1st in your tank

[JC_P]

Hi, I am just starting this topic to help better inform people who are new to African Rift setups, like myself in regards to which species make good starters and which are to be avoided. Starters as in which to add first, not as in good for beginners. I'll start with a common example.

Based on info from my LFS, N. Brichardi aren't good fish to start a cichlid community with because they breed early on in their life and it is appearently not uncommon for a breeding group of brichardi to take over an aquarium, so to speak.

The clerk said it might be better to lean more toward starting my aquarium with something I plan to keep solitary, in my case I started my tank with a single Tanganicodus Irsacae, Jeweled Goby Cichlid. Seeing as this is a bottom dwelling species that stays quite small there should be little to no conflict with other cichlid species added later, I personally think it was a good choice seeing as the majority of their aggression is usually towards conspecifics & to fish similar to it's own appearance, not so common among cichlids.

Anyway this is less about my goby cichlid and more about your experiences with starting your first african tank. Feel free to share, I'm sure I'm not the only one concerned regarding this topic.

 

[JC_P]

Here's a quick pic I took when I was adding it to the aquarium

 

[angelojg22]

my first fish were starters then a silver arow
prob had nothing to do with the stuff you wrote but the it says 1st fish in tank and wanted to post something

 

[angelojg22]

and nice fish

 

[JC_P]

my first fish were starters then a silver arow
prob had nothing to do with the stuff you wrote but the it says 1st fish in tank and wanted to post something

No, not really but, it's cool

 

[JC_P]

and nice fish what species is it?

Thanks! Tanganicodus irsacae, Jeweled Goby Cichlid

 

[bbboys]

I have a group of gobies in my tropheus tank and i love them. I believe that one of them is already holding, if i were you i would get some more. I do not totaly agree with what you are saying but i am sure it would work. I never like to have just one of any species in a tank.

 

[JC_P]

I have a group of gobies in my tropheus tank and i love them. I believe that one of them is already holding, if i were you i would get some more. I do not totaly agree with what you are saying but i am sure it would work. I never like to have just one of any species in a tank.

It's not entirely correct. It may be ok in a larger aquarium, but 29g is nowhere near large. That's cool how you got them breeding and what not, but I'm afraid in this small of an aquarium it's a spectacle that I won't get to witness..

& Tropheus?!?! Really, that's the one species in particular she said would be a bad choice to mix them with! You either have tremendous luck or like I assumed, a very large aquarium.

 

[bbboys]

They are in a 225g tank, which is huge, yes, but when i was asking around on different sites and such gobies were suggested with tropheus. No big deal, just conflicting opinions. Best of luck with yours. And even with only one, they are really cool fish.

 

[Perentie]

My first fish was Pseudotropheus pulican aka kingsizei and would not reccomend them due to them being a hypo agressive species.