Questions about a125gal Peacock tank
- Thread starter Jexnell
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- african cichlid peacock
They can be quite addicting and they are such a cool colony fish behavior wise They are quite manic. A nice group of Ikola, Moops, or Bulu Points look amazing. Dubs are nice and probably the easiest to start out with. Although they can be prone to bloat...it is easily mitigated by not overfeeding, feeding consistently, pwc's--consistent water chemistry, and removing hyper-aggressive males.
Most of my Tropheus deaths were just from 1 or 2 Jerk fish and their reign of terror on the tank. I feel aggression is probably the biggest contributor to tank casualties and many start dosing with Metro/Clout like crazy when it is really a hyper-aggressive fish picking fish off one by one rather than the actual parasite; however, I have had an experience where I lost multiple fish one-by-one from bloat as well. I have fewer casualties when I used very little rock-work and only kept my light on for no more than 4 hours a day.
They can be quite the obsession....i had to take a break and go with a predator hap tank for once. Wow Frontosas are another thing, but kind of 180 degree from Tropheus...and I have yet to dive into Petros...but my friends have and man...they get expensive and they are like Tropheus on steroids...aggressive wise.
Most of my Tropheus deaths were just from 1 or 2 Jerk fish and their reign of terror on the tank. I feel aggression is probably the biggest contributor to tank casualties and many start dosing with Metro/Clout like crazy when it is really a hyper-aggressive fish picking fish off one by one rather than the actual parasite; however, I have had an experience where I lost multiple fish one-by-one from bloat as well. I have fewer casualties when I used very little rock-work and only kept my light on for no more than 4 hours a day.
They can be quite the obsession....i had to take a break and go with a predator hap tank for once. Wow Frontosas are another thing, but kind of 180 degree from Tropheus...and I have yet to dive into Petros...but my friends have and man...they get expensive and they are like Tropheus on steroids...aggressive wise.
In my opinion which ain't worth anything, tropheus are a good speciality tank for advanced hobbyist. A speciality tank being tanks in addition to your main tanks. In other words if you only have one tank I would make it something interesting to not just you but everyone in the house or visits the house. Like a peacock/ hap tank or a planted adult discus tank. Or a community fish tank. Or even a colony of Frontosa look good in a main display tank. Speciality tanks are the tanks hidden in fish rooms and usually aren't all that great to look at to the untrained eye but of course are facinating to hobbyist. For instance a bare bottom discus grow out tank or a shellie tank or a problematic tropheus tank. I would only keep tropheus in my 2nd or 4th tank but not my large living room display tank.
I love watching my multies breed and spit sand and fight over shells but my friends and family only see an ugly tank full of shells and wonder where's the fish and then I have to point them out and then I get the "oh" like "why"?. They don't get it because they aren't hobbyists. But they all oohhh and ahhh over my peacock/ hap tank. Most of them first think it's salt water.
I love watching my multies breed and spit sand and fight over shells but my friends and family only see an ugly tank full of shells and wonder where's the fish and then I have to point them out and then I get the "oh" like "why"?. They don't get it because they aren't hobbyists. But they all oohhh and ahhh over my peacock/ hap tank. Most of them first think it's salt water.
See your tank is the look I was going after, if I do the Peacock/Hap route.
I agree on the Tropheus route, maybe after I get a few more years of fish keeping under my belt. Especially after the stern warning about bloat from RD.
Now if let's say I get like Caribsea African cichlid sand for a fresh start tank. After that is there anything I have to add to maintain the water quality to thier high hardness requirements.
The last time I had Africans, 20 some years ago... the guy at the store said to add aquarium salt every water change, and gave me an amount per ten gallons to add. Have times changed and that African sand buffers so you don't have to add per water change?
Also I hear what you say about a living room tank. I am still undecided if I should move Toni and friends into it. Or move her whole tank into the LR and the new tank in my room were Toni's tank is now.
Not like anyone ever comes over...but a Peacock/Hap tank would be taken in a lot better than a bunch of fry growing out.
I agree on the Tropheus route, maybe after I get a few more years of fish keeping under my belt. Especially after the stern warning about bloat from RD.
Now if let's say I get like Caribsea African cichlid sand for a fresh start tank. After that is there anything I have to add to maintain the water quality to thier high hardness requirements.
