Dave+Amy Posted May 22, 2009 Report Share Posted May 22, 2009 I originally bought 8 Angels for a theme for the 280L Species tank in my room - BUT after looking at a few African setups I have been left craving for a small African setup. Is it a lot of work to set up and maintain an African tank? Can I combine my Angels with the Discus if I worm them on a bimonthly basis? Or should I get rid of my Angels? (I've grown quite attached to my Angels had them since they were the size of 50cent coins) Not sure whether this should go to the Cichlid section or not. Advice would be greatly appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted May 22, 2009 Report Share Posted May 22, 2009 People generally don't recommend keeping the 2 together due to angels carrying hex which your worming would take care of.. BUT I wouldn't want to be worming my fish that often both for cost of drugs and also the risk that if they do carry anything treating it that often may make it resistant to those drugs, and also the old "don't treat unless something is wrong" thing. Also having owned angels and not being a big fan, I would hate to see them smashing up discus as I found the quite aggressive.. You will find africans alot easier to setup, and maintain than discus, I find them the easiest fish I have kept to keep and breed very easy going no worries if you get busy and skip a water change or can't feed one day etc.. This is probably best in the cichlid section as every question you have asked is based on cichlids Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave+Amy Posted May 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 22, 2009 If anyone with Mod capabilities can move this into the Cichlid section would be awesome... How do you keep the pH up? And what sorts of things can I stick in an African display? Can could I still have GBAs for glass cleaning duties since they're more used to lower pHs? And most importantly - how many fish, which species can I have in a tank that small? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted May 22, 2009 Report Share Posted May 22, 2009 Adding limestone/crushed coral/marble chips etc etc will help keep your ph up I keep bristlenoses in all my african tanks, even with some of the bigger ones and they are fine, just acclimatise them carefully. How big is the tank? As for what fish to stick in it, you mentioned you had seen some tanks you liked just rattle off some of the fish you like and then we can all discus what you might like to go for.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted May 22, 2009 Report Share Posted May 22, 2009 that planted tank link in the -plants section that i posted is massive- but has angels and discus in it. ive also kept them with no probs, but depends on the angels really, as long as its placid, and you keep those WC's up I would keep them together If i had to (I certainly have done in the past). depends on you though amy... what did you want to do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmsmith Posted May 22, 2009 Report Share Posted May 22, 2009 You will find africans alot easier to setup, and maintain than discus, I find them the easiest fish I have kept to keep and breed very easy going no worries if you get busy and skip a water change or can't feed one day etc.. +1,000,000 on that one. They're very undemanding. I have 2 big filters running on the tank, and haven't done a water change in about 4 weeks and didn't feed for a whole week when I was busy at uni and leaving at 6am and not coming home till after lights out, and they were totally fine. Great to watch, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave+Amy Posted May 23, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 23, 2009 My tank is only 280L +/- Ryan - how would I go about acclimatizing? I don't have any spare tanks available. I'd love to collect some big pummice pieces etc to decorate, some big shells, maybe chuck in my Albatross skull to decorate too. Not having any plants. Or at the most tie some of my anubias to some of the decorations in there. I'd love a tank that I didn't have to do waterchanges everyday for And if my tank's already cycled but I'm changing the pH dramatically would I have to re-cycle? I don't know much about Africans - only just started to look at them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VinsonMassif Posted May 23, 2009 Report Share Posted May 23, 2009 I'd love to collect some big pummice pieces etc to decorate, I suggest you soak your pumice for a while prior to putting it into your fish tank. Pumice can contain pockets of sulphur and other harmful substances. I lost a tank of fish from chemicals leaching out of pumice. From then on I have soaked the pumice for a couple of months, changing the water daily, and have not had any more loses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave+Amy Posted May 23, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 23, 2009 I suggest you soak your pumice for a while prior to putting it into your fish tank. Pumice can contain pockets of sulphur and other harmful substances. I lost a tank of fish from chemicals leaching out of pumice. From then on I have soaked the pumice for a couple of months, changing the water daily, and have not had any more loses. Have you tried boiling? Could I just boil the stuff out of them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VinsonMassif Posted May 23, 2009 Report Share Posted May 23, 2009 Never tried it. I would boil it a couple of times to be sure and try it in a tank with less precious fish to start with. Should work tho, depending on how large the pumice is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave+Amy Posted May 23, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 23, 2009 also wouldn't the place you collect the pummice from affect it? if it was fom the beach it would be cleaner than say Rotorua/Lake taupo? Just reading up on how to design an African setup now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted May 23, 2009 Report Share Posted May 23, 2009 You can setup an awesome african tank with 280L You could do a nice tank with dems/yellows as your smaller colourful fish, and a bunch of male peacocks for some larger colour, it would look awesome.. Or if breeding was your thing cut back to a larger colony of one type of peacock.. Really depends what you like from what you have seen. I know of people who have used pumice straight from taupo and had no problems, but I guess the potential is there for it to have stuff in it like everything we stick in our tanks. I think she got it to sink by boiling it and sticking it straight in her tanks hot and it soaked up the water and sunk. Acclimatizing can easily be done gradually in a bucket over a period of hours to upto a day just changing small amounts of water every so often.. I regularly take my bristlenoses from the african tanks (PH 8+) into the dwarf cichlid tanks (PH 6.5) using an ice cream container and changing water over 6-8 hours. Have you decided on the discus/angel thing? I have read alot saying not to, but then some say it is all rubbish.. I would pm the guru and ask him for advice as that is his thing, personally in a smaller tank I wouldn't risk it as I know the angels will be more aggressive and more into their food and that wont work out well for the discus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave+Amy Posted May 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 24, 2009 I think I'm going to have to get rid of my Angels if it comes down to that shame really...unless I set up another tank...... do we have yellow peacocks in NZ? I saw a pic of it on an American shop site and they looked cool. I definately want bright colours and the more placid types - too bad my tank's too small for a Front colony. We're still in the process of decision making, I want an African display in our bedroom but Dave doesn't like them and wants the Angel display. Just weighing up the pro's + cons of each Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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