First post

Hi all I've been watching the boards and looking through all the good information for awhile now, even posted some free large plecos which got removed because I guess I needed to post a few times first(oops). I've had a tank for about a year now, started with 10 gallon for my son(now 4 years old) talked wife into letting me upgrade to 55, then came across free 72 bowfront on Craigslist which is what I'm in now. It's stocked with African cichlids currently and my whole family enjoys watching them. I will have to get some pictures once I get it setup where I'm happy with it, after cycling through many decoration themes including Rome, beachfront, riverbed, now it's setup with polished river rock substrate with key largo rock cave structure built up in the middle surrounded by plants.

Nice to see you posting. Welcome....

.oOWELCOME!

Pictures would be cool. Sounds like you've changed decor a few times (like myself). Soon you'll have a section of your garage dedicated to aquatics.... (like myself) Ha!

Oh yes I have a box in the garage and a box in the utility room that I need to go through and purge. I'm going to rearrange stuff in there tomorrow when my new canister filter arrives and I will get some pictures after its done!

Welcome. What type of Africans do you have?

My first 3 were out of the "mixed african cichlids" from petsmart, one is a kenji, other is electric yellow, and a albino, then I picked up some peacocks from a breeder in Renton, and I just added some Metraclima aurora, Pseudotrooheous saulosi and Synodontis petricola that I got from a guy that was moving out of state. There is also a leporinus fasciatus that my wife wanted when I started this hobby.

I did the leporinus fasciatus back when I had a Kenji. The kenji was very territorial and had a 29 gal all to himself for several years, I couldn't find any fish he could live with, even other kenjis, he took on the name Bruiser cause he would kick anyone's butt that dared to share his tank. The leporinus fasciatus was the only fish he didn't seem to mind, they're a cool addition to cichlid tanks if you're looking to get some variety in the there

Our Leporanus is a wuss, he hides most of the time, the kenji which is about 3-4" thought he was the ruler of the tank until the auroras were added, they are about 5-6" and the kenji tried bullying one of them and got put in his place, now the entire tank is peaceful

Haha, only way to stop a bully is with another bully, Bruiser was about 6 inches, large and in charge... Yeah Leporanus' like their hiding spots, particularly narrow rocky ones, same way in the wild. Mine would just keep his head poking out of his cave most of the time, my friends thought he was a cool looking eel. He'd pop out during feeding time.