The last time I had Africans, 20 some years ago... the guy at the store said to add aquarium salt every water change, and gave me an amount per ten gallons to add. Have times changed and that African sand buffers so you don't have to add per water change?
Also I hear what you say about a living room tank. I am still undecided if I should move Toni and friends into it. Or move her whole tank into the LR and the new tank in my room were Toni's tank is now.
Not like anyone ever comes over...but a Peacock/Hap tank would be taken in a lot better than a bunch of fry growing out.
I think that is some solid advice. I am liking the change myself with the Hap tank...I actually have 3 peacocks in it too...the others play real nice with them...Baenschi, Eureka Jake, and Lwanda. I went this route because I have had the colony tanks, the cyp mixed tang tank, and Fronts....I wanted a little bit of contrast this time, instead of all one type of fish. I had a peacock tank before with some smaller haps. I would say they have some amazing color contrast...for FW. I kind of liked the manic behavior of mbuna...its just the fry factory that pushed me back to the all male tank. Heck, I would put Altos with my Tropheus for fry control lol...just cause I didn't want to sell fry all they time. I will say the colony fish have great behavior and are fun to watch.
Frontosas are kind of slow...but they are like having a group of wet pets...they let you pet them after a while. Plus Mobas and Mpimbwe's look amazing hovering in a group. My VC-10 and Venustus will eat out of my hand and I have had them less than 6 months. I bought them approaching full size though.
Lots of routes you can go with Aftricans. I always buy male fish mature...cause I don't have a grow-out tank now and females add another layer of uncertainty. It's literally killing me waiting for this Malawi Trout to color up lol.
There is a recipe for diy lake salt on cichlid forum that uses epsom salt...my water in SoCal is fine so I do not add anything. I don't like adding things to water I don't have too and do not like hardness/ph swings. I would rather have stable water. I believe cichlid sand is just like Aragonite. Most people love pool filter sand...cheap and it works. I went with the black stuff cause I had a blue background but generally use aragonite or something similiar. If you use a a dark back ground def use lighter substrate.
Frontosas are kind of slow...but they are like having a group of wet pets...they let you pet them after a while. Plus Mobas and Mpimbwe's look amazing hovering in a group. My VC-10 and Venustus will eat out of my hand and I have had them less than 6 months. I bought them approaching full size though.
Lots of routes you can go with Aftricans. I always buy male fish mature...cause I don't have a grow-out tank now and females add another layer of uncertainty. It's literally killing me waiting for this Malawi Trout to color up lol.
There is a recipe for diy lake salt on cichlid forum that uses epsom salt...my water in SoCal is fine so I do not add anything. I don't like adding things to water I don't have too and do not like hardness/ph swings. I would rather have stable water. I believe cichlid sand is just like Aragonite. Most people love pool filter sand...cheap and it works. I went with the black stuff cause I had a blue background but generally use aragonite or something similiar. If you use a a dark back ground def use lighter substrate.
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I wouldn't use aquarium salt for water hardness. I only add about a tablespoon of salt to my 180 and it's only for helping with osmotic pressure and only a tiny bit is needed for that. Most people don't use salt at all and get by just fine. Obviously there are medical uses such as treating ich that I would use it for. I have crushed coral in my sump and I have coral chunks hidden behind the big rocks and I have aragonite sand in the tank. That's all I add. Well sometimes I add some Epsom salt when the fish are looking too fat to help with digestion and sometimes I soak the food in it every once in awhile to keep bloat away. So far I haven't had any bloat issues and I am guilty of over feeding sometimes but like you read here over feeding isnt really the cause of bloat.
One more thing. The aragonite sand and crush coral don't really make my water that much harder then how it comes out of the tap. I'm in Sacramento and the water is fairly hard and 7.8. I have it in there to keep it from ever dropping. Like others have said it's better to keep it stable. I like to do 50 to 60% water changes about every 5 days. I like water changes more than anything else. Since I don't add the buffers I get away with as many water changes as I want without worrying about huge pH swings. You add buffers to get to the high 8s and then your stuck doing these tiny water changes. I hate tiny water changes. Anything less than 50% is a waste of my time.
