I want to set up an African Cichlid tank. Any tips?

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Carefree_Dude

Piranha
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Feb 4, 2011
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I have a 55 gallon I want to set up as an african cichlid tank. I had some questions though.

How many african cichlids can i keep in a 55 gallon aquarium?
Are there any non-cichlid fish that make good tank mates, such as plecos?
What is an ideal setup for rocks and such? Is rock or driftwood better?
Can you have live plants, or will the fish tear them up?
I've heard with African cichlids you need to buy them all at the same time to lower aggression. Is this true?

Any more general tips would be appreciated. My goal here is to set up an aquarium with very active, colorful fish my 2 year old son will enjoy watching. I've had much larger setups in the past with SA cichlids, but I can't have a massive aquarium in my current place.
 
First bit of advice would be to decide which types of African cichlids you would like to keep. Mbuna while very colorful can be extremely territorial and require extensive rock work and caves. My experience is peacocks and haps are generally less aggressive but tend to get larger.
Also might want to consider Lake Victorian cichlids. Very colorful and IMO are easy to care for.
 
Africa is so big, and has such a variety of cichlids, your question is almost too general to answer, even with the confines of your tank size, without narrowing down.
What kind of water comes from your tap?
There are hard water Africans, soft water Africans.
There are species such as Tropheus that really do best in large groups of their own species.
There are colorful species from neutral water parameter lake like Lake Bermin or Barumbi Mbu.
Colorful species from rivers and streams, and since you are from near Wet Spot Tropicals the array of species available to you is quite vast and would be the envy of many aquarists in other areas.
 
In a 55, a good mix would be two smaller mbuna species, L. caeruleus aka the common "yellow lab", would be a good start, add to that something like Iodotropheus sprengerae would make a colorful and entertaining tank.
 
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Carefree_Dude said:
I love the wet spot it's one of my favorite stores! My pH goes around 7.5 to 8. I'm guessing a harder water african is best
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The Wet Spot is a great fish source.They've recently changed up their website which I am not crazy about however.
 
My advice is to do thourough research first prior to buying African Cichlids.
 
many ways you can go with a 55. Easiest route would probably be Mbuna. They are quite fun to keep and there are many species which are not particularly violent. You do need to be careful though, some other species are quite nasty.
I would go along with RD's suggestion of yellow labs, and there are other species in the genus which would make great tankmates, such as "sp. Perlmutt", one of my personal favorites, mild mannered and pretty fish. Trewavasae are also not particularly mean and have the interesting "floppy nose" look. I'd say 15 or so would be good in a 55.

Another option would be tanganyikan cichlids. Could go with many different species- personally I would recommend a group of shell-dwellers, and a group of rock-dwellers. An expample of each would be N Occelaris- shelldwellers, and A. calvus- rock dwellers. It's fun to watch the cichlids inhabit different areas of the scape. These cichlids would like pH a little higher than yours, 8.5+, so may want to add some rushed coral or similar substrate to raise pH and hardness. A large group of the shell dwellers, like maybe 20, plus a few pairs or a single group, of the calvus, around 6-7 fish, would probably work for your size tank.

Another option would be tropheus. 55 is about the minimum tank size you can keep them in- you basically pick a single species and get 15-20 of them, and they live in a big shoal-like colony. Unique behavior and interesting fish to own.

As far as plants go, you should be able to keep anubias and maybe cryptocoryns with any of these.

Perlmutt
perl.JPG

mixed mbuna tank, notice the plants were anubias and crypts
mbunafts.JPG
 
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