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Okay, after a few years of keeping a freshwater aquarium I have decided that I want to take it to the next level. I currently have a 20 gal community tank that is home to 4 danios, 3 false jewely corys, 2 panda corys, 1 BN Pleco, 1 Bolivian Ram, 1 Golden Ram Cichlid, and 1 Swordtail. I have decided that I am going to buy a 55+ (depending on finances) and very much want to start a cichlid tank. I have done a little research at this point and plan on doing a lot more. I just bought a cichlid book last night and have started in on it already. I also went through the cichlid profiles here on FP and have found a few cichlids that I really like. My question is what would all of you (the experienced cichlid keepers) recommend right off the bat? I noticed that a lot of the cichlids that I like are that of Lake Malawi. I want a tank that will house many small cichlids as opposed to a few big ones. I plan on making it heavily planted (providing the fish I get will not destroy the plants) with a lot of rocky hides.

I personally think it would be better for you to find out what chiclids you like and what you can get. There could be a huge difference.

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Keith

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Planted and malawis aren't a combination that normally go together.


Gibson SG you know you want one!!

As Krige stated, they don't usually go well together. As many of them will love to munch on the plants.

If it is small cichlids you are looking at, you might try some of the Apistochromis. They stay around a couple inches max. You might also look at the kribs. There are several different species of kribs that are commonly available in the US. You could move over to Lake Tanganyika as well. There are a variety of shell dwellers that you could keep a couple different species in that tank. Just make sure to have enough shells on each side of the tank so they won't go wondering into each others territories to find shells to live in. The shellies, and the Apistos, and the Kribs will all do fine in a planted tank. I would not mix these though, as the shellies like more harder water, and the other prefer it softer. The Kribs are West Africans, while the Apistos are South Americans. And they may or may not get along. I have seen both instances. On another note, they can all cross breed in their own genus as well. So use caution if mixing species of the same genus. The shellies will most likely keep to their own species if given enough shells separated from the other species areas.

Some other choices that will so well if your substrate is of a smaller size (like sand), are some of the Geophagus genus. The red hump variety (several species) will most all stay under 3 inches. But, you need a fine substrate, as they like to sift the substrate through their gills. They rarely sift too deep into the substrate unless they are breeding. Then they will dig a pit to spawn in. Rarely do they uproot any plants though.

A neat thing about all these fish I have mentioned, is you can add some other fish that are not cichlids in with them. Such as Cardinals or Neons, or some other tetras. As most of these cichlids mentioned will stay closer to the bottom of the tank. So you can add some other fish that will be more frequent to the middle and upper areas of the water column. Tetras always make a nice look in a planted tank.

On another note; If you are planning a heavily planted tank, and have not gotten the 55 gal yet, I would suggest you go a little bigger and get a 75 gal. The reason is, you will have more room in the front of the tank for the fish to swim around and be seen more. The 75 gal is deeper from front to back. The 55 gal will very quickly become grown with plants that will most of the time take over the tank from the front to back. This will look nice, but it does not leave much room for the fish to move about up in the water column.

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There is always a bigger fish...

If you want a Cichlid tank, you need lots of Rocks & not Plants. First see which Cichlids you want & then you can decorate the tank for their needs.


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http://www.shelldwellers.com/
http://forum.apistogramma.com/index.php
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/why_african_cichlids.php
few sites i highly recommend for any cichlids you might be interested in.also African cichlids like lots of rock, south americans like lots of plants.

i agree with 99% of what Acid said above but i dont recommend keeping multiple shellie species together as they will crossbreed.you can however keep a shelldweller ith a rock dweller and even with some open water species depending on the size of the tank and fish chosen.

you also need to decide what YOU want out of your tank. do you want pretty colors and lots of movement? Something different? personality? interaction? many fish fish species act differently as do individual fish.

dont mix lakes and dont mix locations. examples...dont mix africans with south americans or central americans. this is due to alot of things such as diet and agression but the biggest issue in my opinion is that they dont speak the same language. severe beatings will acure due to the submissive fish not being able to tell the agressive fish hes submitting. be like some guy beating you down with a bat and when you curl up into a ball and beg for your life he thinks your saying something about his mother lol.

anyway lots of info on the above links. BEST advice i can give you...take your time and read. cant stress it enough. if you like a perticuler fish then read read read all about it. everything from eating to breeding is important.

Good luck i hope this helps
Sin

Well, maybe I didn't mean "heavily" planted but I would like some live plants, and I plan on having a lot of rocks. I still do have a lot of research to do, but you guys and gals have answered some of my questions. I have seen that many cichlids can be in a planted tank, but I will have to research if that is what I want to limit myself to. I want color, I want movement, and I want personality, but I don’t want violence. Maybe I will post the cichlids that have caught my attention and have you tell me where I should go from there, and what species would be compatible. Thanks for all the info and keep it coming if you think of some more valuable thoughts. Has anybody got any comments on mail ordering fish? If my LFS doesn’t have exactly what I want I may consider this as an option. I am planning this well in advance (probably will not happen for 6 months.) So I have plenty of time to consider all possibilities.

If you want a Cichlid tank, you need lots of Rocks & not Plants

I totally disagree. There are many, and actually quite a many cichlids that will do very well in planted tanks without any rocks even. A very large portion of cichlids come from heavily vegitative waters. And they don't all eat plants. Depending on the types of fish you decide on, you may need shells as in the shell dwellers. With these guys you need not a single rock in the tank if you don't want any. As they will always be near the shells and in and out of them, and never hide in the rocks. Some of the cichlids would prefer some type of cave over a pile of rocks. While there are a lot that prefer the rocks. There are just as many that could care less about a pile of rocks, as long as they have some kind of cave and/or hiding places.

Do your research on those that interest you, and especially pay close attention to the environment that they come from. You will be very surprised at many of the different types of environments you can keep different cichlids in.

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There is always a bigger fish...

most fish that will like that kind up setup,will normally detroy plants dude.maybe give em a go anyway you never know.