smidey

you have plenty of filtration for that tank. What are the little bits like? Do they float to the surface? make sure the filter pads are sitting properly in the baskets without gaps between the pad and the basket around the edges. The flow of a CF canister comes in through the holes with rubber seals, down to the bottom of the bucket and up through the baskets to the outlet of the canister. Make sure the pad with the largest gaps are on the bottom and the smallest gaps on the top. If the pads need cleaning the force of the water may be pushing one of the pads up so bypassing it and not mechanically cleaning the water. I haven't used wool in any of my three canisters for years and the clarity is excellent so not critical to use it but if you do it will catch particles.

The issue that may or may not have is aggression been males when they are introduced and that can be with any species that is added. If you add adults to a group there will be fighting to sort out who is boss, that could end quickly and it could turn into WW3, you won't really know until it happens. If you ad juvenile fish to an adult group there won't be a competition for top spot so your more likely to have that go well. I would add juvies around for our five cm and it should go well as long as they don't get beaten by the adults. If you have a good amount of rock work or other things they can get cover in they'll do well I think. I'd be adding about dozen fish to that tank if it was mine, a few of each of the Africans you already have as long as you have enough filtration and cover for the juvies.

How are things going now, any joy?

Sounds like pretty lite stocking to me, even if all are adults. I'd add another six yellows and more dolphins but if the dolphins are large then it will be best to add larger fish over juvies. When I was keeping Malawi species I had between 30 and 40 fish in 300l, half of them would have been adults so to me your tank sounds like a ghost town. I've found that Africans are better over stocked than under, a term I used to use is African soup haha

Just for your info on pembas, they aren't overly aggressive when it comes to tropheus, Ikola are nasty but the others like Pemba, duboisi and moliro I have kept have been no more aggro the what I would call medium aggressive Africans. The only difference is the tropheus fight their on specific species generally, not who ever is closest. I wouldn't recommend mixing them with the fish you're keeping but your tank is a fair size for trophs. I have kept moliro, Pemba and duboisi in groups as small as 8 without issues, my breeding colonies are 8 or 9 fish so groups of 15 to 20 aren't essential but are the best way to start off so you can weed out the fish that don't suit your group.

there's no need to run two heaters on a tank that size, one good quality heater of the right size or larger will do the job. i recommend getting a 150 or 200w jager (150 will be enough , 200 will be heaps) and it will keep the tank at what ever you want with very little fluctuations as long as you have enough flow. I have a 300w jager on my 400L tank and it seems to keep it at a constant temp.

oh the irony haha. one hybrid breeds with another hybrid..... probably an insight to future african breeding schemes

Fry not babies

i'm out whangarei heads and there are dozens if not more great rock fishing spots, most roads have access to them out here.

Some of the names are the old versions? Metriaclima estherae?

and by tomorrow morning you should have a mad hang over and the dry horrors :lol:

Try to add light, if it's too dark they might be weary of the night time predators. I know if I turn off the lights at one end they all scoot to the dark end and sit on the bottom

it's not numbers i don't think. i have around 45 fish in my tank and they're all over the place. You don't have too much light do you? I just think there is something they don't like that makes them do that but i can't work out what it is. I have no doubt that it will change over time.

I think some thing is freaking them out. I know my fish stay low our try to hide when something different happens like my kids run part the tank and even if a stranger starts checking out my tank. They certainly do it when I approach the tank holding a net so it may be just you haha. Seriously though they do do that when frightened, can you rig up some way of covering the tank front, maybe with a blanket our a card board screen for a day or two and have a peep hole so you can see what they are doing, I think you'll find they be behaving how you want them to if they become comfortable in their environment. If that's the case I'm sure it'll just be time until the style in and use all the height of the tank.

Can you post a pic of the tank?

my trophs use all levels of the tank and if anything spend more time in the top half than the bottom. To me that sounds like they're scared to venture out. all the other species tend to stay near the bottom most of the time, shellies, leleupi & altos

that tank isn't big enough for any africans larger than a zebra really (10-12cm max), it's big on litres but small on foot print so only much good for fish like angels that prefer a tall tank. Aggressive fish like africans need floor area to establish their territories, if you don't have that then it's likely to be an unsettled environment for all the fish as they won't be able to claim much space for themselves. Use the CF2700 and it'll be sweet.

i've had a great one with aqua one canisters so good choice. I run two cf's on my 400L tank but it's 2.0m long, with a 1.3m tank i'd go with a single filter as i think you'll have a challenge getting the spraybar etc sorted if you have two of them. Also it's far better to get a better quality heater in the long run. You can use one heater as long as there is enough circulation for it to heat the water evenly. Go for a 300w jager, it will be plenty to heat your tank.

i have a tank that size and kept a breeding group of adult red empress and i don't think it will work having giraffes in there as well. Because the fish get so large they take up a lot of the space available, then when they breed they will defend their female and breeding area from all other fish. That won't leave much space left and having another few large fish to offset i think it won't end well. these will easily get to 20cm and the tank is only the equivalent of 6 fish in total length so not much o work with.

my tanks are always heavily stocked african soup and the surface agitation via pump or spray bar was plenty.

that's the theory the he is saying is wrong based on the other guys theory.

The best thing about keeping Africans is if you're on town supply that it's much closer to what they like than the soft water of American species, the water it's good out of the tap. I'm not on town supply but my tanks are concrete so that also makes the water near what they prefer, if I had plastic tasks then I'd have to setup another tank just for my fish water and buffer it up before doing water changes

i guess this is this what you meant to post?? depending on what species you look at on a species register it might say that but that will be lake conditions and we are far away from that and the fish you get will be many generations from FO fish. Any fish you get will likely come from a tank that has a ph of 7.2 or higher. As long as you have it around that and it is stable they will do well. My ph is around 7.4 and they do extremely well. It is more important to have the conditions near what they need to be and be stable they try to change them to something and run the risk of having it swing and kill the fish.

Your first post states African convicts. You need Ph of about 7.2 or higher. I wouldn't recommend wood as it alters that You'll need filtration of around five or six times the tank volume per hour and heavily stock and feed them. As for what species, decide what your favourites are and post what you think and you'll get help on what goes with what due to there temperament and behaviours.

Convicts aren't African