Which Cichlids For My Tank

[Schmoo]

72 gallon bowfront. Found a home for my fish and I'm going to re-do the tank using white "Super Naturals Marine Sand". Water has a PH 7.8 and is hard. There will be some rocks and at the moment no other ornaments.

Should I look for Africans, or what? I'd kind of like a peaceful, colorful tank. Would someone save this old man a bunch of research time and tell me where to start?

Thanks

 

[Morledzep]

you want to use live sand for your freshwater tank?

you have very hard water, so you probably don't need anything to make it harder. Live sand will quickly become dead sand in freshwater and it will make your water harder. Probably not the best choice to start a tank with.

And the africans do like harder water, but mine (they will become my son's on his birthday in August) seem to do good in 7.6 PH, so i can't think of any two good reasons to go out of your way to make the water harder.

Africans like hiding places.. caves, plants, rocks.. they really don't like being out in the open all the time, but if they have tank mates and hiding places they will be pretty busy fish and you'll see them a lot. A bare tank with dead sand isn't ideal for them.

 

[Schmoo]

The bag that the sand is in says it is ok for salt or fresh water. Doesn't say anything about it being live.

 

[evilxyardxgnome]

Some Fronts would look nice, not sure on how many you can keep in a 75 though.

 

[Schmoo]

Some Fronts would look nice, not sure on how many you can keep in a 75 though.

I'll put them on the list to check out. Just wasn't sure if I should concentrate on Malawi, Tanganyika or some other area or country.

 

[evilxyardxgnome]

Fronts are really the only Old world cichlids I enjoy

 

[emptyhead0102]

Sand as substrate... go with Malawi Haps, or Tanganyikan. Malawi Mbunas dig a lot, and Peacocks dig some, the haps don't and they like open waters so you don't have to deal with the caves, plants, etc... Tanganyikans do like caves, but don't dig so would do good in sand. Depends on how you wants tank to look

 

[Fish on Fire]

Africans aren't exactly peaceful . . . if you want peaceful in terms of cichlids go with lots of rams, angels, and some discus in a planted tank with some drift wood and black moon sand as substrate. I have nothing against Africans, but he did say peaceful and colorful, lol.

 

[rallysb1tch]

I keep livingstonii in my african tank and I love the hell out of them. I've got them taking krill from my hands. They don't seem to bother the other africans that are around their size but you have to be careful with them around fry and other fish that might fit in their mouth.

 

[emptyhead0102]

I've got a couple livingstonii myself, and while maybe they're not very colorful, they do have a beautiful blue tint and interesting color patterns. I keep them with 2 moorii in sand tank and they're all getting along great. This is given of coures that I keep all my Mbuna seperate, and that is my colorful tank. And yes, be very weary of fry in tank with Livingstonii, you'll wake up and they'll be gone!