90 gallon African community

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J

Jc1119

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Dec 27, 2010
4,432
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Orlando fl
Hello! I've been keeping SA/CE cichlids for as long as I can remember, but I have never kept any species of African cichlid. I currently have a 90 gallon that has been running for about 5 years. This tank has housed almost every fish in my house at one point or another, either as a grow out or permanent home, but with the latest addition of my new 300 gallon, most of my cichlids have moved out of the 90 and the tank is looking for new residents. My family and I are thinking Africans might be the way to go.

Originally I had thought about stocking a small group of discus in this tank, but seeing as I live in Florida, I have pretty hard water with a higher ph than they would thrive in(7.8-8.0) I think I'll still eventually do a discus setup, but it's going to take a bit of planning to do it right. Which brings us here....

If you had an empty 90 and had my water, what would you stock? In the research I've done so far it seems like it's a bad idea to mix cichlids from different lakes and certain species like fronts or some haps would be too large for permanent residence. The tank is currently setup SA/CE style with wood, plants and gravel, but I'm ready to change it to sand(coral) and rocks. Temp stays at about 82 and the water is naturally hard.

So imagine this tank was in your house. What would you put in it? I also don't mind being challenged a bit as I've also kept many saltwater species in the past, but I'd like to keep these fish in here for life, so adult size is something Im really focused on. So pick a lake and help me stock my tank. I'm ready to be schooled(no pun intended!)

Thanks in advance!!
 
Are you looking for a more color or active setup or both? Looking to breed them or not? I currently have a 75G mixed all male tank with some peacocks, mbuna, and haps in it up and running now for almost 4 years. I mainly went with this setup because 4 years ago I was new to African Cichlids and couldnt deside what I wanted so I just went with the all male show tank. If you went this route just be ready to have to rehome any of the fish in there at anytime do to agression issues. Luckly I have not had major agression issues in my tank for over 2 years now (knock on wood). If I where to redo my tank now from scratch I may do something like a P demasoni and yellow lab setup. The P demasoni are very agressive and it probably would be best to start with about 20 young ones and weed them down to a dozen, but they are very active and colorful and have about 6 or so yellow labs in their with them to mix up the color some. Another setup I think would be neat would be a Tropheus species setup as I think those are fun to watch too. Good luck and post some pics when you are done!
 
I second the Tropheus idea. If you are up for a challenge and aren't worried about dropping some coin on the fish, that is route I would go. They come in just about whatever color you want, they are active, relatively easy to breed and have great personalities. Get about 15-20 F1s, or a breeding group of wild caughts, you won't regret it :)
 
Tropheus seem very interesting. Colorful and active, breeding not in the immediate plans so an all male tank could work. I read they come from the surf zone. Filtration is a 400 gph wet/dry and 2 XP3's so I think o2 tension should he fine.

Stocking levels of these fish is something I have to get my head around though. With SA/CE I've always stocked very lightly. For example, I'm currently stocking 4 cichlids in my 300 and I'm going to attempt a fifth fish, but I'm not getting my hopes up. Evidently I need to overstock slightly for africans correct?

Demasoni are interesting too.
 
The only problem I have with Tropheus is it seems the minimum tank recommended is a 75, which is basically what I have(footprint wise)

Doesn't leave too much room for error.....

But I'm also just going by what I've read online
 
mike dunagan said:
You will be doubtful to get an all male tropheus tank. Not sure that would even work anyways they are not like mbuna or peacocks.
Click to expand...

And not cheap! Wow! Beautiful fish but tank size seems tight for such an expensive experiment. Can mbuna and a few Haps coexist? I've read Haps and peacocks are a no-no because of interbreeding.
 
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