Originally Posted by clown316
I am stil going to continue working on my bio cube.. but.. i am going to start a large african cichilid tank.. I want a tank that is between 90-180 gallons. Does anyone know if I need to buy a tank that is drilled? like do I need to use a sump, protein skimmer, etc. if it is freshwater?
to answer your questions, there are about 1500 different species of cichlids spread throughout the world having varying needs, so the best thing would be to decide exactly which ones you want to keep.
as far as the great majority of cichlids go, very basic filtration will work. I have 3 HOB filters on a 135 gallon for my African cichlids. a canister filter or wet/dry, any of that would work too. if you keep more fragile species like Discus, you definitely need top notch filtration.
cichlids from different regions should not be mixed together and cichlids from different lakes shouldn't be either. and generally, cichlids shouldn't be kept with non-cichlid fish.
all cichlids are generally aggresive, but not because they're carnivorous, because roughly 50% of cichlids in the world are herbivorous. Central American cichlids are particularly nasty during breeding and because of that, you have to be carefull how you stock. if you have a convict cichlid, only have one or be prepared for a pair to kill all the tank's other fish once they start breeding. African cichlids on the other hand are aggresive because of territory and therefore should be heavily stocked so that aggression is spread throughout the community and no one fish can take over a territory as their own. Oscar are large carnivorous cichlids, so you should plan on a species only tank.
basically what I'm saying, pick which cichlids you want to keep and then find out what they need. different cichlids also prefer different PH levels and cichlids from the 3 African lakes prefer different levels of salt (the 3 lakes aren't completely "freshwater").
I keep mbuna cichlids from Lake Malawi in Africa. the mbuna are 1 of 2 families of cichlids in Malawi (the other being Haps, which include peacocks). I have a few peacocks, but mostly mbuna. I have about 60 in a 135 gallon. they are primarily herbivorous and about 90% of what should be fed is algae, not meat, and definitely not goldfish. if you keep different fish from the same genus, they WILL hybridize, but a majority of the fry won't make it. hybrid cichlids are generally frowned upon in the aquarium trade. the Malawi ph is 8.2 (like saltwater) and slightly salty. there is cichlid salt that you can buy for this and it makes their colors shine. African cichlids will tolerate synodontis catfish, which are very interesting in their own right. I have a few of those as well. mbuna are very personalable and very hardy. where ich is the primary saltwater disease, the primary African cichlid disease is called "bloat". it is an intestinal ailment brought on by poor diet. if not treated, bloat will infect and kill the entire community. but it is very easily treated.
