Where are you located? If in the Austin area, I'd be happy to come by and share what I know. I used to do the FW thing then went full ****** and got into reef tanks.
Have a 200g African Cichlid tank and love it. Cichlids have "personality" that other fish don't. They are fascinating mouth brooders and are hardy. They are hard to kill. Most of my fish are 5 to 8 years old. They may kill each other if poorly chosen however. You can go a month between water changes in a pinch. Compared to salt water fish they are very easy to maintain.TKEAg04 said:
I have a 75g all male hap/peacock cichlid tank. Its HEAVILY overstocked, but I HEAVILY over-filtered it.
A word to the wise on African cichlids - they are very aggressive and must be overstocked to do well IMO. Especially if you keep any females with your males. If you understock, you end up with an alpha that will destroy any other males in his way. Overstocking keeps the aggression way down because there are way too many fish to have one be singled out.
Also, if you do African cichlids, add them in small batches, but never one at a time. There is a hierarchy set up in tanks and adding one makes all of them aggressive to the new guy.
It's a fun and relaxing hobby!
JonSnow said:
Back before I had kids and when I was very in to my aquariums I kept a separate 20g tank to pull out mouth brooding mothers so they could safely raise their young. Then would sell the young back to the fish store. It was a ton a work but fascinating to watch.
This is why I enjoy watching African cichlids. Even the Congo river cichlids.Quote:
Cichlids have "personality" that other fish don't.