Billaney Posted August 25, 2005 Report Share Posted August 25, 2005 Hi We are in the process of setting up a new cichlid tank for my wife Malawi Cichilds, its and AR980 and about 215 L, We desided to start from scartch and not use old water from there temp tank and new substrate etc, This of course ment cycleing the tank which is where we are at now We started by just adding 10 young swordtails last weekend and on Wednesday added another 10 making 20 little guys doing there thing in there, all good so far but my problem is this ... When its cycled and ready to go do i add all her cichlids ( about 14 ) and risk an ammonia spike , possably killing some fish or at least making them very unhappy OR do i add them slowly and have them be aggresive towards the new comer and possably killing them , i have read cichlids should be introduced very close togetheris not at the same time so pecking orders and hiding places can be claimed. We have left space for more rocks or caves to be added later so new hiding places can be added if need be. What do you guys think ?? Thanks Paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted August 25, 2005 Report Share Posted August 25, 2005 Just slowly fill the tank up with more and more fry until you have the equivalent of the amount of waste of the cichlids (174 sword fry should do the trick, easily). Then all at once, move the fry out and the cichlids in once the tank is cycled and ready to go. Fry really don't care where they grow up as long as they're safe (and any straglers wil undoubtedly become fish food). Now... why didn't you at least seed the filter with media from the old filters? That would speed up the process, but at the least use Cycle or the rest of the commercial additives to speed it along. Anyways, the tank looks great! Will be doing something similar when I get my darn Congos out and the 3ft tank set up as a cichlid tank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HummingBird Posted August 25, 2005 Report Share Posted August 25, 2005 You could try slowly adding the cichlids but then rearranging the tank when they're all in there so their territories get messed up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monaro1 Posted August 25, 2005 Report Share Posted August 25, 2005 when i put my cichlids in a new home i put them in one at a time ,weekest to strongest, around 1 hour apart, then every coupel of fish i change the caves so thay dont get to settled and try to defend a cave againest a fish that is way to big for it,my small jack tryes to take on a very large red head.for him i build a few small homes that none of the bigger fish can get into,he will usually settel for one of these instead of the nice big cave. i find i need at least one home per fish and a coupel of extras in case thay decide to move. hope all goes well in the move, new tank looks great,alpine shist always looks good.2 or 3 more layers of rocks would cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wok Posted August 25, 2005 Report Share Posted August 25, 2005 I agree with Monaro.... add fish one at a time and rearrange the caves with every addition so that territories are mixed up and they then have to reaffirm the boundaries. Happy shifting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caserole Posted August 26, 2005 Report Share Posted August 26, 2005 Well I agree with B&K, if you put the fry in as they grow they will make more and more waste as they grow. young growing fish, if feed well do produce a lot more waste per cm of fish then a large - full grown fish "" in most cases"" > and livebearers ( females )produce more waste per cm of fish then most egg layers ? true or false Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billaney Posted August 26, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2005 Thanks everone All good advice and much appeciated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted August 28, 2005 Report Share Posted August 28, 2005 When I set up my Malawi tank I used 4 large goldfish to cycle it then removed them and added all the cichlids (very small) all at once. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misnoma Posted August 28, 2005 Report Share Posted August 28, 2005 When I moved to one of those type tanks I cheated a little. I pulled half the noodles/bioballs out of the cannister filter I had on the old tank, put em in the media containers on the AR tank (easy to get to etc) and hurled half the fish in. After a week I moved the media back, put the rest of the fish in, and stocked the old tank with some comm fish just to keep the filter going. Didn't get any ammonia spikes in either tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jude Posted August 28, 2005 Report Share Posted August 28, 2005 Now look misnoma, you really shouldn't hurl fish - its just not done you know Jude Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billaney Posted August 28, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 28, 2005 Update : We have now added more swordtails into the tank ( up to 33 now ) and some plant at the back and another top level and more caves, starting to look good we think . The levels are starting to settle down so maybe by wednesday or maybe next weekend we plan to take all the swordtails out at once and add all the cichlids Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misnoma Posted August 28, 2005 Report Share Posted August 28, 2005 Now look misnoma, you really shouldn't hurl fish - its just not done you know Jude Saves getting water on the carpet carrying em in a net :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jude Posted August 28, 2005 Report Share Posted August 28, 2005 Thats looking really great billaney - can't wait to see it in real life And LOL Misnoma Cheers Jude Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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