I recently started my new 29g cichlid tank! I seeded it with gravel from my previous tank, so its already cycled, all tests good, although my water is a little too soft for a rift tank (75ppm). Ph is about 7.8, cause I'm raising it gradually so I don't hurt my clown loaches (I've had them for a little while, so I'm pretty attached to Fattie and Jigsaw!) I'm using black gravel, mixed with white marble, along with some blue gravel from my older 10g aquarium. It is about 1/4 of an inch over most of the bottom, and I have an aquatech 20-40 with a biowheel added, and temporarily a tetra whisper 5-15 filter from my 10g for bacteria seeding purposes until my penguin 330 comes in this week. Big rocks are expensive/tough to get here, and heavy, so I have it decorated with 2 fake tree trunk things from petsmart, a big plastic holey rock, a fake piece of drift wood, a couple dwarf willy plants for them to nibble on, and a vallerius? plant. Its a thick grass blade type plant, and there are also a few fake plants to break up the tank a little. And also some floating anacharises. Here's the fish:
1 Male Kenyi (A little over 2 inches)
2 Female Kenyis (A little over 2" and almost 2")
2 Convicts (A little over 1" and about 3/4", don't know sexes)
1 Blue Gourami (About 3", he is one mean b@$tard, he can hold his own with the Kenyis!)
7 Zebra Danios (~1" each, dither/target fish)
2 Clown Loaches (~2" each, a boy & girl, like it would matter for a few years!)
My other 10g has the female gourami, a male betta, and 7 small rosy red feeders in quarantine.
Just looking for feedback, this is how the tank will stay for a while!
1 Male Kenyi (A little over 2 inches)
2 Female Kenyis (A little over 2" and almost 2")
2 Convicts (A little over 1" and about 3/4", don't know sexes)
1 Blue Gourami (About 3", he is one mean b@$tard, he can hold his own with the Kenyis!)
7 Zebra Danios (~1" each, dither/target fish)
2 Clown Loaches (~2" each, a boy & girl, like it would matter for a few years!)
My other 10g has the female gourami, a male betta, and 7 small rosy red feeders in quarantine.
Just looking for feedback, this is how the tank will stay for a while!
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) He seems to be getting along well too, he has some really cool coloring right now, and he swims wherever he wants. The danios stay near the top in a cool school, so my big yellow kenyi barley notices them, and my clowns like to school with the convicts. The clowns also don't seem to care about the kenyis, they (the clowns) actually like to sleep in his cave! and he (the male kenyi) can't do anything about it, so they seem to get along. The male does chase the (kenyi) girls, but there are 2 to split up his aggression, and tons of hiding spots. So I agree, yes, its a little overcrowded, but it is interesting and overfiltered, and all the tests are well within safe levels. Although there may be problems as the male kenyi gets bigger, and probably more aggressive. Thanks for the input!