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I'm going to be setting up my 55 gallon tank in a week or two and I'm want to make sure this will work.

The fish:
Eretmodus cyanostictus (pair?)
Lamprologus stappersi (~6?)
Cyprichromis leptosoma (6-8?)
Julidochromis transcriptus (pair?)

Would these fish work well together? If they would, are the numbers for each species okay? Which species should be added first?

The tank:
Again, it's a 55 gallon. I've got an Aquaclear 70 and a Whisper 60 on it. I've got 130 watts on the tank, so producing algae for the Eretmodus cyanostictus won't be a problem. I'm buying two Stealth heaters for the tank. I'll probably be buying a light grey background for the tank.

For the substrate, I'm thinking of doing about 50 pounds of a sand-sized crushed coral and about 10 - 15 pounds of a more coarse crushed coral mixed in with it to make it look more interesting. I'm also going to have a lot of rockwork toward one side of the tank and shells around the front and other side of the tank. I'll be planting anubias and a few java ferns.

Any suggestions? Anything I should change? Since this is going to be my only tank for a while, I want it to be perfect.

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Cake or death?

Make sure you have some algae growth already on the rocks before you add the Eretmodus cyanostictus and a pair is great. You might have to supplement their diet with spirulina flakes, mysis, or cyclops.

Make sure everything is fed correctly as they have varied diets. This sounds like a really great tank and its making me jealous lol. Good luck.

Thanks! I'll post pictures as soon as I start setting the tank up.

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Cake or death?

Is your proposed 55 gallon a long, shallow tank?

Only if it's a fairly short and tall one, you might want to think again about the Cyprichromis leptosoma. This is an open water fish (hence it being known as one of the Sardine Cichlids) and needs a LOT of swimming space. While a shoal of 8 is a good idea, bear in mind that they will be darting about a fair amount, and so if the tank is a tall one instead of a long, shallow one, they might feel a bit cramped. It would be a shame to spend a considerable amount of money on those fishes (which are, if you get the right colour morph, drop dead gorgeous) only to discover after the fact that they don't like your setup. Where I live this species is pretty expensive - a shoal of 8 would set me back around £100 if I was in the market for them, which at current exchange rates is something like $190 US. A lot of money to spend if you make a mistake.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

The tank is a standard 55 - 48" by 13". Do you know of any species that would be happier in the tank?

There's a group of three adult males on Aquabid for $45, so they aren't too expensive if they'll work.

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Cake or death?

Did some checking.

Cyprichromis leptosoma is an 11 cm fish when fully grown. Although they would prefer a 72 inch aquarium, it's possible they'll be OK in a 48 inch setup. Your aquarium is probably a borderline setup for this fish, but it MIGHT work.

Some facts to bear in mind:

[1] The wild diet of this fish is cited as being open water zooplankton, plus assorted molluscs plucked from rocky outcrops. So, it's possible - just possible - that they may eat snails. However, it's equally possible you'll never find out if they do because the other Cichlids in there get to the snails first. So, your game plan for acclimatisation should include live Brine Shrimp and possibly, if you can collect them and ensure that they are not going to pass anything on to your fishes, freshwater amphipods such as Gammarus.

[2] Try and arrange your rocks preferentially to one side of the aquarium, so that the Cyprichromis have an open expanse at the other. I'm sure you'll be able to do this while keeping the rock dwellers happy.

[3]Scatter the shells for the shell dwellers evenly over th esubstrate, so that if they want to choose some shells that are a safe distance away from the Julidochromis, they can.

These specimens you've seen on offer - what colour morph are they? Only you should strive where possible to make sure ALL your specimens are the same colour morph, and ideally from the same geographical region within Lake Tanganyika, to avoid creating unwanted population hybrids when the fishes start breeding. Pure strains fetch more money when you sell the babies apart from anything else!

The colour morph of choice (at least here in the UK) is one called "Blue Flash". This one is a bit special - take a look here and see HOW special!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Hm. Well, I don't want to do the bare- minimum, so I guess I'll have to pass on 'em. Do you know of any schooling fish that would do well in a 55 with the other fish I'll be getting?

I'll PM you a link tomorrow of the fish I was thinking of buying, if you'd still like to see it.

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Cake or death?

Would Paracyprichromis nigripinnis work? They don't have a profile here.

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Cake or death?

Now that's an interesting possibility!

However, the one BIG issue I have to warn you about with this fish is ... cost. I don't know how much the fish fetches on the US market, but here in the UK it is HIDEOUSLY expensive. A male and 2 females would probably see me with virtually no change from £500 ...

