nudge

+1 on the fine. I have this in my cichlid tank, its really good, fine enough for the fish to dig around in and easy to vac and keep clean, a little will get sucked out but its easy to scoop outta the bucket and put back in

Tangs are another type of cichlid, african but not from lake malawi, they are from a lake called tanganyika. You might get a pair of kribensis in that tank, they are a riverine cichlid cool colours and i think they stay fairly small. I've never kept them so will let someone else chime in who has experience with them. Apistos could be another one to look at as someone else suggested previously.

Vaccing the top of the sand and not giving it a good stir around will not get rid of all the detritus. You need to stir the sand around as suggested, this will stir up any detritus that may have moved to the bottom of the substrate, dont rely on your fish to stir it up as they will only really sift the top layers of sand and waste will slowly make it way to the bottom layers.

welcome phil lots of good advice on here. I recommend you research thoroughly your stocking for an aquarium this small. From memory the 620s are 620hx380dx750h and although they are 100l+ all the volume comes from the height which is of no use to cichlids. They are very territorial and in a tank that small there is no room for territories and if you stock with mbuna(dems and yellows) these are rock dwelling fish so you will have alot of empty space in your tank unless you stack the rocks pretty high. If you go for a big rock pile it will take away what limited space you already have. The dems and yellows will work if you get them as juvies but they will outgrow this tank, if you consider that you need at least 15 dems to control aggressin and if you want a colony of yellows 1m 4f thats gonna be 20 odd fish that reach around 10cm as adults. You may get away with a 1m 4f yellow lab colony but but it will be hit or miss. This is just my opinion, not saying it def won't work but chances are high it won't the tank is to small. Have you thought about angels i think the do ok in tall narrow tanks. Like i said, I'm not an expert and this is just my opinion. I setup my first cichlid tank in a 4fter and stocked it with fish that would get to big, 6mnths later i had to upgrade to a 5fter, should have gone for a 6fter in hindsight. With cichlids you can never go to big with a tank

good articles rcon cheers

Wow those reds are beautiful, are they a line bred stuartgranti maleri strain?

Altos and calvus are awesome. I'm interested to know what you keep as tankmates for these guys. Are you keeping them in tang tanks or mixed lake tanks?

hes a beauty, nice fush

You could thin down your yellows, 20 is quite alot. That would give you a few more options for stocking. I would stick with mbuna only as the red tops are pretty aggro, i wouldnt think that haps and peacocks would be very happy in there. Ryan had some tropheops a while back they might work quite well nice colours with the females as well.

Nice setup those eyebiters look awesome, how do you find the tropheops, heard they can be pretty nasty?

Yeah I've read that before its a great site. I stocked my tank along those guide lines but from my experience, which granted is pretty limited as that was my first all male tank, i found that even if you stock with fish that are considered to be compatible sometimes it just doesnt work, peaceful fish can turn aggro just as aggressive fish can be pretty chilled. I kinda take their "temperament" as a basic guide as it doesnt always hold true. The 2 fish that gave me the most problems were a placidichromis electra and a red fin kadango boreyli both considered to be relatively peaceful. I grew them all up together as juvies pretty much, and i think what happened is they all matured at the same time and all started throwin their weight around at once.

what have you got in ya all male tank? what size tank? My all male set up didnt work, everyone chased everyone and i had no luck keeping multiple peacocks most of mine were fine with the haps but would not tolerate each other, in the end i had to remove 11 fish. I kept 4. Have 1 peacock and 6 haps and a couple of small breeding groups, labs and rusties. Would like to try and add a few more peacocks and a couple more haps.

I didnt know there were red top lwanda in the country thats why i assumed he was some kind of baenschi hes a stunner!

Wow! love the bottom sunshine to is he a baenschi? the colours on that albino are amazing

What size are they all at at the moment?

that lemon jake and eureka are cool, oh and the dragonsblood, and the albinos, i want all of them!

Wow beautiful fish some of the nicest peacocks i've seen. Look forward to more pics.

looks good holly, those mbuna will be lovin all that rock.

i reckon it looks good to. I had no luck with plants, i couldnt get my java fern to grow and the val was demolished by the giraffe. So am pretty happy with my barren rockscape at the moment. I have been thinkin about trying some anubius, i hear they are pretty hardy.

nice, that looks heaps better, well done.

very cool i like it, whats in there?

I'm also wondering what kinda paint would be safe to use. Once i've made the spray bar i want to sand it and paint it black as i think the white pvc will stick out like a sore thumb, any ideas on what paint i could use?

Sorry my bad, now i get it, my brain just clicked! cheers guys

Keh? Not the pipe itself. the pvc cement, is the glue safe to use?

i have brought an fx5 filter and have decided to make a spray bar instead of using the dual outlet thingy. Just wondering if the ados PVC cement is ok to use in fish tanks. I'm assuming that because it is used in homes for water pipes etc it is ok to use, i have seen a few overseas forumns that have used pvc cement. Anyone had any experience with it?