smidey

maybe try just a few and see how it goes, that way you won't loose all if it goes wrong

the risk we run if we choose to put small fish with larger fish.

yeah. i regularly add juvies to the main tank, juvies might be 3cm and the adults are around 10cm. The juvies tend to hide a lot until they get bigger but as long as you have hiding places i think you'll be fine. In natural situations they have to stay safe from larger fish somehow.

i would just throw them in, never had an issue doing it before.

bang for buck i think 6x9s are pretty good, if you get 3 way speakers even better. Try to stick with the "big brands" like pioneer, sony, alpine, jbl, clarion, earthquake, soundstream, rockford etc. I found fusion, jvc type of brands to be crap. Your car got one of those lift up parcel shelves? mount them on that.

i think the best way will be to decide what fish you want to keep first and taylor the tank to suit them. If you aren't sure what you want that is likely to be the hardest decision as there could be so many options of which other fish you can or cannot keep with them. Then if they are plant friendly you can add as you go so it doesn't need to be expensive first up but the most important thing for a successful tank is to plan initially and setup correctly. if you do that it should be an easy tank to maintain and more enjoyable in the long run.

awesome, they are looking good.

IME the aggression of tropheus is different to the aggression of mbuna. basically, the trophs generally only want to fight other trophs of the same species and occasionally another troph species. Mbuna i found are like the angry dude at the pub, want to fight anyone. Due to the altos armoured scales i think they would be fine with mbuna generally, they may get tatty fins but i doubt they would sustain serious wounds. I would mix them but if it went pair shaped i would also accept it was my risk.

golf, cutting some fire wood and maybe some hunting.

the altos don't do much so don't really feature much in the tank i have found. They behave a lot like discus, just sort of hover around watching the world go by.

as far as i'm aware the AR620T is the only one prone to cracking, haven't heard of any 980's cracking. I doubt it was anything anyone did, just their design or manufacturing process i think.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/s ... hp?id=1578 this says 12cm

yeah, 80mm (8cm) is a massive alto, they only grow to 10 to 12cm don't they? Nah i don't remember, just remember not to mix them. They are easily big enough now to be housed with fronts i think

80m? wow that is a good sized alto. not sure having them in the same tank is a great idea, i remember reading something ages ago about it not being a good idea other than the cross breeding situation.

terrible luck & timing, it's like these things are sent to test us. sadly it is quite common for those tanks to crack as far a i know, i had one that had been repaired for a cracked base before i got it and have heard of that a few times.

i keep mine with tropheus, shellies and leleupi & they get along fine. When the much larger trophs try to have a go at them they simply curve their body which extends their sharp scales for protection so don't get hurt. Adding shells i don't think will do a lot for the altos except give them somewhere to spawn because i rarely see mine in the shells although that may just be down to the fact they are comfortable in their surroundings in my tank. They do occasionally take cover in the shell when i am trying to net a fish so may be a useful option and can't hurt unless they somehow get stuck but the shell will need to be large enough. I don't do anything special for them, i only feed NLS and filtration is around 6 times the tank volume per hour. what size are yours? are you going to mix both comps and calvus in the same tank?

can you post a pic of them?

what species of fry? for africans i have found it to be a good thing to have food lying around as long as your filtration can cope.

why you want to do it? town supply is sweet for the trophs

as a private seller i always use a 40 hour heat pack i have no idea why you would not. they are cheap and seem to work very well.

nice idea but what size is that small tank and what weight will the under mount runner hold? I wouldn't be extending the shelf out with the tank full and not holding it up, the runners might be ok with the shelf back but when it's forward the leverage of the tank might be too much for it.

what brand uses that? the stuff we have has pyrethrin ingredients. I haven't had any issues with ours.

there were caramba to i think

welcome

i don't think there will be any coverage on free to air tv, sky only.