These things aren't shoaling fishes like the Cyprichromis leptosoma, and you will probably be restricted to one male and a couple of females. However, they like rock. They like rock a LOT. So, they could bne integrable with your other fishes. BUT ... to do this, you have to make sure that your rockwork structure provides secure overhangs for the fishes to live under, as this is what they prefer in the wild.

If you provide overhangs for Paracyprichromis nigripinnis to live under, and a dark substrate, you'll be rewarded with a truly drop dead gorgeous spectacle. However, we're back to that chestnut about the capital cost of buying the fishes. If you can obtain them for a reasonable price (as opposed to a price that will see your bank manager needing a coronary bypass the moment you mention it to him!) then this is one you could run with. Likely to be a challenge to keep, and integration with your other fishes is likely to be a similarly interesting issue, but well worth pursuing because if you get it right, these fishes will be [1] stunning to behold, and [2] profitable when it comes to selling the babies if you're lucky enough to persuade it to breed!

Here is a nice page detailing this species. Read and enjoy.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

There's a person selling a few adults (~10, I think) for between $100 and $150 in Chicago, so I -hope- I'll be able to find 'em for about the same price here. Hope!

So now I'm back to one of the basics: substrate. I -want- to do sand, but I want to make sure that I get the exact-right thing before I go throwing money at suppliers. If sand won't work and I need to get a bigger (more coarse?) substrate, I have no problem with that.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to be buying my substrate at Doctors Foster and Smith since my LFS hasn't exactly been on the ball about getting back to me about my questions about whether they can special-order stuff for me, and Dr. F&S did a great job when I got my lighting system from them. I'm not sure if it's cool to post a link to their site on here, so I'm not going to. Which substrate(s) of theirs would you suggest? I think it'd look really cool to mix a few, but I'm not sure which sizes the fish would like.

Thanks for the help.

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Cake or death?

If you can find Paracyprichromis nigripinnis at a price that doesn't induce heart attacks in bank managers, go for it!

Your main issues here will be [1] the buffering capacity of the substrate, and [2] the colour. The problem being here that substrates capable of providing hardness and mineral buffering in your aquarium will usually be light coloured - calcium carbonate is, after all, a white coloured mineral!

One possible way forward would be to use a mineral buffering substrate layer, over which you lay a gravel tidy, then use a coarser grained dark coloured substrate to give the fishes the background they need to show off their colours to advantage. After all, if you're going to take on a fish as rare and beautiful as Paracyprichromis nigripinnis, you want to get the best out of it! And if that fish is housed over a light substrate, the colours will become washed out as the fish adapts its appearance to the surroundings.

Once you have the substrate choice established, next item is the rockwork. Again, to keep the nigripinnis happy, you will need to create overhangs (and then you'll have the fun of seeing the fish swim upside down beneath the overhangs!) and use dark rocks for those parts of the furnishings that are being optimised for the nigripinnis. Dark slate with rounded edges is the way to go here.

Once you've set up the overhangs for the nigripinnis, you can then turn your attention to creating a nice grotto for the Julies. Here, you can use Tufa Rock. Yes, it's white, but eventually it'll be darkened with a nice growth of algae, which will also help keep the nitrates under control to a limited extent. The reasons Tufa Rock will be a good choice are twofold: one, it provides additional mineral buffering capability (even when it has lots of algae growing on it) and to, you can dig holes in it without needing special tools as it's a soft rock. So you can create nice grottoes for your Julies to explore (and the other fizhes for that matter if they so choose!) and work the pieces so that they have the caves in that they need. Tufa Rock is porous, so it may well provide something akin to a 'live rock' of the sort that is used in a marine aquarium (where Tufa Rock is frequently chosen as a basis for aquascaping because of its malleability and porosity).

Likewise, your shell selection for the shell dwellers will have to take the nigripinnis into account - you'll have to track down a brace of darker, sombre coloured shells to position near the overhangs so as not to undo the good work that was done with the dark rocks and the dark substrate - popping bleached white shells there is going to look ugly too. Lighter shells can be positioned nearer the Tufa Rock being used as your Julie grotto.

Bearing in mind that the overhangs needed for the nigripinnis may not be inherently stable, you will need to devise some means of stabilising your rockwork so that it stays put. In particular, you may need to lay an acrylic sheet on the aquarium floor, build the rockwork on top of that (cementing pieces that need it) then add your substrate. A nice, intricate piece of aquarium construction, but once it's completed and your nigripinnis have settled in, you'll be gld you went to all that trouble because the nigripinnis should colour up fantastically in that environment!

