# 6 Ft Tank - What do i do with it?



## Guest (Mar 26, 2010)

Hey folks.

am gonna be setting up a roughly 135gl tank soon....read that as in a month or more. its a custom build yet again. 6ft(L)*2ft(W)*1.5ft(H). 

am super confused as to what do i want. i know this it HAS to be a cichlid tank. question whice lakes cichlid and if so which ciclids? 

am currently thinkin of this: 

Option 1:

5 Yellow Labs
3 Peacocks Cichlids
5 Powder Blue Cichild. (Pseudotropheus socolofi) [when it comes into stock seeing that its not easy finding this fish here]
2 Masked Julies

Option 2:

8 GBRS
6 Kribs
Few Dither
Go Planted.

What kinda sand or subtrate am i lookin for? do i go with a rock base or with a sand base and get some plants as well? if so what kinda sand? i have a ton of rocks so thats not gonna be a problem. will start workin on DIY Caves using pipes and black pebbles.

HELP! am loosing it! there are just so many fish i wanna keep and i dont have room for it! maybe i should just flood my spare bedroom and throw the roof open!

Suggestions please. also, if you could please provide me with common names seeing that the LFS's wouldnt realise the diff between a lake Tang and lake Malawi.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

What, not 300 jewel fry? 

Sorry you are stuck with petstore selection. There should be a lot of great fish being bred on your side of the earth. The US gets fish from Hungary and Malaysia. Ask to see your store's wholesale list and see what they will order for you.

I would get some of the bigger Malawi haplochromines that outgrow a 55. "Red Empress", "Blue Dolphin" "Electric Blue (S. Fryeri) if you want common names. "Taiwan Reef" (Protomelas Stevensi". A group of 12 or so would look spectacular and supply you with fry. Sand for these guys, with a pile of rocks in one end if you add any julies or Mbuna. Don't bother with plants. 

For the second option: Again, I would to bigger, new world cichlids. Blue Acara, Dwarf (or not dwarf) pike cichlids. Angels, Uaru, Severums, Apistogramma borelli, any geophagus, or gymnogeophagus. There are all these great fish that a 55 is too small for. I bet you would love Jaguar cichlids. Sand and plants, here.


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## pinetree (Nov 29, 2009)

Goldfish!!!


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

200 Cardinal Tetras


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## Guest (Mar 26, 2010)

emc7 said:


> What, not 300 jewel fry?
> 
> Sorry you are stuck with petstore selection. There should be a lot of great fish being bred on your side of the earth. The US gets fish from Hungary and Malaysia. Ask to see your store's wholesale list and see what they will order for you.


that right there is the problem. LFS owners are hesitant to give the names of wholeseller/breeders cos they know me well enough that i will superseed them and deal straight with the breeders. have done it before cos the LFS are just to lazy! out of the blue they get a shipment marked for me delivered to them LOL. funny.



emc7 said:


> For the second option: Again, I would to bigger, new world cichlids. Blue Acara, Dwarf (or not dwarf) pike cichlids. Angels, Uaru, Severums, Apistogramma borelli, any geophagus, or gymnogeophagus. There are all these great fish that a 55 is too small for. I bet you would love Jaguar
> cichlids. Sand and plants, here.


That actually sounds nice. i wont be able to source a pike but the rest should be easy enough.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

not all at once. lol. Pick compatible ones. Just a list to look at. Jags, for instance, are gorgeous, but imagine fish-eating, super-sized jewels for temperament. 

Uaru, Discus, Angels, Severum, Biotodoma Cupido, Flag cichlid, Acara. These are all "'peaceful"ish. You could have a big group of any or a few assorted pairs.


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## Guest (Mar 26, 2010)

am thinking a colony of 1o to 12 bichardi's..........


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Oh, if you go Tangs. You need like 12 Cyps up top, a rock pile (slate is good) full of julies or lelupi, and a open sand area with a dozen shellies (brevis, ocellaris, multies) in shells. 

Brichardi are cool, but they like to be an only species. Keep a pair in a 20G long and keep pulling fry. Or put a pair in the huge tank and end up with a colony of 1000. There is a tank like that in the Shedd aquarium in Chicago. Its really neat, but not what they intended, the brichardi killed off all the other fish. lol. Think jewels with lyretails. But they are cool to watch since the "teenagers" will babysit the littler fry.


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## Guest (Mar 26, 2010)

cyps?!?!?!?!? shellies are next to impossible to get here. chances of me gettin a job in the states are easier than finding shellies here.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Any fish of the genus cyprichromis or paracyprichromis. http://cichlid-forum.com/profiles/category.php?cat=7 

Open water, schooling, mouthbrooding cichlids. Kind of like fresh-water sardines. The don't defend territory just breed in the water column. Really neat and unusual cichlids. A little hard to find, even here. Club auctions and online mail-order mostly. Very prolific. 


How about "native' fish. Any legal restrictions? Orange and green chromides are from india or nearby.


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## Guest (Mar 26, 2010)

ah..... ok  that would be cool.


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## NatBarry (Feb 19, 2008)

I like the sound of those. Although with Option 1 you could have a lot more fish. Malawi's prefer to be in large groups and have a well stocked tank, to spread the aggression of course. And I also use sand if your going for those cichlids, they love to burrow.


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## AB Bay 23 (Mar 22, 2010)

A 135 gallon would make a great salt or reef tank


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