125 West African build

[bigbird]

wow very nice indeed wow

[scientist0724]

Your tank looks amazing!

Arlene

[WhitePine]

Can't wait to see it all cleared up. That crinum looks familiar

[Shane]

Thanks everyone.

That crinum looks familiar

I thought you might recognize it
-Shane

[Shane]

Slowly turning into a show piece.
In quarantine are
Nanochromis parilus
P. taeniatus "Moliwe"
Steatocranus tinanti

In the tank are
Congo tetras
pair of P. pulcher
Steatocranus irvinei
Barbus fasciolatus

Still no cats...

-Shane

[N0body Of The Goat]

Slowly turning into a show piece.
In quarantine are
Nanochromis parilus
P. taeniatus "Moliwe"
Steatocranus tinanti

In the tank are
Congo tetras
pair of P. pulcher
Steatocranus irvinei
Barbus fasciolatus

Still no cats...

-Shane

I know you are an experienced aquarist Shane, but are you confident that 4 cichlid pairs are going to play nicely with each other on the tank floor, plus are the lower tank level Barbus faciolatus going to cope with the psychotic parental care of most of those cichlids?

I can only tell you about my experiences with Steatocranus casuarius over the last two years... They bred three times, twice in Rio240 community setups, once when they were already raising a batch of youngsters in a 620T acting as a nursery tank. I lost tankmates both times in the community setup, including Pantodon buchholzi; Parambassis pulcinella; Aplocheilus Lineatus; Danio albolineatus. The only fish not pinned against one side wall from the big ~50 spawn last November was my ~17cm Synodontis decora, who held his/her ground inside a bogwood cave for the best part of two months. They had my four ~10cm Ctenopoma acutirostre so terrified of retribution that the ~1cm fry were allowed to bounce past them <3cm from their mouths unharmed. When an unexpected third brood arrived sometime around February in the nursery, the second brood must have predated on most of their new sibblings, when I realised what was going on I only managed to save four of the new babies (in hindsight this also explained why "dad" killed his biggest second brood son, he was protecting his new babies, sadly "dad" was moved to another tank and died in my awful Ich tradegy late February along with my growing Synodontis decora group).

I recently tried to add 8 of my largest Ilyodon xantusi youngsters (4-5cm) to the Steatocranus grow-on tank (now the Rio240 with the 8 Ilyodon parents) and one was pulled apart within seconds. Thanfully I was able to rescue the other seven and get them back to their sanctuary.

I have a young mix sex duo of ~6/4cm Steatocranus tinanti, a free gift from Amazon Aquatics ("last trading post" on Ebay, part of a brood raised by the manager's wife at home), from when I bought some other Africans back in March (including some Phenacogrammus nigropterus). By and large they have been decent community citizens with their mainly Syno tankmates (congica; nigriventris; M. sp.1; M. polli, the Phenacogrammus and some of MatsP's tank bred Nannostomus beckfordi), but they took an evil liking to the caudal fins of my Megalechis thoracata group and there is a very dynamic dominance battle with MartinS' old ~5cm Chaetostoma milesi.

Sounds a wonderful stocking list so far, I really do hope it all works out. Any thoughts on adding some Pareutropius buffei or Arnoldichthys spoilopterus?

[Shane]

I really appreciate you taking the time to share your above experiences. I would be concerned with the same issues if I were planning to place spawning cichlid groups in the tank.

There is no way I can really place spawning pairs in such a large tank as it would be impossible to catch and remove any fry. The only spawning pair will be the kribs and I am not worried about them bullying the other fishes given the tank's size and decor. I believe a Rio 240 is something like 240 liters(?) which is about half the size of this tank.

Yes, a school of Pareutropius is definitely in order. Unfortunately I have yet to come across any. The catfish situation on the US eastern seaboard is very bleak.

-Shane

[Gertbl]

Wow, looks really great.
You can really see how the lights are giving their effect on the water.

[zeebo]

been following this thread, and your tank blows me away, and the backround is awesome,great job ! So natural and tranquil looking , sweet

Georgie

[Birger]

Yes, a school of Pareutropius is definitely in order.

I really like these but you will have to keep an eye on them , they do not compete very well.

