Time Sensitive Question… Please Help…

ginarox

ginarox

Active Member
also,,,chilids are very hardy,,,,,all i used was two filters on the back of the aquarium the brand was called whisper,,, i did a water change once a month...and i just bought the test streps at walmart, there were two kinds of test strips one was for to check your ph, etc....and the other was for anomina,,, and you have to buy this stuff that takes out the chlorine in your water......blowers....going fancy there are we.....lol......here is a close up ,,,,have a great night
 
fishrule

fishrule

Member
Originally Posted by ginarox
you dont have to add aquarium salt if you dont want to,,, i used it ... and it works really well,,,, i suggested it due to the fact that you were asking how to keep them alive,,, i just know that it works for me,,,and when you buy the aquarium salt it well tell you how many teaspoons per gallon.... it is just like garlic extreme for your saltwater fish,,,everyone believes it helps the fish.....thats the same with aquarium salt for fresh water fish,.....have a great night.....

I did end up buying the Salt for the water changes... So Thanks... :cheer:
I was trying to find answers by surfing the cichlidforums.com and as far as I can tell, some of the guys on there are confused and giving out false information, so I went with all of the suggestions from you guys, because I trust people here a lot more...
 
fishfiend

fishfiend

Member
well i dont know about all of you guys,
but ive had alot of success keeping ciclids.
I have a 120 Gallon freshwater with 3 african ciclids in it right now.
the ph is a 8.4 and the nitrates are kinda high, but they dont seem to care.
i feed them the "ciclid only" pellet food every day, and ill buy feeder fish for them bi-weekly.
i dont have a thermometer in the tank, so the temperature is basically just room temperature. (no heater either )
the ciclids are doing awsome.
my albino oscar is almost 10 inches long.
IMO they arent very hard to care for at all.
ive had this setup going like this for over 2 years, and i havnt lost a fish (besides the feeders)
i dont use any type of salt during my monthly water changes. (40%)
 
fishfiend

fishfiend

Member
also, i dont have any stacks of that rock stuff.
i have 2 air stones, some live plant growing at the bottom and some decorative pillars and sunken ship type things.
i also have plastic floating plants hanging from the top.
 
xdave

xdave

Active Member
@ fishfiend and ginarox, neither of you have African Cichlids. One has Convicts in a ph over 8 and the other has Parrots fish. All SA's, none even close to the same requirements as AC's. Hey let me know if you get the Red Parrots to breed, I'll pay huge money for them.

When you know thats a burn, then you're gettin warmer.

Anyways FishRule,
I see that now they make African Cichlid substrate, see if you can get that, if not or too expensive, I wouldn't go more than 10% - 15% higher, every AC guy I've ever met used crushed coral, ( you meet a lot when your best friend takes you to African Cichlid Association meetings

In my pic, the orange one is a Zebra, they may have black splotches and be anywhere from almost red to bright yelow. The light blue is called electric blue, and the one in the upper left, blue with black stripe, I think the call those peacock blue or neon blue, not sure about the dark one by the zebra but he might just be a horny electric. Those would all be typical of what you get in an asst. tank. Dont worry they're easy (appearantly even if you dont have them
)
 
fishman8

fishman8

New Member
Dude.... Your going to spend way to much money listening to all this. I have had an african tank going for many years and the only thing you need to do is use tap water and start right from walmart. On your 10-20% water change at least the very minumin of two weeks. Check out Waterwolves dot com. They are a very resourceful freshwater site. And truly experts on the field. There are many diffrent types of African Cichlids including Malawi, Tangani, Lake Victorian and so on... you need to decide which group you are working with, becuase they behave diffrently. Gravel will work the best. They are diggers. Will eat live plants.. and need a cave like enviroment for hiding... yours sound to be full grown. Make sure they are fighting and not pairing up... They will swim circles around and around and around.. its a mating dance in a way.
 
xdave

xdave

Active Member
You can just say "use tap" . Whats tap?
The water at your house, his house, the customers office? If you haven't tested the water he would be using than what are you basing your water treatment advice on? What if his tap is hard unchlorinated well water with a ph around 8, why would he use Start Right. Is this a dentist office where the whole supply for the building goes through an R/O that basically removes al the characteristics suitable for AC's? Is this and old office building with all lead pipes?
This isn't even an apples and oranges comparison, more like apples and whats behind curtian 2.
 
fishman8

fishman8

New Member
Originally Posted by xDave
You can just say "use tap" . Whats tap?
The water at your house, his house, the customers office? If you haven't tested the water he would be using than what are you basing your water treatment advice on? What if his tap is hard unchlorinated well water with a ph around 8, why would he use Start Right. Is this a dentist office where the whole supply for the building goes through an R/O that basically removes al the characteristics suitable for AC's? Is this and old office building with all lead pipes?
This isn't even an apples and oranges comparison, more like apples and whats behind curtian 2.
Let me spell it out for you. Tap water = water from faucet that comes from any city water district or a well. RO water = water that has been through a RO unit. Now that we know the difference, African's are very hardy fish. They do not have to be constantly monitored like saltwater. The only thing you have to worry about is the nitrates. Anyone who tells you that a water change is only needed every 2-3 months obviously has a really dirty house. Start Right brings the water parameters where they need to be. You are making this much more difficult than it has to be. My advice is go to any forum that specializes in this type of fish instead of one that talks about some totally different.....
 
ginarox

ginarox

Active Member
ok whatever!!! i am not going to argue what kind of fish i had, if you would scroll up to #4 you will see a close up of my chilid, also with a green severon,, but i sold my fresh water aquarium so i could get a saltwater aquarium, i was ready for a new challenge...fresh water is very easy... will fishrule , i hope this has helped you out.....have a great day....
 
