock would be good, or you could put a couple of bits in an external filter and have whatever rock takes your fancy in the tank, i have lava rock in my display tank with dark sand and it shows off the colours of the fish really well.

with a tank your size i'd be inclined to go for mbuna, you can put more in the tank and they display colour from a very small size.

sorry for the length of this but hopefully it'll help. any more questions just ask, i'm sure one of us will be able to help.

 

[Zebbydog1]

Thanks for the reply.My tap water comes out about 7.8 ph,is this ok.I also have access to di water from work.There is a shop within 10 miles of where I livethat specialises in rift and catfish.Maybe I will go and have a look at what is available before I make a decision on what to keep.How many fish would I be able to keep in a tank this size? also can you recomend any good books ont he subject
Cheers Graham

 

[aberdeen aquarist]

7.8 is fine, the fish will be quite happy in that.
going to the shop is a good idea, theres no point having a list of fish you can't get!!
numbers i'm not sure about, but at least 20 mbuna if thats what you decide on.
as for books, anything by ad konigs is great, but forums like this one give good advice too.

 

[mark7616]

i was reading a malawi book the other day and read a comment that said as most mbuna are tank bread now a days that they can thrive in a ph of anything above 7.0 unless you have wild mbuna then these would need ph around 8.0

 

[mamafish68]

Boy, Mbuna sure seem the norm over there.

You have plenty of experience in salt so you know your parameters and how crucial they are to keeping fish, salt also takes dedication to maintenance so theres no issue there either.

I say keep with the Tanganyika theme, the Frontosa is a problem considering size but there are tons of other Tangs that are suitable, dont limit your options, keep an open mind

 

[Zebbydog1]

Thanks folks I will visit the shop and see what is available or what takes my fancy.Am i correct in thinkinking that Tanganykans are bit less aggressive than Malawi cichlids

 

[aberdeen aquarist]

it all depends on the species of fish you have in mind, the mbuna i recommended earlier are among the most peaceful mbuna, but you get a lot more aggressive ones too (think fishy version of mike tyson!!), but the same goes for tanganyikans.

 

[mamafish68]

Tangs on the average are less aggressive, instead of all out bullying like mbuna, Tangs are more stealth in their hunting technics

 

[Kevdogg852000]

I think Tangs are much more varied in body structure. Mbunas all look the same to me after a while. That's why I like Tangs so much, because most of them look absolutely nothing alike.

 

[marilu]

some real cook rocks are on aquabid for Rift tanks right now

 

[Zebbydog1]

Ok had a trip to the fishy shop today,and of the list that Aberdeen posted.They had aceii and rusty's the other fish that caught my eye was Melanochromis johannii at about 1.5" long any comments on the last named fish? seeing that I like all those suggested by Aberdeen

 

[aberdeen aquarist]

the johanni should be OK, but add them last, they are the most aggressive of the ones you like.
so what sort of numbers are you adding then?

 

[Zebbydog1]

the johanni should be OK, but add them last, they are the most aggressive of the ones you like.
so what sort of numbers are you adding then?

I was thinking of about 20 fish in total.I have started getting some rock,got some limestone and a big piece of ocean rock and just going to look at some lava rock.Hoping to be up and running next week or the week after.Am I correct in thinking that the female johanni should be yellow in colour? as all the ones in the shop were blue some showing egg spots and some not