I do it for beauty not for aggression

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
S

s1c

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 30, 2012
509
2
0
Cichlids, America
Recently I have been finding myself looking at the larger cichlids and more aggressive. Dovii, Umbee, Beani, Grammodes, black nasty, etc. So i came to a conclusion that i am going to be building a custom tank which will be my last and final tank for my fish-room.

After thinking and thinking and talking about it with my roommates and talking to other people who have done DIY aquariums. I decided that I am finally going to do one.

It all started with me looking at all 5 of my fish tanks while watching YouTube videos of people doing tours of there monster fish rooms. I was jealous. Me and my roommates decided to sell our tanks that where anywhere from 5- 35 gallons. These are the tanks we have kept and are using for our fish "house"

This is what we have left.

Two 60 gallons longs.
Two 75 gallons longs.
Five 40 breeders.
One 210 long.

First 60 gallon is housed to a Jack Dempsey pair and a firemouth.
Second 60 is housed to a Jack Dempsey, Green Terror, and firemouth pair.

First 75 is housed to a Jaguar and a midas which will be moved to the DIY.
Second is home to three green terrors, pictus catfish, and school of dollars.

All 5 40's are empty.

210 is getting housed with a Jaguar, Mayan cichlid, texas and pleco. (This all happened as i was typing)

DIY- We are getting ready to do a 1500 gallon :D.
decorations being used- 200 pounds of black sand.
200 dollars worth of flower pots.
14" driftwood.

What's going in the DIY.

Well we wanted a dovii but none of us have any experience taking care of one of these. So we decided on this.

Caquetaia Umbriferus- 4"
Nandopsis Grammodes-5"
 Nandopsis Beani-4"
Parachromis Managuense-5"
Nandopsis Haitiensis-4"
 Amphilophus Trimaculatus-4"
Amphilophus Labiatus-4"
[h=3]flagtail prochilodus-3.5"[/h]
[FONT=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]We all agreed to get the fish all around the same size. We are currently working on some bottom feeders some type of catfish will do no RTC or Shovel noise. How did we get the fish all around the same size well.. we took turns traveling california at LFS and telling them about our plan for our DIY. It started off as five roommates now we ahve up to 11 people working with us. Some we are paying and others just want to see the beauty of cichlids.[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]I did this for beauty because some people would've been like "cichlid fight night oh yeh!" But its not for the fighting and the most skilled fish my roomamtes and i chose the most beautifulest cichlids that we like and have wonderful personalities. Umbee grows very beautiful if they taken care amzing colors on these guys. Grammodes are mini dovii's taken care of you can get some pretty good looking ones. The black nasty has a wonderful attitude its really fun to kiick back and watch them go into action. Red devils grow some pretty awsome colors. I hope you guys get a mind set about this tank that would becoming soon. We are open to any suggestions. How is 1500 gallons? This monster tank will be going into the basement with one of my roommates reptile collection. Can we throw in anymore fish?[/FONT]

~ Bill, Joseph, Ryan, Chris, and Scott~
 
What are the dimensions of the tank? If it has a big footprint you may be right with those cichlids, and more perhaps, especially if you stay away from breeding pairs. You mention the decor but not the construction method or size (not volume) or filtration, those factors will have far more influence over your stocking than the number of flower pots or quantity of sand you use.

But on that subject, 14" driftwood is going to look like a little stick in that tank. My 2000L (~530g) has a tree stump that is ~4' long, nearly 2' high and about 18" front to back at its widest, and it looks empty. I also used 150kg (~330lbs) of sand to get a reasonable coverage on the bottom, but how much you need will depend on the footprint of the tank. Personally I think it would be a travesty to fill a big tank like that with ugly flower pots, unless of course you're trying to represent a river next to an old flower pot factory. With that much space to play with you should be able to use rocks and wood to give the fish more natural territories than you would be able to get away with in a smaller tank where having cave-like pots for the fish to shelter in and defend helps confine their territories.
Mel O's 1000g is a great example of a big cichlid tank, if you can make something like that but half as big again it will be epic!
http://youtu.be/BpjeKYSmuSw

Other than that it sounds like a great project, the ultimate cichlid community tank perhaps. I'd seriously consider including a school of something fast-moving like tinfoil barbs to help spread aggression, or perhaps pairs of small and hardy cichlids like convicts that can take shelter in the rock (or flower pot) piles and act as targets to diffuse aggression between the big boys.
 
Thats a lot of water for those fish lol but theyll be really happy!

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note II
 
Ill let you know how it works soon. My nearly 1500 gallon concrete build should be done in around two weeks if I don't get to busy. 12'x4'x4' with my umbee pair as the center piece and trimacs, Midas, and many other central and South American cichlids. Rock is all up and I will seal it tonight:)ImageUploadedByMonsterAquariaNetwork1375217909.165010.jpg


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
 
I don’t think even with that much tank that those fish are going to work out for you. Grammodes grow ridiculously slow like .25” a month or less (lunch). The beani & black nasty go absolutely bonkers with other aggressive fish & are highly highly prone to bloat at that size. I’d probably replace those with something more up to speed with what you have. I didn’t see a dovii listed which is good even in that tank a full grown male will size up & pick off anything it can.

Not trying to be a buzz kill or anything. Nice build
 
Every fish has its own personality, regarding the grammode, Reaper is right. They grow SLOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW, but the black nasty has a unfounded reputation in a community setting. NOBODY on this site has ever kept a adult species with tank mates. Not because of aggression, simply because they bloat very easily. I have seen some beani's in community setting. Beani are notoriously nasty fish, but once those umbee hit full size it will only be a matter of time most likely. Mel had a huge pair of umbee with a huge pair of festae and other fish, in a 600 gallon I believe until the umbee snapped and killed the festae. Even in a large tank, you wont know till you try. A dovii is in the same category as a umbee but even more aggressive and dangerous IMO. But I see no reason why you can't give it a try, it may work for a short time, or long time, or not at all. But its worth a shot.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom