24 Foot Long Tank Recommendations

[mike dunagan]

seeing that the OP asked for African suggestions lets keep it to helpful post that he can use.

 

[Casper2000]

I'm not gonna read thru all the pages but incase it hasn't been mentioned yet, you should really get a giraffe cat or two or three for bottom feeders. Those just look awesome. These cats are from africa correct?

 

[Egon]

I get the natural concept but the tank is for an office....it needs to be colorful and the fish need to work......I want fry to survive and when it gets over crowded we will remove some less desirable occupants.

I think it will be impossible to remove specific fish. Kinda like a little kid picking out a goldfish in a feeder tank!

 

[noctame]

Tang Shell Dwellers would thrive as well as kribs in a setup like that. Imagine the action and territorial displays. And you could have HUNDREDS.

 

[noctame]

here's my two cents. you could do an incredible tanganyika ecosystem with that set up you have there... if i was you here's my plan:

- on either end of the 'tank' you could have two big rock piles. from there you could set up a plethora of different communities. you could have a big colony of some kind of tropheus; doesn't have to be the rare stuff. if you want some instant color and bang, i would get tropheus ikola kaiser (yellow bands). get a school of 20 small ones to start with and probably in a year's time that would double or triple easily.
http://www.cichlids.net/images/fish/trikola.jpg

the rocky ecosystem would also support fish like calvus, compressiceps, julidiochromis etc.

- towards the rocky edge and going for around 2-3 feet towards the middle, you could plant a bunch of giant vallisneria. i think it would be cool to have huge shoals of cyprichromis (40 or something) darting through that and at the surface.
http://win.afrofish.it/public/album/Lago Tanganyika/Cyprichromis.jpg

- at the edge of the plant and going towards the middle of the tank you can have huge huge colonies of shell dwellers (lamprologus sp.). imagine seeing 3-4 feet of tank space just littered with shells and having dozens and dozens of micro colonies of these guys flitting around
http://www.aqua-fish.net/imgs/articles/lamprologus_multifasciatus.jpeg

- and in the middle you could have a huge area for sand sifting cichlids like xenotilapias, enantiopus, cyathopharynx furcifer etc. etc. that are in shoals of 5-6 males and 20 females
http://www.tomstanganyikans.com/images/Cyathopharynx Furcifer Ruziba.jpg
http://virtualwords.newtime.hu/images/words/enantiopus.jpg
http://www.reservestockcichlids.com/images/P/X bathyblue.jpg

i think instead of stuffing that tank to the brim with a bunch of mbunas or some pbass, go create that living ecosystem that resembles nature and bring a piece of it back home.


good luck.

Ewok's got a beautiful idea of what I'm talking about

 

[Tyranno]

lots of rocks and mbunas together with a bunch of large predators.
you will have great fun watching the predators hunt and feed of the mbunas

 

[Zoazoona]

beautiful tank

 

[fishman256]

Wow!!!! That is going to be one sick tank.

 

[Orthopod]

Reiterating a vote for tanganika. SUPER TROPH tank with multiple represnetatives moori moliro, ikola. Cherry spot. The tank is large enoung interbreeding with appropriate colony size will be a minor problem. Zaire fronts like MOBAs. Compressiceps. Some julidochromis for a kick. This is the tank of truth.

I'm jealous. Just show us some pictures when its up.
Good luck.

 

[jlewis70]

yes i would love to see some pictures.