kieley

just got my 70 gallon cycled.. just wondering if anyone has any ideas on what i should put in it?
im thinking a couple yellow labs, some saulosi and a bristlnose pleco or 2. i also have a red tailed shark that is like 2 inches long that seems to not get along in my other tank.. would he get along in there? also, what kind of plants would work? any help/thoughts would be great!

clinton1621

Hmm... live plants probably wouldnt work with cichlids and plecos, the cichlids would destroy them and the plecos like to uproot them. I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure the shark wouldnt get along with the cichlids either, seeing as how they are both semi agressive

kieley

well that sucks.. im at a loss of what to do with the shark.. and i was hoping there would be some kind of plants out there to give my tank some color! is there any kind of invertabrates that could coexist?

clinton1621

Probably not with cichlids... they would eat shrimps in a heartbeat

I think there are a couple kinds of plants that cichlids dont mess with too much, but I'm not sure what type... I've always avoided using them when I had African Cichlids because they love to destroy and eat 90% of plants so I never checked on a specific compatible plant... I always just used silk plants and they even terrorized those

kieley

alright thanks clinton! i guess no one else liked my question :P.. i may try and use some java fern / moss and if it dosent work then they can live with just rocks and wood.. im also goin to put the red tail shark in with them and see how he gets along.. if theres any problems ill just take him out! thanks again

Allie

Malawi cichlids should be in species only tank with only rocks. You can have the BN pleco in there with them as long as you have lots of drift wood for them to eat.
I had a rt shark harass my cichlids in my old 80g to the point I had to sell him.
Here's a post I made that could hep you out:
For cichlid newbies:How to set up cichlid tanks

kieley

those sites are a great help allie! thanks!
nice to see someonme from the east coast too!

Allie

No problem. I think there is 3 or 4 of us from the east coast of Canada.
Welcome to the friendly fish site in the world.

Red1313

I've read on a few sites that depending on cichilid that you have Red's can be good tank mates. Red's tend to be territorial and agressive so the best tank-mates either need to be too big to bully or able to stand their ground. In a 70 gal tank your shark would probably have more then enough room for his territory and any other fish you put in there.

However I might be off on that info to.
Good luck!

Note: Red tails are self intolerant so they'll be far more agressive with speicies that resemble themselves then with other fish.

kieley

the shark i have is actually a rainbow shark too if that makes any difference.. does anyone have any stocking tips for cichlids that might work with him?

kieley

ok so i went to petsunlimited today and asked them what they thought of my rainbow shark with the cichlid idea and the guy had no idea so he took a 5 inch rainbow and threw it into an "assorted african cichlid" tank.. anyways they seemed to be ok after watching them for a few mins so we moved on... a couple mins later we looked back and the school of random fishes (max length - 1 inch) had torn him apart! so i guess im goin to throw that plan out the window? im assuming there were some very violent fish in there but still...