my 2 species tanks.

Its not common for me to want to do a single species tank. But as space is getting tighter, I am trying to figure out what to do with these few little tanks I have setup. I just have a picture of each tank, and its nothing fancy. But getting my feet wet with african cichlids has so far proven to be pretty cool. After looking at some of the tanks you guys posted in the full tank thread. I got some ideas as to what I wanted my tanks to look like.

Multi tank 10 gallon
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Brichardi tank 20L
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Thanks for looking.

o man i dig both of those setups. i really like how you took our rock brainstorming to heart. really looks like u put some thought into which rocks and how you placed them. really like em and hope someday that 40 long will turn into a brichardi species setup

that brichardi pair did a number on there fry. Must have maybee 7 or 8 young left. Its like they are starting with the big ones and working there way to the small ones. Just killing them one at a time. There nuts. You wer'nt playing anthraxx.

lol SEE i told you. and madness was trying to say they love theyre young... not that pair hahaha. isolate just them until they decide to breed some more. thatd be what id do. forget keeping any babies at all in with em. i personally would pop em in that monster tank u got for growout.

I don't mix cichlids. They seemed like they were just put into a new tank. You know when you buy 6 and let them pair up naturally? They kill off anything remaining.. I think they forgot or something that it was there fry. And then paired up "again" and killed off all the others. There's only a small handfull left.

My leleupi pair behaves similarly. It's the male that does the killing and he seems to start picking the older ones off shortly before the pair spawns again. But he hasn't always been that way. There have been times when I've had two or three broods all growing up together with the pair in the tank. I guess he's becoming more intolerant in his old age.

I like both of those setups, fish n vw. They are looking good.

Digging those smaller tanks. You are really tempting me toward Africans in my 29g. Then again I could probably sneak in another small tank or two without an issue.

Well D, there's are a bit more choices for africans if you go up just slightly bigger then a 29. When doing research I saw a large amount of cool setups in 36" tanks. Its only 6" longer but it seemed to be you double the diffrent types of fish you can keep. And you can set up communitys instead of doing species tanks. There's a fare amount of research to be when when setting up communitys though, because they are so much diffrent then american cichlids. So it was all pretty foreign to me. And evidently, malawi and victorian cichlids are supposedly easier to make a community out of. But that's just what I read. Good luck with whatever you decide.

personally id say the 33 longs. that are like 4 feet but short. thats my ideal african tank. sure you can only do maybe a species tank but still its a lot of bang for your buck.

I'm a big fan of 30BR, which is the same 36"x18" footprint as a 40BR but shorter, same height as a 20L (12"). I don't own any and ended up buying 40BR @ Petco's $1/gal sale but I'd buy any of the 30BR I could find to replace them with.

Anthraxx wrote:lol SEE i told you. and madness was trying to say they love theyre young... not that pair hahaha. isolate just them until they decide to breed some more. thatd be what id do. forget keeping any babies at all in with em. i personally would pop em in that monster tank u got for growout.

Well then I invite you over to check out 4 different spawns, 50 babies, swimming and coexisting with mom and dad and 1 other pair is also spawning and both pairs are protecting each others spawns. So, maybe you just dont know what your doin.

Anthraxx, betty, dmd... hey sorry just reread your posts.. thank you for the nice words. I am happy with the way they look. I am hoping to start seeing fry and watch what these guys can do.

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Just a short video of my multie tank, nothing to exciting.

madness my pair was KILLERS! they dont take kindly to theyre kind around here.. lolz.

Anthraxx wrote:madness my pair was KILLERS! they dont take kindly to theyre kind around here.. lolz.

Well VW if you want some Brichardi that know what they are suppose to do, let me know.

I think these guys will be just fine as a colony. When I added them to this tank, I think it reset everything. I think they had to pair back up and show all the extra (unpaired) brichardi who the bosses were. You know like when you 6 and wait for a pair. When the pair forms they get rid of all the unpaired fish. I think that is what happend. I think these fish were such killers in anthraxxs' tank because it was a pretty small tank. Only being 24" long. I also think that the way it was set up was another reason for the aggression. It seemed ther was only one territory. With only one territory, the parents had to defend it. I am hoping that the extra 6" on this tank and the two seperate areas, the younger fish will have somewhere to retreat to if the parents decide to freak out. But time will tell. As it is right now the younger fish have been killed down to two. And it looks like the adults are calmed down. I think all is well. I'm feeding brine, and omega one cichlid flakes. They eat both with enthusiasm.

the brine will get you mad babies.. like you wouldnt believe. youll see. i also reccomend you get a sponge prefilter on there or risk losing a lot of offspring.

madness wrote:

Anthraxx wrote:madness my pair was KILLERS! they dont take kindly to theyre kind around here.. lolz.

Well VW if you want some Brichardi that know what they are suppose to do, let me know.

I might take you up on this, I will have to come and look at yours to see there markings, I will be trying to get very nicely marked offspring. And although my male has great markings the female does not, she also has this hump head thing that dident bother me untill anthraxx pointed it out. So I will be doing some things in the line to try to get more ideal brichardi.. and from the sounds of it, these guys are so easy to breed a few generations of line breeding will bring out some of those lost traits. But I would like to keep a diverse blood line as well so I will probably pick up a few from you. I just want to do the species justice, and what a better way then to wean out the bad eggs with undesirable traits. It will also allow me to have some live food for my big guys.

i personally would leave her be in there. then try and get another pair going somewhere else. then wean over a new female for that big pretty boy and see what happens. might be tough but well worth it if your after your own line.. just dont cross em too many times lol