New South American setup

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

joecoulson

Gambusia
MFK Member
Oct 13, 2010
835
0
16
GA
www.joecoulsonphotography.com
Here is my dream come true. I have had tanks for over 15 years now. Always brackish and fresh. Never did get into Cichlids until about 6 months ago when my daughter picked out a Midas (he was a baby and it was definitely not an educated buy) at the fish shop. I had just had some 10 year old fish pass away and the 37 gallon we had them in was kinda empty. Well, as most of you already know the Midas can balloon very quickly (he was 2" now is 7+ and growing fast) He outgrew the 37 and I had to sell some toys in order to afford the new setup. Just got the thing up and running on Friday (used gravel from old setup mixed with new and used old canister so it didn't need to cycle) It is a beauty:
65 Gallon tall (36" x 18" x 24")
Custom stand (I work in a cabinet shop)
Glass top with Coralife double T5 light (10k x 2)
Fluval 204 (I know but I will upgrade when I can afford, for now nothing has changed from the old setup so it should keep up fine)
Ebo Jager heater
Koralife Nano for circulation
Custom background from Designsbynature.net (Matt is the man!!)
Flourite mix (regular and black about 60lbs)
Fake plants (Midas will destroy real, already tried)
River rocks from Helen, GA
Driftwood made by me (cured a long time ago and screwed into slate)

Fish:
Midas named "Pick" (my daughter, 4, named all the fish)
Two Dempsey's one called "lookie" and the other called "fatch"
Sailfin Pleco (about 8") named "swimmy"

Here it is in about as perfect a spot ever for a fish tank, in the living room in place of the tv.

tank1.jpg

tank2.jpg
 
Hoyo12;4574527; said:
The tank looks nice, but am I just seeing things or is that Jack Dempsey pretty beat-up?
Click to expand...

I am afraid it's my fault, they usually got along fine in the 37g (and especially now in this one) but when I wanted to mix the new substrate with the old to kick start the bacterial, I took out the drift and plants and I guess the Midas got upset and took it out on the one Demp. He is healing nicely (he got beat up really bad almost a week ago now) and I expect him to recover fully. He has not been touched by the Midas since their move which is good and I have been feeding the Demp by hand to make sure he gets some food. All these fish are hand tame and the Midas lets me pet him and hold him (although I make sure to have clean hands with hot water olny before I do that)
 
And here is the star of said tank "Pick"

picture.php
 
That tank is beautiful, layout looks amazing mate, one thing, with the midas iam sure he will end up killing the other cichlids, esp looking how bad he beat the jd already, just a word of caution budd. to small once midas matures..
 
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