New Aquarium : Part 2?

Question

In response to previous answers, I took all the fish back except for my convicts and the pleco... just in time too. My convicts were terrorizing my tiger barbs. So I now have a heavily planted aquarium w/ six juvenile cichlids. I figure about a month of letting the aquarium sit and weekly water changes should be enough to cycle the aquarium and give the cichlids time to grow... My ultimate goal is to have one breeding convict pair and a few of one other species of fish... Any suggestions on where I should go from here?

Answer 1

well let me just say if you convicts breed, they will kill of all other fish it happend to me a while back,
convicts also love to dig at plant roots
they killed 4 tigerbarbs 4 clown loaches a few rosy barbs and a betta.
as for the hole cycling thing convicts and plecos are very hardy fish i wouldnt worry to much just keep up the weekly water changes.
ive also had convicts that when breeding took on 2 medium sized red oscars
so by having the convicts you have limited yourself to only a few fish spieces like red devils firehorns ect...
My convicts breed every 3 to 4 weeks untill i seperated them.
i had lots of fry but nothing to do with them so i fed them to my turtles :))
good luck

Answer 2

cichlids and heavily planted tank are not synonymous. you need some spots for the cichlids to make their little love nests and lay eggs. people use small clay pots, pvc pipe, you can get creative -- as long as an adult convict can get in there its a fine home.

here is a site with a couple of pics at the bottom. once they start to breed they are notorious for being little underwater bunnies -- and good parents.

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile58.html

Answer 3

I don't think that a weely waterchange will be enough until your tank is fully cycled

you will need to watch the ammonia and nitrite daily, to ensure the survival of your cichlids

as soon as the ammonia goes over 0.50 you will need to do a 50% waterchange in between, past that your fish are not save, IMO you should have brought all your fish back

you will also need many caves for them to hide in

you will also need to upgrad your tank size eventually

here is a link that goes a bit deeper
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile58.html



Hope that helps
Good luck


EB
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