Thorichthys Meeki, Thorichthys Maculipinnis & Hypsophrys Nicaraguensis progression thread

[MarvGT]

Hi, I have recently purchased 6 x Thorichthys Maculipinnis (Ellioti), 5 x Thorichthys Meeki (Firemouth) and 5 x Hypsophrys Nicaraguensis (Nicaraguan Cichlid) and thought I would share there progress as they grow.

They are homed in a 180 gallon dimensions 6’ x 2’ x 2’ which I hope will be adequate for life and they have been in there for just over 1 week. i am running 2 x FX6 on this tank and plan to carry out 30-40% water changes every week. The aquarium and filters have been established for the last 5 years so the set-up is biologically mature.

I have a Temp Controller which does a good job of keeping the temperatures between 25.7 and 26.0 degrees Celsius. These are my other parameters.

Nítrate- between 20-40ppm (seems a bit high]

Nitrite - 0ppm

Ammonia - 0ppm

PH - 7.6

I do not plan on adding any more stock of either cichlids or dithers unless something goes wrong. They were smaller then I had originally anticipated with the Thorichthys are all approx 1 inch long with Firemouth’s being the deeper and larger overall. Nic’s are very small only 1/2 an inch.

I am feeding them a mix of flake food and crushed cichlid pellets and spirulina wafers whilst they are small. so far so good, they seem to have settled in well and are very active and come to the front of the tank begging for food. They are constantly picking for food in the sand substrate and have shown no signs of intra species aggression although there is a lots of posturing and the odd chasing going on amongst their own species.

I will post some photos and video of them the day after they were introduced and post some more as they grow. Would appreciate any feedback from people who have kept these species either together or in single groups.

Cheers

 

[MarvGT]

 

[Toiletcar]

Sounds like an awesome tank. Will be amazing when those fish grow. Should have near zero aggression w/ that stock long term. I keep 3 different thorichthys and 2 cribroheros species in a 150g. No issues other than breeding pairs.

 

[Tj203]

If your nitrates are that high now You might want to start thinking about other nutrient exports because as those guy grow You're either gonna have to do crazy water changes That I am not a fan of personally I rather enjoy my tank instead of maintaining it. Maybe a sulphur denitateor or a algae turf scrubber or a Continuous drip water change system. I use all 3 on my tank so all I do is clean the glass and change the Mechanical filtration in the sump. I also like to over stock because I like to watch all the movement, i watch my tank for hours when my wife is watching the tv my tank is in are living room. 20-40ppm seems a little high for what your bio load is IMO. Nice fish good luck I love the FX6 I have 3 of them but a sump is so much easier I don't do the The maintenance when I have a canister filter like I should because I am lazy lol and the just become nitrate factory for me.

 

[MarvGT]

Sounds like an awesome tank. Will be amazing when those fish grow. Should have near zero aggression w/ that stock long term. I keep 3 different thorichthys and 2 cribroheros species in a 150g. No issues other than breeding pairs.

Thank you. I wanted to go for a group which could grow to their full potential, hopefully I will get to see this In the 180.

I have read that female Ellioti have a black spot on their dorsal fin? Some of mine are showing that. Is that always true or are there some exceptions?

 

[MarvGT]

If your nitrates are that high now You might want to start thinking about other nutrient exports because as those guy grow You're either gonna have to do crazy water changes That I am not a fan of personally I rather enjoy my tank instead of maintaining it. Maybe a sulphur denitateor or a algae turf scrubber or a Continuous drip water change system. I use all 3 on my tank so all I do is clean the glass and change the Mechanical filtration in the sump. I also like to over stock because I like to watch all the movement, i watch my tank for hours when my wife is watching the tv my tank is in are living room. 20-40ppm seems a little high for what your bio load is IMO. Nice fish good luck I love the FX6 I have 3 of them but a sump is so much easier I don't do the The maintenance when I have a canister filter like I should because I am lazy lol and the just become nitrate factory for me.

thanks TJ. I tested the water on 6th and nitrates were 40ppm. This was 4 days after a water change of 30%. On the 7th I cleared some detritus from the bottom of the tank (still some left over from previous inhabitants and I think mainly small bits of wood coming from the boxwood in the tank). I tested the nitrate again the next day which was 40ppm. My theory is that by moving decor and sand around I have released more nitrate into the water which caused it to still read high. This morning I have completed a 50% water change and expected to see a big drop in nitrate but test still shows around 30-35 ppm.

