several random questions

[statman]

Hi, firstly I'd like to say I had no idea about cichlids when I purchsed mine. I went to the LFS planning on gettin 3 or 4, and was told that I should have at a minimum like 15ish for my tank, which is 46 gallons. (bow front)

So I ended up getting 8, and never anymore because I just couldnt see crowding it that bad. Yesterday I did a water change, and afterwards ALL fish were sitting on the gravel. Several hours later I realized I forgot to put the anti chlorine, amnonia, etc stuff in. I dosed that and within hours they were lively. However I did suffer one loss.

Today I added tons of rock after noticing lots of aggression, I figured with more things to swim in and out of they could run away easier, however in order to get a real tall stack to break up the line of sight id need a TON of rock and I dont know if I trust the tank to hold it all.

1) What do you guys do to break line of sight up high?
2) My tank looks sorta blah right now, I had a few live plants which got dismantled. So now I have one piece of driftwood and lots of rocks. Anything I can do to spice it up?
3) Should I add more cichlids to lower aggression?

If you need any other info let me know.
Thanks.

edit: would a blue lobster get along with cichlids? i think im still missing something to complete this tank.

by the way while re-reading this i feel i need to clarify a bit:

the fish have been home with me for 1 month and a half or so, I didnt just recently get them. Prior to that the tanks has been up for a year or so with tropicals, so it is cycled.

 

[Fishckabibble]

from what i hear chiclids eat crayfish and shrimp so i beleive its a no on the blue lobster, i was thinking about getting one myself but have nowhere to put one.
and what kind of chiclids did you get, some are more agressive than others.

 

[statman]

to be honest im not entirely sure.
i had 3 yellow labs, one of them died yesterday.
then a solid yellow cichlid and it was something like 'luepie', or similiar.
a really cool blue tinted one that was i believe a moori.
a blue ascii or something similar.
and then two which i dont know, it is white in the body with black vertical stripes, the top of the tail is yellow, and on its back fin it has three yellow dots sort of in a triangle. then i have a female of this guy.

 

[Fishckabibble]

i beleive that the black and white one could be a kenyi or somthing like that i cant find too many that are black and white striped. on the agression part chiclids love places to hide and explore and they will pick their territories( a rock or cave) so you will need lots of places for them to do that, try some slate rock and stack it up in the back corners and get some more drift wood, from what i have read they all tear up plants so if you want some get fake plants so they cant "die" im planning on upgrading my chiclid tank because mine need more space. if you dont think that your tank can support the wieght of real rocks they make the pen-plax plastic rocks that are interlocking and you can design them however you like, they are in most petsores from what i have seen or you can find them online as well.

 

[statman]

know of any sites that have lots of pictures of cichlid tanks?

i did a google but couldnt find too much. wouldnt stacking the rocks in the back be sort of pointless? i thought you need to break lines of sight up so i piled mine in the middle. should i move them along the back wall instead? im thinking of adding some fake plants, will they dig these up as well?

 

[khyle]

check this out.

www.aquahobby.com/e_gallery.php

i recently purchased a green terror out of impulse & he's really a terror/devil in my tank. he chase & bite his tankmates. he bite bak when i tapped my finger in front of d tank. Now i moved my other fishes to my 100gal & d green terror was left in my 29gal w/ d 3 clown loaches & pleco. now my 29gal looks like a ghost town. d GT doesn't move much, oftenly stays @ d corner. i'll b returning him to my lfs by d wkend in xchange of another fishes. id like shoaling, active & vibrant colored small fishes to bring bak life in my 29gal tank.

 

[Limi310]

I also have the 46bowfront with 7 african cichlids and 1 krib. I don't really notice a whole lot of aggression out of mine yet - I've had them about 4 months. I used rocks that I found along the creek and stacked them in a staggering pattern so that they create lots of caves and holes for them to swim in and out of and I have a couple fake silk plants.
If you want I can try and post a picture later when I get home (I'm at work).

Anyway I have LOTS of rocks in there and I don't worry about the tank being able to hold them. (They aren't leaning against the glass) As long as you have it on a stand rated for the aquarium, I think you will be fine.
Your tank looks nice, but definitely needs more rocks, caves and crevices to help cut out the aggression.

 

[Orion]

The reason that the LFS sugested upwards of 15 fish is because mbuna and other similar fish can be very teritorial, and by having lots of these fish it helps ease aggression because it's hard for a dominate fish to just pick one out of the crowd to concentrate on. It's refered to as controlled overstocking, and can be very usefull in these type tanks. If you do this just besure that your filtration can keep up.

To be honest I don't think that I've ever heard of a tank that has cracked or broke because of the weight from rocks. I've seen a few cases where it may have played a role in it, but the main cause normaly turns out to be either a faulty tank, uneven stand or some other factor. But in theroy, it can happen very easy.

I use eggcrate in the bottom of all my tanks with lots of rockwork. I add this before the sand or substrate, and this allows the weight of the rocks to be distributed even across the tank. Its cheap, and provides peace of mind if it helps or not.

 

[Cichlid-Man]

Overcrowding is basically sharing the wealth....the wealth being the aggression. So no one fish takes the bulk of it.

Keep working the rockwork up, looks like you have room for more. If you are scared it will fall or something use aquarium safe putty stuff to stick the rocks together....or just wedge them in good.

I never go real high with my rockwork...i really don't like the looks of it. Not to mention its a pain to get the poop from around those tight crevices in the rocks if they are all piled up. And in all seriousness just breaking up the line of sight probably won't do anything as africans tend to be on the move 80% of the time. With the overcrowding comes to need to constantly defend territories and they never really become loafs like SA/CA cichlids.

 

[statman]

So basically I would be better off adding more?

Do i add more of the same species, like my labs, or can I completely get another kind(s) of cichlid?

edit:
this is the solid yellow one: Lemon Cichlid (Neolamprologus leleupi)
still not sure what the striped one is