One Tank To Rule Them All

[Ron]

I see the larger  phenochilus above them, but those two below him right on the sand bed sure looks like electra (aka deep water hap) to me? http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=1204

Yep, they are all Placidochromis and certainly have similarities. The two smaller ones are juvenile male P. phenochilus "Tanzania". As they get old they'll get their speckles. Right now the big one is ~6.5" and the smaller 2 are 3.5"-4".

I don't have better photos of the ones in the tank, but here's a close-up of some young P. phenochilus I bred about 10 years ago. In the foreground is a definite male and behind it is one showing female coloration (could still be a young male). They are probably 2" in the photo. In normal coloration they have the darker barring present.


The P. electra are also really pretty. The first photo in the link you shared is a male in the most dominant coloration. Otherwise they are more of a powder blue without the darker vertical stripes. Here's a couple photos I found of a pair I bred ~12 years ago. First, dominant coloration (they are spawning in the photo):


Non-dominant coloration (both male and female are in the photo, below the beastly-looking fryeri):

[jcunningham0295]

The two below are smaller phenos.

[Steve]

Gotch'ya , I never knew that young P. phenochilus looks so much like P. electra.

[Rob S]

Looking good Ron! Those fish probably don't even know how to act in a tank that big!

[Ron]

Looking good Ron! Those fish probably don't even know how to act in a tank that big!

I didn't want to ramble on. There are a few interesting observations I've had since they've been in there. If you come over sometime, I can share more. Probably won't organize anything until phase two stocking takes place sometime in December.

[Super Turtleman]

Looks great Ron. Nice work. Can't wait to see it fully stocked. Maybe a spur of the moment visit to Ron's after/before the MCA Christmas Party is in order. 

[Ron]

A quick update - things have been going relatively well. About 4-6 days after the initial stocking and feeding everyone well daily the tank got a little cloudy. Nothing terrible - when you're looking through 4'-8' of water there was a haze, but looking through 18"-20" at the overflow it wasn't apparent. I cut back on feeding and did a weekly 17% water change during this while checking the fish daily to make sure they looked to be alright.

2 weeks in, things cleared up. The wet/dry (trickle) filter should be rocking shortly. The ammonia consuming bacteria double every 12 hours roughly and the nitrite consuming bacteria double every 24 hours.

Closing in on a month since initial stocking, phase 2 stocking commenced tonight. I added 3 clown loaches, 8 S. multipunctatus, and a 1 rogue D. compressiceps male that ended up in the net with the clowns. The D. comp was running the growout tank so pulling him should allow some others to color up sooner. He was about 3"-3.5", so I hoped he was large enough to hang with the big guys. So far, so good, but he's easily the smallest fish in the tank. Everyone has been growing really well in the short time they've been able to stretch their fins.

Phase 3 probably won't happen for at least another month (or maybe 3). I've got D. compressiceps, F. rostratus, and P. spilonotus in grow out, but it's hard right now for them to catch up with the growth rates of the fish in the big tank.

I'll get some better pictures out whenever I get around to shooting some with a real camera. The phone pictures aren't coming out as well as I'd like.

[Steve]

Ron did you do any sort of tops on this big tank? (eggcrate or otherwise). I'm just trying to decided if/what to do on my big tank and I got to wondering what you did with yours for tops if any.

[Ron]

I've got a handful of small projects left for this tank and a final solution for tops is among them. Instead in December I had Christmas shopping, holiday parties,  and various hunting excursions taking priority.

The short answer is that I have my lights positioned over the acrylic bracing right now and all openings are covered with large styrofoam sheets so the fish can't jump out and it helps keep evaporation down. Eggcrate would also work to keep the fish in, but would also allow for nearly maximum evaporation. If there's interest in the long rambling answer, let me know and I'll come back with additional thoughts.

[danielratti]

I use that clear corrugated plastic roofing stuff for tanks.  It's cheap and pretty easy to.cut holds up really well also.  The stuff I've been using says it has a life. Time guarantee not to break also

[Steve]

If there's interest in the long rambling answer, let me know and I'll come back with additional thoughts.

Yep just when you get time, I'd be interested in hearing what what you have in mind, no hurry though just when you get a chance is fine.

[Ron]

If there's interest in the long rambling answer, let me know and I'll come back with additional thoughts.

Yep just when you get time, I'd be interested in hearing what what you have in mind, no hurry though just when you get a chance is fine.

Options I've considered:

#1: DIY with acrylic sheets - The problem is that acrylic absorbs water, so thin sheets will curl after time. Thicket sheets will resist this, but thicker acrylic costs more. I've heard of using something else in addition to the acrylic to act as a skeleton and help keep it straight, most often "egg crate".

#2: DIY glass tops (or buy some from Over The Edge). Depending on the bracing a tank has, you may either have to get some really large tops or add some bracing to support multiple sections of tops across a non-center-braced tank. The only other downside would be the weight IMO. It is possible to buy the hinges, glass and plastic backing (if you needed cutouts).

#2.5: Less fancy glass tops - just use flat sheets of glass. Main downside is it's harder to lift them up for feeding, but you can either purchase slip-on plastic handles or silicone a marble/other object to make them easier to lift.

#3: ABS plastic sheets - these would remain ridged and keep fish in, but are opaque and would block light. Perhaps just using them for portions of the tank that don't have a light immediately above might work.

#4: Styrofoam - easy to work with, may be messy depending on the type of foam, but also opaque.

#5: "Egg crate" - would keep fish in, let light pass, but would allow max evaporation (thus I only ever use it as a temporary cover until finding something better).

#6 Solid, transparent lighting diffuser - There are a bunch of varieties, allowing light to pass in different ways. I'm not sure how easy it is to work with. I'm not sure if it'd warp, but I'd suspect not. It might mess up the shimmering effect of LED lighting depending on the style.

Right now I'm tempted to go with either glass tops or the solid lighting diffuser.

[Ron]

I picked up some plants from the craft store for use in the tank. Right now I'm soaking them though to see if the dye is going to run and if so, how badly. After that I'll toss them in a smaller, different tank for a little bit with a few other fish just to make sure they'll be safe.



I also picked up a few additions for the tank...

4" Aulonocara masoni male (lower left of the 4 fish in the picture):


4" Aulonocara jacobfreibergi:


^ I wasn't initially going to add any peacocks, but these are a couple of the larger peacock species and should be alright in the tank with all the haps. There's a number of places they can hide from the bigger fish as well.

Champsochromis caeruleus group (2m/3f/1-suspected male), males are around 7", females around 6":


^ These are still settling in. They were also part of a larger group that had a more dominant male, hence they aren't colored up very well yet(!).

[Steve]

Lookin' good, gotta love the Champ

[Ron]

Lookin' good, gotta love the Champ

Definitely. The group helped fill out the tank nicely and now there's a better distribution of fish across the entire tank instead of always towards the side I feed them on. I hope I get one that looks as good as yours. Time will tell.

I'm starting to feel satisfied with the stock in it, but will still be on the lookout for other larger haps and might eventually need to net out some of the redundant fish in their currently (2x TR males, 2x tangerine tiger males, etc.)

I also threw in the sump a bunch of more misc sponges I had, previously used as pre-filter and/or left over Poret pieces, to serve as added biomedia. It was probably 1-1.5ft^3 in volume and should only help, though the sump has room for even more if desired.