Your thoughts on setting up a new Cichlid Tank

[Dawn]

Hi Folks

It's been a while since I posted here - at least 18 months or more - but I'm still into my fish although the goldfish are long gone and have been replaced with tropicals.

Now that I'm an old hand at breeding mainly Platies and Bristlenoses I've decided I want to be more adventurous and go into Cichlids. After reading up a lot on them I thought Kribensis would be a good one to start with so purchased myself a pair about ten days ago. I first put them into my community tank but after observing the female trying to attack some of the baby bristlenoses I thought I'd better get a new tank and put them by themselves! I have a new 215 litre tank coming but while I'm waiting to get it and for it to cycle properly I've put them into a small 34 litre tank in the meantime. This tank only has about 7 small bristlenoses in it - the smallest one of which I found dead a few days later - is this tank big enough for them for a few weeks do you think or should I put them straight into the cycling tank when it arrives in a couple of days? I'll be using water and filter pads from my other three tanks to start it off with so it won't be brand new!

I've read that you should also have some 'dither' fish, ie Rosy Barbs which are too fast to be caught, in the tank with them so they don't take out their aggression on each other.

My tap water is very soft and my KH readings are always very low, about 20mg/L, but whenever I add a KH booster of course the PH goes sky high! Someone recently recommended using Argonite which I hadn't heard of before.

I've also read that there is a special gravel for cichlid tanks and wondered if anyone knew if it was available in NZ and if so where?

I'd appreciate your comments on any of the above and if you have anything to add that might be of help or that you think I should know please fire away.

[dan_from_nz]

jbl do a product (although a little deer) that adds salts to your tank to set it up specifically for the african lake cichlids if you go to your closest lfs that sells jbl products they will be able to get it in

good luck

Daniel

[Ira]

I don't see why you're talking about raising the hardness or PH, you haven't mentioned the PH, but kribs like the water a bit acidic and soft, they're NOT african lake cichlids like, say, an electric yellow. They're from the rivers in africa, water wise they'd go better with your average south american cichlids than the lake cichlids.

I'd say throw them in the new tank, seed it from your other tank to get the bacteria jump started. They're tiny fish, probably wouldn't even get the ammonia levels up to a detectable range before the tank cycled.

[Dawn]

Thanks for that Daniel, it doesn't look like I'll need it after all.

Ira, thanks for your comments also. I did say my PH went sky high when I added the KH buffer, well over neutral although I try to maintain it at about 6.8 - 7.0. So if I leave the PH a little acidy what sort of KH reading should the cichlid tank have if I just have the Kribs?

I was really asking how to get and maintain a good KH reading without the PH going too high - or am I confused and don't have to worry about KH?

[Caryl]

I wouldn't worry about it Kribs aren't fussy.

[Ira]

Yeah, don't worry about what the KH is. Especially don't bother trying to raise it because they want it low anyway.

[Dawn]

Okay thanks Caryl and Ira, I won't worry about it then. I think I've read so much over the last few days that I'm starting to get confused about which ones like acid and which ones like alkaline - time to stop reading and start doing....

[livebearer_breeder]

lol ive never checked or had my water checked, just never had a problem so assuming there fine in it!

Shae 250