New 55ga African Rift Tank

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J

jbo

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Sep 18, 2012
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A co-worker is giving me a 55ga setup with hood, lights, stand, etc. I'm thinking of turning it into an African rift lake tank of some sort. I've mostly kept CA/SA cichlids in the past so Africans are a bit of a mystery for me and the number of available species is a bit overwhelming.

I don't need to raise anything overly rare or challenging but I would like a mouth brooder that will breed in this tank. From what I've read, that shouldn't be too much of a limiting factor.

I have a friend who used to have some Pseudotropheus elongatus. They were gorgeous though a bit aggressive for me currently. I'm not against aggression but I work a lot of hours and won't always catch aggression problems early. I've found various articles online that make Pseudotropheus saulosi sound like a good alternative and also very attractive but they look a bit small to me. Ps. acei and L. caeruleus both look pretty nice.

I'm also not set on mbuna, they just seem to be what I keep landing on aesthetically. Peacocks seem like they would be a good choice for me but I'd like to have a single species or at least non-interbreeding tank and most peacock tanks I've found seem to just be a bunch of fish thrown together.

Anyway, I'm looking for opinions/ideas on specific species - something more than just "Some peacocks and medium-sized haps". I'm getting the tank tomorrow and need to get it setup and cycled so it'll probably be a month or so before I'm actually looking to get fish. Any thoughts?

Jim
 
Oh yeah, I'd also be interested in sources of quality fish if anyone has any suggestions. My LFS has a surprising selection of cichlids (a whole wall!) but I have no idea where they get them.
 
if you want some milder mbuna L. caeruleus, Ps. acei, and Iodotropheus sprengerae makes a nice mix. that's what i have and my tank is pretty peaceful. i've heard some afra's are ok choices too but are a little more aggressive.
 
if your doing those mbuna you might be able to add some action in the middle with a protomyleas haplochromide. Males are terrificly coloured and unlike aulonocara can match several mbuna for aggression. though they are more reactive then pro active in scuffles.
 
Thanks. I am not very picky at this point and might just ask my LFS what kind of fry they could use some extra of. It'll give me some ideas to start with. I think I'm leaning towards a species tank, at least to start with. I still have to get water in the tank, buy some substrate and get it cycled so I've got a little while to figure it out.

Any recommended sources of quality Africans?
 
If you want a species tank, I would select a species that is dimorphic (males/females look different) like the P. saulosi you mentioned. Here is a list of way more mbuna than you probably want to look at, but you can look through and see what you like (http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/category.php?cat=2), and it tells you whether the species is mono- or dimorphic. If you start the profile over you can look at other types of cichlids as well.
 
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