African Cichlid Aquarium

Brian Van Fleet

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My daughter has been asking to set up another cichlid tank for a few years now. In a moment of weakness, my wife conceded, so we sprang on it. Bought the biggest tank we could find, 75 gallons. Believe it or not, the first one leaked. Second one works fine, but I probably need to get a better hood. Over the last few weeks, we’ve been adding peacocks and haps. Who knows how long the starter mollies will last, but they seem oblivious to the danger, and the cichlids don’t actually appear to notice them either.
Whole tank:
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Gary McCarthy

Chumono
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NICE Brian!

A decade or so ago I use to do discus. Several large tanks which were all drilled to accommodate a large central filtration system. Pretty fancy set up but then I got tired of doing all the water changes and changed over to poison dart frogs.
 

BobbyLane

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Nice set up. ive kept big cichlids in the past, central/south american. dovii, oscar, red devil,convict, arawana, catfish, jaguar, few others i can't remember the names of.
this will be nice once you get it established with lots of different varieties of african cichlids, i know they love a 'busy' tank:cool:
 

Wires_Guy_wires

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Perfect environment to do underwater bonsai! I have seen some cool things being done with java moss and skeletons of dead bonsai trees. I think it was called aquascaping.
 

Dav4

Drop Branch Murphy
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Looks great. I took down my 75 gal cichlid tank a few years ago. The kids weren't into it any more and it was more work then fun at that point. I do happen to have several pieces of Texas holy rock in the yard for sale, including an awesome 75+ pounder!
 

jimib

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NICE Brian!

A decade or so ago I use to do discus. Several large tanks which were all drilled to accommodate a large central filtration system. Pretty fancy set up but then I got tired of doing all the water changes and changed over to poison dart frogs.
Years ago I bred different types of pythons and boas. One month setting up at a show a guy offered to trade me a 10 gallon set up with a pair of azure blue dart frogs for a Brazilian Rainbow Boa. The tank and frogs looked so cool I couldn’t say no.... I was hooked.
 

Leo in N E Illinois

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I used to breed kribensis. I liked that they prefer a planted tank. I found the plants almost more interesting than the fish. Sold a lot of Cryptocoryne to the local shop, they grew well. Also did killies for a while.

You got a nice tank there. Love the red.
 

Steve C

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Welcome to the addiction Brian. It starts with one tank, then in a few years you'll be like me and find yourself with over 700g+ of tanks running and say to yourself "how did this happen" :eek::D

Good looking fish, keep an eye on the dolphins (moorii) they can be a bit rowdy when they start to reach adults size. I've got a trio of them in my 240g Hap/mbuna tank that are about 7" at the moment and they like to cause trouble even in the big tank.
 

Brian Van Fleet

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Welcome to the addiction Brian. It starts with one tank, then in a few years you'll be like me and find yourself with over 700g+ of tanks running and say to yourself "how did this happen" :eek::D

Good looking fish, keep an eye on the dolphins (moorii) they can be a bit rowdy when they start to reach adults size. I've got a trio of them in my 240g Hap/mbuna tank that are about 7" at the moment and they like to cause trouble even in the big tank.
Thanks, I’ve had tanks off and on for most of my life, and this one is the largest. Last time we had a breeding pair of moorii and they hatched when I was out of town for a week. My wife and kids got to enjoy watching them for a little while, but I wasn’t home in time to separate them, and none made it. They were always pretty mellow for haps, but I’ll keep an eye on them. The bright Red is definitely the rowdy one.
 

It's Kev

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I used to have oscarfish. I’ll get a tank again the minute I have enough space
 

Rid

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Great looking fish!

Seems like there is a pretty good overlap between bonsai and aquariums. I used to have a 75 gal cichlids tank, too. I wonder why that is?
 

Smoke

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Probably hovering around the top so he can commit suicide when appropriate
 
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