I'll try to get a pic or two....later today, dang, didn't realize it was that late here.
The tank is barebottom for cleanliness reasons. Only decor really consists of a large cichlid stone, a giant cichlid stone, a tiny piece of driftwood, and two 3 foot plastic bamboo plants that I use for floating cover. I should probably weight them down with something.
filtration is an Aquaclear 75 and a large azoo sponge filter rated for 55 gallons. Water quality is currently great.
I feed a varied diet. Omega one cichlid flakes form the base supplemented with omega one sinking pellets. Freeze dried bloodworms are also mixed in. Occasionally, like once every other week, she gets frozen bloodworms or spirulina brineshrimp.
She's become a bit of a recluse after the deaths of the gouramis and rehoming of the danios and african knives. I'm oping slight competition from another cichlid or cichlids will give her a bit of a push. I actually caught a tiny yellow bullhead today. It's about an inch and a half total. She didn't bother it, investigated it, but then left it alone. I'm going to move it out into my goldfish pond to grow out once it gets a little bit bigger.
I'm going fish shopping on this coming up Thursday. I've narrowed my choices down to another BP and some dithers, a JD, a female convict, or a severum. The thing is, as you'll see in the picture tomorrow, her mouth is fully functional. It's a bit misshaped, but it works well enough for her to crush the occasional baby crawfish treat and swallow live earthworms. Hasn't ever harassed another fish before.
That brings up another concern, what if I get a JD or convict and it beats the snot out of her? I wouldn't want that. Bichirs have been mentioned and are cool, but I'd have to be careful that they don't escape. I'm tempted to do a smaller bichir species and maybe a female JD or convict with maybe three or four rainbow fish and call it done, but I am worried about stocking.
I've been keeping fish for nearly 9 years now. Nine years this December. I've only ever lost one tank totally and that was due to a heater malfunction. But a few weeks ago, I lost all of my scaleless fish in another tank because of some sort of bacterial infection. I've had to take down most of my tanks as I got father and farther into college. Now it's just the pond, the 55, and a 10. I'm kind of nervous because the infection incident shook my confidence in my fishkeeping skills. I just want to try my best to keep my animals happy and avoid total disaster.