My 1St Ever Fish Tank

[Sawdoc]

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My 1st ever fish tank and was hoping for comments and helpful hints , been running my tank for 2 months and everything seem fine but been looking around and things can go wrong so any tips would be great and maybe the names of some of the fish would be great.

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[Ragtagcurtis]

Hello, nice to see you have love for Cichlids as well. However what size is your tank? it looks a little small in the pictures?

 

[Sawdoc]

,

 Fluval Venezia 190 Aquarium Corner Unit.


guy I brought of and lots of reading all suggested that I must keep them heavily populated and many rocks and hiding spaces , please given me honest advice if it's over the top or running into trouble.
Not lost any fish from the start and although they do chase each other no serious fighting or damage to any fish.

 

[markandhisfish]

your ultimate enemy is going to be your tank size . whilst its true africans are stocked more heavilly than normal , you still need a decent sized tank to do this in . id say that tbh you could do with an upgrade

whats the stocking?

 

[elisew]

your ultimate enemy is going to be your tank size . whilst its true africans are stocked more heavilly than normal , you still need a decent sized tank to do this in . id say that tbh you could do with an upgrade

whats the stocking?

Completely agree with Mark

Looks like a nice mix of colour but your tank looks way too small for Malawi`s imo

 

[kiriyama]

Hi first of all, welcome to the forum
Secondly congratulations for choosing African cichlids
Thirdly , I don't know anything about the ones you have but I would take the advice given above
I like the corner tank you have and I like the idea of all the decor making caves and hiding place for your fish, some cool colours in there
Was wondering if the tank would be big enough for yellow labs and something else ?
Really nice tank you have there, has the makings of a nice Tanganyikan tank, but then I'm being biassed, again
Cheers, Sean

 

[Sawdoc]

Thanks all for advise will have to stick with what I got at the moment as have no other choice but will look into it.

 

[Sawdoc]

Hi first of all, welcome to the forum Secondly congratulations for choosing African cichlids Thirdly , I don't know anything about the ones you have but I would take the advice given above I like the corner tank you have and I like the idea of all the decor making caves and hiding place for your fish, some cool colours in there Was wondering if the tank would be big enough for yellow labs and something else ?Really nice tank you have there, has the makings of a nice Tanganyikan tank, but then I'm being biassed, again Cheers, Sean

I do have 3 yellow tabs in there mate

 

[rifty]

hi welcome to malawi keeping
I think your tank looks great but see issues down the line as you have small fish at the moment with regard to needs and size:

your rule about a heavy stocked tank normally only applies to a big tank your tank wont support some of the fish you have when fully grown and the urban legend that fish grow to the tank size is a lie so be warned!

Also bare in mind your 2 livinstonii (the giraffe pattern ones) will grow to 10 inches and if you have a male and female will take the whole tank as breeding space the frontosa (black and blue stripe)will be big too and is from lake tangynika so has differnt needs you also look to have either a moori blue dolphin (the planblue fish) another 10 inch fish

the rest of your fish are a mixture of mbuna haps aulonocara and a could of lake victorian too and all look nice and healthy so hope it works out for you but would suggest more reading and refining some stock

 

[Sawdoc]

hi welcome to malawi keepingI think your tank looks great but see issues down the line as you have small fish at the moment with regard to needs and size:your rule about a heavy stocked tank normally only applies to a big tank your tank wont support some of the fish you have when fully grown and the urban legend that fish grow to the tank size is a lie so be warned! Also bare in mind your 2 livinstonii (the giraffe pattern ones) will grow to 10 inches and if you have a male and female will take the whole tank as breeding space the frontosa (black and blue stripe)will be big too and is from lake tangynika so has differnt needs you also look to have either a moori blue dolphin (the planblue fish) another 10 inch fishthe rest of your fish are a mixture of mbuna haps aulonocara and a could of lake victorian too and all look nice and healthy so hope it works out for you but would suggest more reading and refining some stock

How long in time would you think they would take to get that big ?

 

[rifty]

lots of factors
how big are they now?
what is your waterchange % and how often
what food do you use?

it will probably be a couple of years but the fish become sexually active much sooner that will be the fish issue i see due to territories being established

 

[Sawdoc]

lots of factors how big are they now?what is your waterchange % and how oftenwhat food do you use?it will probably be a couple of years but the fish become sexually active much sooner that will be the fish issue i see due to territories being established

About 11/2" to 2" I do have a couple 3" plus
I change about 30% every 2 weeks
Feed 6 days then skip 7th and use tetra pro colour and tetra pro vegetable.

 

[rifty]

30% is way too low! 50% every week is the best for a malawi tank standard!
at the start of your post you say you have been doing lots of reading i would worry what you have been reading i think if you improve you water reigeme your fish will benifit!

 

[Sawdoc]

30% is way too low! 50% every week is the best for a malawi tank standard!
at the start of your post you say you have been doing lots of reading i would worry what you have been reading i think if you improve you water reigeme your fish will benifit!

http/www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/water_changes.php

Above is where I found some info but if ur saying more than that's no problem at all , seems everwhere you read there's always some differences to what other people do.

My water is always crystal clear and yes read this doesn't mean everything but also never lost any fish and also read rightly or wrongly the better the colours in the fish the better health there in and there certainly very bright colours.

Will start to do more % next weekend m8. And again for thank you for the advice and tips.

 

[elisew]

30% is way too low! 50% every week is the best for a malawi tank standard!
at the start of your post you say you have been doing lots of reading i would worry what you have been reading i think if you improve you water reigeme your fish will benifit!

I completely agree with rifty, 30% is wayyyyy too little an amount to be changing for a setup such as the malawi/mbuna. A minimum of 50% a week is regarded as 'normal and necessary' and extremely beneficial for these types of fish, over filtration is always good too.
Although I applaud you for doing homework and reading about the setup and maintenance, you`ll find that other peoples personal experiences will be much better for you to take notice of

I have a 380L setup that has a sump system running underneath it, I think the amount of filtration that the tank gets is approx 4 times of what I would get from a Fluval FX5 AND I do 50% water change once a week, sometimes I`ll do 2 changes a week.

Your fish would thrive, their colours would improve even further and they are more likely to breed if the water is kept in tip top condition and that can only be good for your fish and the display you get from them