New 8 inch Texas
- Thread starter brianhellno
- Start date
I have a 12 inch texas that I have had for 3 years now, grew him from a little 2 incher. He lives in a 75 gallon right now with a 5 inch royal pleco, and a sun cat which hides all the time. I couldn't keep any other free swimming fish with him... they would be chopped liver. I would advise you against keeping him with any other livestock you truly care about.... and I wouldn't even think about smaller tetras.... maybe adult red hook silver dollars, or a few cheap convict cichlids. The Hikari and bloodworms should be fine... maybe supplement that with krill every couple of days.
I do 2 50% water changes a week on my cichlid tanks... That will keep them very very happy and colorful. And, if you want intense color to show run an actinic light along with a daylight lamp. 20000 kelvin with a 6700 kelvin he will really sparkle. I just have mine decorated with a half inch of gravel on the floor... too much gravel in the bottom of cichlid tanks is bad bad bad... waste accumulates very quickly so little gravel will make things easier to vaccum and keep clean. Also decorate the tank with smooth river rock, large cichlids can easily scratch themselves on jagged rocks and lots of natural driftwood, and I float a big bunch of hornwort in the tank to help contain algae and for cover. Run a canister filter if you can afford it, or get online and get 2 emperor 400 power filters. That will be your best bet for a big cichlid. If you really wanted to discontinue MOST of your tank vaccuming (not excluding water changes) you could look into setting up a reverse undergravel filter... and decorate the bottom of you tank with larger river stones. Will help suspend excess fish waste where the filter can pick it up. Hope this helps.
Adam
I do 2 50% water changes a week on my cichlid tanks... That will keep them very very happy and colorful. And, if you want intense color to show run an actinic light along with a daylight lamp. 20000 kelvin with a 6700 kelvin he will really sparkle. I just have mine decorated with a half inch of gravel on the floor... too much gravel in the bottom of cichlid tanks is bad bad bad... waste accumulates very quickly so little gravel will make things easier to vaccum and keep clean. Also decorate the tank with smooth river rock, large cichlids can easily scratch themselves on jagged rocks and lots of natural driftwood, and I float a big bunch of hornwort in the tank to help contain algae and for cover. Run a canister filter if you can afford it, or get online and get 2 emperor 400 power filters. That will be your best bet for a big cichlid. If you really wanted to discontinue MOST of your tank vaccuming (not excluding water changes) you could look into setting up a reverse undergravel filter... and decorate the bottom of you tank with larger river stones. Will help suspend excess fish waste where the filter can pick it up. Hope this helps.
Adam
Your fish is gorgeous. I would give him some nice rockwork. You can form caves with it pretty easy. I noticed nearly all cichlids (new and old worlds) love rocks. Some like em piled up and live inside and others just enjoy the "boulders" and river rock strewn along the bottom.
A nice look might be black sand then add in some medium and large shiney round river rocks (as little or much as you like), go for the darker brown and redish mixes. Then add in a couple large rocks of similar colors and a nice piece of driftwood to match. You could even get some sturdy fake plants and anchor them to the driftwood and rocks so he cant tear them up. That would look really great and the fish would enjoy it.
I have black sand and I painted my back glass with a rollar and some flat black latex paint, makes a world of difference in the color of my fish. Might want to consider it since you said you thought about it all ready. I like mine alot. Much happier after i did it. It was easy too.
A nice look might be black sand then add in some medium and large shiney round river rocks (as little or much as you like), go for the darker brown and redish mixes. Then add in a couple large rocks of similar colors and a nice piece of driftwood to match. You could even get some sturdy fake plants and anchor them to the driftwood and rocks so he cant tear them up. That would look really great and the fish would enjoy it.
I have black sand and I painted my back glass with a rollar and some flat black latex paint, makes a world of difference in the color of my fish. Might want to consider it since you said you thought about it all ready. I like mine alot. Much happier after i did it. It was easy too.