fishrule

fishrule

Member
You guys are helping... :cheer:
I'm sure I have an idea of what I need to do in order to move this clients tank and clean it. :notsure:
I will keep checking this thread to make sure I'm not missing any new information. Till then, I will ask the client if he would like to change the appearance of his tank and allow me to add more hiding places (Rock) so I can stock upwards of 15 fish. Also, his gravel is dark red and is very dirty from 6 years of fish poo, so I might upgrade him to CC... It only costs $20.00/40lbs...
 
fishman8

fishman8

New Member
Originally Posted by ginarox
ok whatever!!! i am not going to argue what kind of fish i had, if you would scroll up to #4 you will see a close up of my chilid, also with a green severon,, but i sold my fresh water aquarium so i could get a saltwater aquarium, i was ready for a new challenge...fresh water is very easy... will fishrule , i hope this has helped you out.....have a great day....

green severon is not an african cichlid belive me i know... is is a south american. And would have gotten quite large, same with the blood parrots
 
xdave

xdave

Active Member
Yes I know the definition of tap water. I'm saying that the characteristics of tap water are too widely varied from location to location to use the same technique for all, therefore you cannot give advice on how it should be prepared unless you know what the characteristics of that particulaar areas tap water is. In Michigan he could be using water out of 100 year old lead soldered pipe, the well water could by anywhere from hard as a rock to acid rain. Are you suggesting that all these examples of 'Tap" water should be treated the same? Isn't "what is your water supply like" the first thing a good lfs store worker would ask you when inquiring about how to prepare it?
I suggested changing whatever water was lost during regular cleaning would be fine, you saw the scared face emoticon by the decription of what my buddy does, did you actually take that to mean I would suggest that? I thought that meant that idea was scary.
JesikaRose, I like your fish, I'd put in some more rock if they fight. They're harum breeders so 2 or 3 femals for every male works good.
 
fishman8

fishman8

New Member
The guy obvoiusly had the tank running for a while to have algae growing. The fish have a certain amout of agression to them which is more than likely causing the problems. Believe it or not, african cichlids are the hardiest fish available with the exception of the SA and CA cichlids and betta fish. They can take problems with water. No matter where he lives in Michigan, someone is keeping fish alive on tap water, and they are doing fine. They will basically eat any type of food that they can fit in their mouths. You don't want live plants unless you are prepared to replace them with the biweekly water changes. Africans really shred plants. You will have people tell you to use only RO water and buy only African Cichlid food, but it is not necessary. The most important thing is the hiding places. They need many more hiding places than you have fish. I have a Kenyi that digs out holes in the gravel for a hiding place, but he is the dominant of the tank. He will make a cave for himself and then leave it to dig another while a Lab takes his old spot. These fish are very intellegent and hardy. You won't have a problem as long as you keep the agression down. The higher the temp, the higher the agression. Try starting out at around 78 and knocking it down a degree a week till about 74. This will help keep your fish alive.
You will have some people on here that will give you the textbook answers that you will get from the lfs. I have experimented to find out what works best and why it works that way. I suggest you do the same. Every fish has a different personality, so learn the fish. When adding fish, try to get minnows and throw in at the same time to draw attention away from the new cichlids. If any minnows live for a couple weeks, take them out and feed to something else.
 
jesikarose

jesikarose

Member
I did add more rocks.. thanks... But Since getting into salt... I had to give up my babies to a good friend who is taking really good care of them... they have two kids and i love going over there and watching the kids watch the fish... the 2 year old knows the diffrence between the fish and sharks and she will point them out... she thought the sharks would bite.. and so itold her they were nice.. so she points them out and says fishy nice... sharky nice.. over and over lol... i love kids
 
fishman8

fishman8

New Member
Originally Posted by JesikaRose
I did add more rocks.. thanks... But Since getting into salt... I had to give up my babies to a good friend who is taking really good care of them... they have two kids and i love going over there and watching the kids watch the fish... the 2 year old knows the diffrence between the fish and sharks and she will point them out... she thought the sharks would bite.. and so itold her they were nice.. so she points them out and says fishy nice... sharky nice.. over and over lol... i love kids

Stories like this make all the money spent in aquariums worth it. Cute.
 
ginarox

ginarox

Active Member
Originally Posted by Fishman8
green severon is not an african cichlid belive me i know... is is a south american. And would have gotten quite large, same with the blood parrots
i know that.....it was just in the picture.... the blue fish is a chilid...thanks though ......if you will scroll up to #4 you will see the picture of the blue chilid and a green severon, which i know that its not a chilid, that is just the kind of fish i had with my chilid... i hope that clears it all up.....ok have a great day ......
 
xdave

xdave

Active Member
I took my daughter to where I worked ( a really big livestock distributor) when she was about 6. She cut her finger so I went to get a bandage. When I came back she was gone, I found her holding her cut finger in the Nurse Sharks' tank. She thought it would fix it for her.
 
hardcrab67

hardcrab67

Member
Well to clear my end up. I stated the buffer I used for proper pH for Africans. I recently just got out of South Americans and could of swore that the pH for Africans were just a bit higher, but not above neutral. The buffer is by Seachem, none the less. Didn't mean to misinform the numbers, sorry.
 
S

saltfreak4

Guest
You guys argue about everything. I love it!! Lot's of information in the arguments, I learn a lot
I have never kept chiclids but I have a close friend with like 5 tanks or something, he adds the salt to the water. This man has never had an ich attack and his fish live forever and they are huge. ADD THE SALT JMO
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top