Funny how things happen in this hobby. I had no intention of keeping africans, but my family and i have decided to try our hand at breeding loricariids, L46 in particular. Seeing as these fish only reach about 4", a big tank was the plan, but after careful consideration, we realized several smaller 4' tanks would be much more manageable. But that left a giant hole in our office, where I stole a tank from and my family missed having a tank in there. So, i decided to give in to them and my ph, which sits close to 8. Everytime we go in a fish store, I have to explain to them why we can't keep all the pretty africans with our CE/SA fish, so I decided that they would pick the fish for the tank. The only stipulation was that if they picked the fish, I would choose the righty size tank accordingly.
So, my daughter decided on the first fish after looking at about 400 different species lol. She chose Demasoni. Now, keep in mind, i have no experience at all with africans so i immediately went into research mode. i found that they can be a bit of a challenge despite their small adult size. They would need to be in a slightly larger group in as long a tank as we could find. Several 5 footers were available on craigslist, but there was always compromise on the filtration setup, so we decided to start with a 6 foot 135.
A sump was in the design plans originally, but that was going to leave me with 3 xp3's with no homes since the L46 setup would be wet/dry and sump. i went back and forth for about a week, but i realized i can do canister maintenance on the xp's in my sleep and they had been running for about 5 years, so cycling would not be a factor. Takes about 10 minutes a filter so basically a grand total of 30 minutes every month or so. And the plumbing wasn't much of a factor since most of it would stay hidden behind all the rock that would be included. So I had a plan.
Went to the local rock yard and bought about 300 lbs of florida fieldstone to go along with the 50 or so pounds of lace rock i had. Lots of holes and it would help buffer the tank. 60 pounds of ecco-complete mixed with about 50-60 lbs of pfs. Now time to pick the rest of the stock.
My wife threw me a bit of a curveball by picking Pseudotropheus acei. Pretty fish, but particularly mellow compared to the Demasoni, but they like to stay at the top of the water column and like a bit of wood in their tank to pick algae off. Yellow labs seemed to compliment the colors scheme and temperament, since they are generally mellow as well. Final choice was iodotropheus sprengerae. So I had to stock one aggressive species along side 3 more mellow ones.
I used reverse stocking as usual introducing the most mellow species first, working backwards towards the Demasoni.......10 labidochromis caeruleus went in first
So, my daughter decided on the first fish after looking at about 400 different species lol. She chose Demasoni. Now, keep in mind, i have no experience at all with africans so i immediately went into research mode. i found that they can be a bit of a challenge despite their small adult size. They would need to be in a slightly larger group in as long a tank as we could find. Several 5 footers were available on craigslist, but there was always compromise on the filtration setup, so we decided to start with a 6 foot 135.
A sump was in the design plans originally, but that was going to leave me with 3 xp3's with no homes since the L46 setup would be wet/dry and sump. i went back and forth for about a week, but i realized i can do canister maintenance on the xp's in my sleep and they had been running for about 5 years, so cycling would not be a factor. Takes about 10 minutes a filter so basically a grand total of 30 minutes every month or so. And the plumbing wasn't much of a factor since most of it would stay hidden behind all the rock that would be included. So I had a plan.
Went to the local rock yard and bought about 300 lbs of florida fieldstone to go along with the 50 or so pounds of lace rock i had. Lots of holes and it would help buffer the tank. 60 pounds of ecco-complete mixed with about 50-60 lbs of pfs. Now time to pick the rest of the stock.
My wife threw me a bit of a curveball by picking Pseudotropheus acei. Pretty fish, but particularly mellow compared to the Demasoni, but they like to stay at the top of the water column and like a bit of wood in their tank to pick algae off. Yellow labs seemed to compliment the colors scheme and temperament, since they are generally mellow as well. Final choice was iodotropheus sprengerae. So I had to stock one aggressive species along side 3 more mellow ones.
I used reverse stocking as usual introducing the most mellow species first, working backwards towards the Demasoni.......10 labidochromis caeruleus went in first
