bigreddog

Thinking about putting Cichlids in my new 55 Gallon and just trying to figure them out before I go ahead with it.Any other tips or comments would be great.

Blub

To answer the Q in the title: no, Africans are FW fish and don't need salt. That's about all I know about them - I have regrettably never had chance to get some!

sirdarksol

African Cichlids need hard water, not brackish water. Many people use a crushed shell substrate to add calcium.
Only keep cichlids from one African lake (don't mix lakes, basically).
They don't do well with non-cichlids, either (and other fish don't do well in the really hard water.)

Good luck. There are a number of others here who have kept cichlids and will be able to give you more specific info.

alicem

I agree about not mixing lakes. Generally the fish have different food requirements, water ranges and tank decor needs.
There are 3 large lakes in east Africa:
Lake Malawi
Lake Tanganyika
Lake Victoria

Most of the "mixed African cichlids" you'll find in the LFS are from Lake Malawi and many of them do not play well together.
You may want to see what is available to you, getting the Latin names if at all possible, and then do a ton of research.

Most folks want to go with African cichlids because of the bright colors.
They are very agressive and you need to know which ones work together and what you are getting into.

In your 55G here are some common suggestions of mbuna (Lake Malawi):

yellow and "rust" colored fish:
5 or 6 Labidochromis Caeruleus (Yellow Labs or Electric Yellows)
and
5 or 6 Iodotropheus sprengerae (Rusty cichlid)

or a mix of yellow and blue:
5 or 6 Labidochromis caeruleus
and
6 Pseudotropheus demansoni

or a species only tank of:
12 Pseudotropheus saulosi
This would be nice because the male is blue with dark stripes and the female is yellow.

Generally African cichlids from Lake Tang. do well in water that is pH 8, KH 8 +, GH 8 +, 78 + degrees.
The cichlids from Lake Malawi do well in similar conditions but can live in softer water.
Lake Victoria cichlids can be housed in a lower pH than those above.

Some African cichlids are herbivores, some are omnivores and some are carnivores.
You'll want to keep similar food requirements in mind when stocking your tank.

Tank raised African cichlids will adapt to general water parameters, where as wild caught should be raised in more specific ranges.

Do your homework to know what you are getting into so you'll have a sucessful tank.

hth,
alicem

cichlidsmad

o man im to late but great advice from everyone isnt tangs ph 9.0 area? thats what ive found in alot of sites and books

Butterfly

Approx 8.6 - 9.4
Tank bred will usually acclimate to lower pH.
Carol

Angela_96

No african cichlids do not require salt. They need crushed coral/limestone in their tanks though to help with minerals. Keep a ph from 7.8-8.2 for malawis. If you stock mbuna keep with mbuna only, peacocks only, or haps only. The mbuna are your plant/veggie eaters, your peacocks and haps like meaty foods. Also keeping with a ratio of 1 male to 2+females of each species will lower aggression, don't mix 2 of the same group (2 species of labs, 2 psuedo, 2 met, 2 mel, etc) They can interbreed. Also watch the aggression levels, you don't want to put a mildly aggressive lab in with kenyi, polits, demonsoni, etc. However you can stock it with acei, afras.
Here is a stocking chart to help:
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/article...cutter_55g.php

harpua2002

A lot of people use crushed coral as substrate, this is true. Another good option is aragonite sand, and I once used Caribsea's African cichlid sand in a Tanganyikan shell dweller tank and I really liked it. It's a cool mix of white and black. You can also use limestone rocks as decor to help buffer the water. A lot of people use Texas holey rock, but it can get pretty expensive.

f1ea

Yes, you can use 'salt'. Look here:
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/buffer_recipe.php

Angela_96

From experience though using salt is not natural. The best thing to do with fish is create a "natural" enviroment the best we can.
Using the crushed coral/sand substrate puts enough minerals/buffers in the water with out altering what ur water has in it.

The saltwater is the same, its so hard to get "natural seawater" but if you muck with the chemicals dosing you can really mess up their natural enviroment, causing sickness, death, etc.

f1ea

I personally go with the substrates also; but then you have to be carfeul with your WC % and regularity if your water source is not hard/alkaline enough.

I have never really considered sea water... although I live really close to the beach. I think i find safer and more 'constant' to use the substrates. So far, no problem (except the deposit on the aq. glass!) Also, the calcareus substrates i use encourage algae growth on them that the Mbunas will enjoy playing with and wil end up looking more natural and darken them a bit.

Angela_96

Yea, I am trying to get my magnesium and calcium to even out in my SW tank, and I have done a ton of reading. I found that there are a lot of salt mixes out there for reef aquariums that are way out of wack compared to natural sea water. Trying to find the best dosing/salt mix is hard to do!

Thats where I love my fw tanks, its so easy to get the minerals, etc right. Even the one tank where I need the 6.0 ph I am just using a bag of peat and its doing wonderful.

I haven't had an alage problem in my mbuna tanks. Of coarse I keep my nitrates down low, and scrape everything but the back glass wall.

Shawnie

using the method on the cichlid forum is great, for a fix...but its not as stable as the peat moss, crushed coral, ecco complete etc...its fast and drastic and has to be added often ...