EDIT : Almost forgot. When you obtain your Julies, acclimatise them with special care. Julies are e to netting trauma. Keep the lighting subdued while acclimatising them, and be prepared to resort to drip acclimatisation for up to 2 hours to ensure that they are happy. Additionally, if you can arrange for the specimens to be bagged so as to exclude outside light during transit, this will help considerably in the acclimatisation process. Needless to say, don't remove the outer cladding that keeps the bags dark in a brightly lit room when you get them home! If you're adding them to the aquarium on a bright sunny day, draw the curtains and rely upon subdued daylight: if during the evening, use a desk lamp instead of the main room lights and point the light away from the aquarium if it's directable. Once the fishes have been acclimatised, try to disturb them as little as possible, as frequent disturbance is likely to send them into shock!

Oh, and something I've just picked up from reading some notes by Dr Paul Loiselle - most people think that the females are the larger fishes. This is because the larger fish, which is quite often the male, has a genital papilla whose proportions are more akin to those associated with a female ovipositor in other Cichlid species. Another reason why females have been thought to grow larger than males is because of the circumstances surrounding the 'divorces' that Julies are e to if they are disturbed too much. When domestic violence breaks out, the females are usually the instigators, and the males are on the receiving end! So, in those circumstances where males have had to be replaced (because the female has killed her original mate) the replacement male is usually smaller. Additionally, in a 55, there is NO way on earth you will be able to have anything other than a single mated pair of Julies sharing the aquarium with other fishes. Julies are long term pair bond formers (unusual among Rift Lake Cichlids) but according to Loiselle the pair bond is reinforced by territory defence rather than reproduction. Consequently, rivals of the same species are dealt with ruthlessly. Once you have a mated pair in there, any other individuals will need to be removed FAST or they will be exterminated with terrifying speed. So while the usual method of obtaining a pair - growing 6 juveniles up together - is feasible, it requires (in Loiselle's words) "exceptional vigilance ... to prevent the first pair from liquidating their siblings".

Here is the Loiselle page on Julies for your further delight.

Loiselle page on Goby Cichlids and related Tanganyikan dwarfs which includes some notes on shell dwellers too.

Enjoy!



Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I have a breeding pair of Eretmodus Cyanostictus, a group of Paracyprichromis Nigripinnis (1m,3f) and a breeding pair of Occelatus Gold in the same tank along with a group of Tropheus Moliros and a lovely male Nanochromis Parilus - we use a mix of white coral sand a children's play pit sand as our substrate.

If you're going for a pair of Eretmodus Cyanostictus be prepared for murder until they do pair up - a pair will stay together for life but getting that pair can take a few goes (3 in my case) - when you've got them they are a brilliant and intelligent occupent of any tank. If you put an airstone in that comes up through the sand they'll love you for it as in the wild they come from the area where the surf is along the shores and their swim bladder is different from most fish, mine sit with their heads in the bubbles quite often then swim around normally again - if another fish did that they would die.

Paracyprichromis Nigripinnis are also fantastic and the prices are coming down - I don't know where Calilasseia's been shopping but I only paid GBP12.50 each for mine and they were 3" - we have a tall piece of slate that goes up the back of our tank and they all stay around it and hover at some strange angles - stunning colours though.

I've never kept the Stappersi so I can't advise you on them but Occelatus can be a lot of fun as long as you provide a few well spaced out shells they keep themselves occupied most of the time by squabbling with each other and rearranging the sand around the shells - highly amusing and the fish with the most bottle I've ever kept. Just imagine something as small as my 1" female chasing away a 4" Tropheus that was minding it's own business and just happened to spit some sand over her.... Tropheus the big wuss backed off & ran (or is that swam).

Julidochromis transcriptus (we have Gombe) these are fine until they start breeding then they'll bully everything away from their brood, our pair were in the tank with the rest of the above but we moved them and their palace (a 12"x6" shell) and they now live alone in a 2 ft section of an 8ftx2ftx15" tank - the other end of the tank has 5 Jumbo Leptosomas, a breeding pair of Ophthalmotilapia Ventralis a 3 large female Benthochromis Tricoti (which are like giant Nigripinnis) we're looking for a male - now these are expensive... 1 male advertised at GBP31.50 was 1-2", GBP70.00 for 3-4", my girls are 5-6" ......

Finally we feed our lot on a mix of Spirulina flake, grade 3 red crumb (http://www.ta-aquaculture.co.uk/), frozen daphnia, newly hatched brine shrimp and crushed flake - as for the algae we have a good crop all round the tank but none of them seem too interested and only eat it on the odd occasion.