Having another schooling fish will help to make the Pareutropius more comfortable but as an example pigish Congo tetras will out compete them.

Pareutropius do tend to sulk(for lack of better word)easily, competition, water quality, different things will set this off, when they do and its not addressed you can expect them to quickly start to go one by one.

When active and feeling good about themselves these absolutely would be a great sight in your tank in as big a group as you can get, I think they should be at the very least a group of 12 but more is better.

Birger

[Psy]

I had a bunch of tinanti in a 5ft 80 gallon. Starting with 5 they formed 2 pairs, and if I remember correctly, killed off the 5th wheel. After that however, they bred like convicts but never seemed to bother each other again, nor the Congo Tetras for about 2 years. Lost them, in a massive tank crash, starting with about 30 tinanti of various size I lost about 5 per day for a week until I had none left. Congos seemed unaffected, though I did loose a few in the post crash tank malaise.

I found them very unagressive for cichlids, accepting past fry right up to the cave mouth while they had eggs.

[scientist0724]

I showed your tank to someone and they mentioned that you should enter the AGA aquascaping contest under biotopes!

Arlene

[HaakonH]

Great setup What fish/creature can be added to such a set up to control the algae growth? I can't think of any common West-African algae-eaters...

Haakon

[Shane]

Thanks for all the comments and feedback. The tank is coming along very nicely and I am very happy with it. I did have to remove the Steatocranus. They hit a massive growth spurt in the tank and I started seeing damage on other fishes. Had to pull most of the tank apart to get them out. I'll keep the cichlid population where it is. A pair of kribs, a pair of P. taeniatus and a pair of Nanochromis parilus. These all seem to be getting along very well.
I'll get some updated shots soon.
-Shane

[Shane]

Some updated shots.
-Shane

[Shane]

I have also started work on a 45 gallon SE Asian theme. I have not decided if I'll do a background for it.
-Shane

[racoll]

These are 50 watt halogens. The entire set up is around $40 at Home Depot and comes ready to plug in.

Question about the lighting. 6x 50W is 300W, which is as much as a single halide lamp and seems like rather a lot to me. Are lower wattage LED bulbs that can be used in standard fittings available from the DIY stores now (e.g. http://www.energybulbs.co.uk/products/LED+Light+Bulbs)?

Well, in answer to my own question, I have been messing around with some LED spots while renovating my father's tank. I'm quite pleased with the results. The 3x unit was £16 from Homebase, complete with 50W halogens. The high power LED lamps were bought online at £15 each, and are only 7W each (5 LEDS per bulb). Colour temperature is 6,500K (daylight).

Here's a couple of pictures, and a video (which shows off the all important "glitter lines" nicely).

[lotsabettas]

amazing looking setup as always Shane

[elephant]

Shane,
Your new tank is gorgeous! I'm really glad you went back to redo the background a 2nd time -- I really had no idea what you were trying to create at first (haven't seen a 3D DIY background before), but love the end result! I never would have guessed it would make such a difference to the overall look of the tank. Very cool.

Couple questions if you don't mind? How do you secure your plants (especially in sand)? Are your Anubias attached with fishing line, or something else? I'm having a lot of trouble getting plants in my new setup to STAY put... and that's before any large fish have been added who will inevitably run into things. I almost wonder if my current is too strong, as the additional circulation pumps seem to make it impossible to keep plants in place.

Also, do you use fertilizers, special substrate, CO2, etc. to get your plants so luscious? That 45g SE Asian tank is so vibrantly GREEN, it's beautiful. Just wondering if I'm "depriving" my plants by not doing more for them -- they do well & grow, but certainly never look quite like this

Thanks, Amanda

[Shane]

Thanks Amanda for the compliments. I use thin fishing line to attach Anubias and Bolbitis to the stones and wood. The Crinum and lilies are planted in the sand. It is just construction sand, no other additives. I also do not use CO2 or plant fertilizers. I just stick with plants that do well for me.
The 45 gallon's substrate is just sand/gravel from the creek behind my house. It is lit by a $15 "shop light" with a single 40 watt bulb. I'll have to post some updated pics of both tanks as they are filling out nicely.
-Shane