A little new tank advice needed

[Aaron]

What's going on all I haven't been around here for awhile (June 16 2006 according to my friendly log in message) the job I was working had me on the road too much. In fact I actually gave my fish and tanks away since I wasn't able to take care of them. It's a little sad since the last time I was around here I had a new 110g I was all set to get going and with the moving I never even filled it with water.

Anyway I've since got a better job (or at least a job with no traveling) and I'm starting from scratch I've ordered a new 75g with a custom built stand that should be arriving this week. My plan was to fill it with some nice natural sand and stock it with multies but then I had this vision of people asking me why I was keeping an empty tank in my livingroom. Any ideas on what I could stock to jazz up the upper region of the tank? I'd prefer to keep a Tanganyikan theme going if that was possible.

 

[Orion]

Non-Jumbo Cyps would fit in a 75, like Cyprichromis leptosoma utinta. They may well feed on the smaller fry, but the adults would be fine. These cyps are almost entirely top dwelling, males have a very nice color, while females are the standard brown 'boring' color.

Unless your hoping to have a 500+ colony of multies (which wouldn't be mighty cool in itself ), you could also ponder the idea of a smaller rock dweller as well. But be fore warned, most of the popular picks like calvus and dwarf julies are very adept at fry hunting and will probably put a good dent in the multies fry population. (IME, calvus seem to be over rated as fry hunters and julies aren't given enough credit)

And welcome back

 

[Aaron]

The large colony of multies was what I had in mind I knew they hung out on the bottom I just never got put any thought into what would hang on the top and since I don't know anything about African cichlids I was kind of at a loss. The cyps look nice and my lfs guy said he could get them for me anytime and then he spouted off a ton of latin which I assumed were other varieties of cyps. I was too confused at the time to ask for clarification so I just nodded and tried to remember what he said so I could look it up later. I did the same thing when I asked if he could get some multies in for me I was unaware how many varieties and strains there were but he named a dozen off the top of his head.

Thanks for the welcome back I really missed keeping fish but as soon as I laid down my money for the new tank I remembered the best forum around to head back to for advice.

 

[Orion]

Just keep in mind that there are different types of cyps. Mainly, the jumbo and non-jumbo. In a tank as small as 75 gallons, you'd be better off sticking with the non-jumbo's as you can fit more in the tank, and obviously they'll be better than jumbo's even though some species of jumbo's you can fit at least a few to make a small school in a 75 gallon. With these it's important to research before you buy to make sure you can give the fish the best life possible.

Give Latin some time, lol it grows on you. It can take a while to get used to all the names, but the best advice I can offer on that count is to read as much as you can and eventually it will start to make a little since.

 

[Aaron]

I had originally picked out a 180g but when my wife found out she made me downgrade to the 75g if the store hadn't called to confirm the delivery I would have gotten away with it.

I think she'll like the tank of multies and small cyps and if she likes it enough I might be able to sneak a larger tank in later on it after all it worked the last time.

 

[Orion]

LMAO- the best laid plans of mice and men!

If she doesn't like the little multie fry popping their heads out from the shells, then I don't know what she would like haha. And I forget the recommended numbers for males to females for the cyps, but I think its somewhere in the range of 1 male to 2-3 females. The males will constantly harass the females, so that's why it's good to get more females so they don't constantly stress out a single one.