55 gallon african cichlid tank

55 gallon african cichlid tank

This tank is the home of:

2 Julidochromis transcriptus juveniles (well, 1 1" fish and 1 1.5" fish) that I bought in the spring of 1997 from the annual NEC auction
6 Labidochromis freibergi, about 2" long)
1 pair of juvenile Labeotropheus trewavasae, orange blotch morphs
1 adult male "Pseudotropheus grashaeki or greshaki" ?? (species uncertain)

I know that many people choose to set up rift lake tanks in a "biotope" style, choosing to only put fish in their tank which would naturally occur near each other, or at least in the same lake. This was the idea I started wiht, but unfortunately, I didn't know exactly where these fish came from when I bought them, and as it turns out, the Labidochromis come from Lake Malawi, and the Julidochromis come from Lake Tangyanika. Oh well. We're hoping to eventually find a mate for the lone "greshaki" fish, and perhaps add a synodontis species.

Right now, it has about 1" of dolomite as the substrate (a donation from a sweet fellow TFCB member, Max), and the tank has a wall of slate covering the whole length, about 2/3 of the height, and the back half of the front-to-back depth. There are a fair number of hiding places in these pieces of slate, and a good growth of algae on them. They also hide the intake tubes for 2 small hang on the back power filters and a submersible heater. The tank is lit by a single light strip (2 24" lights), which I consider extremely dim.

Some experiences I've had: Julidochromis transcriptus seem to be much more sensitive to changes in water conditions than the Labidochromis species I've worked with. I lost 3 of my 5 Juli.s within 24 hours of a 40% or so water change. I tried to match the temperature, salinity, etc. and add the water slowly, but it was still too shocking. They looked fine that night, but were floating the next morning. I felt like a REAL idiot. I never do more than 10% water changes now, and the remaining two seem to be doing fine. I keep the tank closer to Malawi conditions in terms of hardness and pH (I believe), which may partially account for their stress. I'm thinking of eventually moving the two I have to their own 20 gallon tank. We'll see.

I'd be interested to know how other people condition their water for rift lake fish, and what water parameters they tend to test for, etc. If you have any suggestions, please e-mail me, thanks!

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Last Modified October 27, 1997