In a couple of days I will remove some more decor, try and remove the remaining detritus which is collecting in the hard to reach areas of the tank and check one of the FX6’s sponges as I’m guessing that’s holding a lot of the nitrate.

I have always struggled to know how to keep the right balance between keeping nitrate down in a canister filter and destroying the biological bacteria. I generally just take the trays out a couple of times a year, clean the sponges with tank water and rinse through the biological media without moving it.

Is this enough? Anybody who uses canister filters and able to keep their nitrates down to acceptable levels consistently that could give me some advice?

Many Thanks

 

[Tj203]

thanks TJ. I tested the water on 6th and nitrates were 40ppm. This was 4 days after a water change of 30%. On the 7th I cleared some detritus from the bottom of the tank (still some left over from previous inhabitants and I think mainly small bits of wood coming from the boxwood in the tank). I tested the nitrate again the next day which was 40ppm. My theory is that by moving decor and sand around I have released more nitrate into the water which caused it to still read high. This morning I have completed a 50% water change and expected to see a big drop in nitrate but test still shows around 30-35 ppm.

In a couple of days I will remove some more decor, try and remove the remaining detritus which is collecting in the hard to reach areas of the tank and check one of the FX6’s sponges as I’m guessing that’s holding a lot of the nitrate.

I have always struggled to know how to keep the right balance between keeping nitrate down in a canister filter and destroying the biological bacteria. I generally just take the trays out a couple of times a year, clean the sponges with tank water and rinse through the biological media without moving it.

Is this enough? Anybody who uses canister filters and able to keep their nitrates down to acceptable levels consistently that could give me some advice?

Many Thanks

I dose not matter that you moved stuff around, if there is detritus or anything else in the tank it will decay and raise your levels weather you move it or not it is still in the water column.

 

[Toiletcar]

Thank you. I wanted to go for a group which could grow to their full potential, hopefully I will get to see this In the 180.

I have read that female Ellioti have a black spot on their dorsal fin? Some of mine are showing that. Is that always true or are there some exceptions?

No problem, most likely female. Some thorichthys species in the helleri group can be sexed that way. This mixteco blue (or whatever it’s classified as now) female is an example. You won’t see it in meeki or pasionis.
I agree about the nitrates. That stock shouldn’t produce a huge bio load at their size in that size tank. If I were you I’d get that down. The thorichthys won’t do well w/ nitrates that high. IMO meeki is the only thorichthys that can tolerate nitrates that high.

 

[C. Breeze]

Filters don’t “hold nitrate” they generate nitrate.
They can contain a ton of detritus and bio solids that keep being converted into nitrates as they are further broken down. But they cant retain nitrate and relEase it when disturbed, anymore than your other decor can.

5 year old tank that’s lightly populated should not have nitrate issues with regular water changes- so it does seem pretty clear that the fish aren’t the source of your issue at the moment. I’d Defintely be taking my filters down and maintaining them to insure they aren’t full of “precursors”

 

[C. Breeze]

I’d Defintely be taking my filters down and maintaining them to insure they aren’t full of “precursors” pull the whole rack of sponges and baskets from the bucket/can dump the bucket out and spray it out witha hose. It’s about a 5 gallon bucket but to get your sponges and bio media clean will call for more than 5 gallons of water. Fill the bucket / can with tank water rinse a a sponge out of a ton of stuff comes out- get new water if the water is only a little Cloudy rinse another sponge in it.


With 2 filters running you can stagger your maintenance routine and maintain your filters with a hose and tap water 1-2 times a year for your big cleanings and not bother with tank water etc. you’ll get a little 3-4 day hiccup when you do that but for now you can live with it because you want to eliminate all the “gunk” built up inside the can which is just food for the nitrogen cycle and will keep your nitrates up



You need to empty and spray out the can monthly and rinse the media in tank water monthly as a guideline- But you have to empty the can. And every 6 months you need to really break it down to get rid of gunk.