Tony
Alligator Snapping Turtle/Past Pres
Hey guys,
About a month ago, Jon Clark and I were talking about the Aquarium Beautiful competition for the BFD. I had brought a 75 gallon Malawi setup last year and was trying to keep things simple this time around.
After I thought about the setups last year, I realized that while we had many entries, there were not many West African tanks. With our good friend, Anton Lamboj coming, we could not let this happen again!
I was planning on a 36" 30 gallon tank initially, utilizing fish I already Benitochromis nigrodorsalis, a CARES, bi-parental mouthbrooding cichlid from Cameroon. I had first considered barbs from Cameroon, but they were either too small to share a tank with the cichlids, or scarce in the hobby. In the end, I settled for another group of fish already on hand - Congo tetras. While technically from different biotopes, their gregarious behavior would complement the more cautious cichlids nicely. As an aside, from speaking with Rachel about the barbs, she confirmed that most would also be hiding in a newly setup tank in a public area.... so it worked out well.
As a last minute addition, I dropped by Congressional Aquarium and picked up an African butterfly fish - a widely distributed fish in West Africa.
For plants, I had a great starter - tons of anubias (large and small). I remembered Anton mentioning that anubias did not generally grow under water year round, so this tank would feature a slope simulating a creek bank. On the deep end, I would provide a large native plant - a crinum that Halak/Viktor gave to me. Manzanita was used to simulate root tangle at the stream's edge.
The next question was that of substrate. Looking through Anton's book, the streams seem very similar to those of Peru - muddy, with minimal fine gravel. Well... you can't set up a mud tank in a day and expect it to look exciting - nor is is feasible long-term. So I did something I hadn't done since being a kid... went to the creek with a shovel and a 5 gallon bucket and pulled out some creek gravel.
Note to self - the uphill walk back to the car with a 100 pound bucket of gravel, mud and water is much much much longer than the exciting trip there!
I rinsed the gravel extensively in the backyard using shallow Rubbermaid tubs and later dried it on a picnic table in the sun for a couple of days. This was followed conveniently by a couple of 20 degree F days to kill off whatever may be remaining.
The fines atop the creek gravel would be another substrate choice I do not have much practice with - play sand. LOTS and LOTS of rinsing and the stuff came out *mostly* clear in the end.
The final touch included soaking a bag full of oak leaves in a bucket for 5 days before the event... both to get them water-logged and to get some tannin tea to add to the tank once set up.
The day of the event, I ended up using a 36" 45 gallon setup in lieu of the 30 gallon. The added height came in handy for the very large plants and larger tetras and Westies.
I set up the tank and between the tannin tea and some residual dust on the play sand, it gave the tank a somewhat eerie appearance. The intentionally-low light added to the effect. By the next morning, much of the dust had settled and it looked right.
Here's a shot of it on Saturday night (borrowed from Jack/Slayz_ on the photo thread - Thanks!).
(Additional evidence of googly-eye vandalism shown)
Over the weekend, I decided that I liked the setup so much that I would replace the current tank in my kitchen.
So, with Anton staying with us on Sunday and Monday nights, I put him to work...
^^^ I used large chunky rocks to build up a base on the side.. This stretches the gravel out a lot as well as can provide some cool, built-in caves if planned right. (Always add substrate before water)
^^^ Preliminary layout with fish added.
I shot some video as well and will post it up either on this thread or the CARES B. nigrodorsalis thread once I have a chance to edit it.
Thanks for looking. I hope that this thread had some different ideas for those looking to setup new tanks or reboot existing ones.
Anyone considering getting into West African cichlids should absolutely give them a shot. Absolutely amazing fish!
Cheers.
About a month ago, Jon Clark and I were talking about the Aquarium Beautiful competition for the BFD. I had brought a 75 gallon Malawi setup last year and was trying to keep things simple this time around.
After I thought about the setups last year, I realized that while we had many entries, there were not many West African tanks. With our good friend, Anton Lamboj coming, we could not let this happen again!
I was planning on a 36" 30 gallon tank initially, utilizing fish I already Benitochromis nigrodorsalis, a CARES, bi-parental mouthbrooding cichlid from Cameroon. I had first considered barbs from Cameroon, but they were either too small to share a tank with the cichlids, or scarce in the hobby. In the end, I settled for another group of fish already on hand - Congo tetras. While technically from different biotopes, their gregarious behavior would complement the more cautious cichlids nicely. As an aside, from speaking with Rachel about the barbs, she confirmed that most would also be hiding in a newly setup tank in a public area.... so it worked out well.
As a last minute addition, I dropped by Congressional Aquarium and picked up an African butterfly fish - a widely distributed fish in West Africa.
For plants, I had a great starter - tons of anubias (large and small). I remembered Anton mentioning that anubias did not generally grow under water year round, so this tank would feature a slope simulating a creek bank. On the deep end, I would provide a large native plant - a crinum that Halak/Viktor gave to me. Manzanita was used to simulate root tangle at the stream's edge.
The next question was that of substrate. Looking through Anton's book, the streams seem very similar to those of Peru - muddy, with minimal fine gravel. Well... you can't set up a mud tank in a day and expect it to look exciting - nor is is feasible long-term. So I did something I hadn't done since being a kid... went to the creek with a shovel and a 5 gallon bucket and pulled out some creek gravel.
Note to self - the uphill walk back to the car with a 100 pound bucket of gravel, mud and water is much much much longer than the exciting trip there!
I rinsed the gravel extensively in the backyard using shallow Rubbermaid tubs and later dried it on a picnic table in the sun for a couple of days. This was followed conveniently by a couple of 20 degree F days to kill off whatever may be remaining.
The fines atop the creek gravel would be another substrate choice I do not have much practice with - play sand. LOTS and LOTS of rinsing and the stuff came out *mostly* clear in the end.
The final touch included soaking a bag full of oak leaves in a bucket for 5 days before the event... both to get them water-logged and to get some tannin tea to add to the tank once set up.
The day of the event, I ended up using a 36" 45 gallon setup in lieu of the 30 gallon. The added height came in handy for the very large plants and larger tetras and Westies.
I set up the tank and between the tannin tea and some residual dust on the play sand, it gave the tank a somewhat eerie appearance. The intentionally-low light added to the effect. By the next morning, much of the dust had settled and it looked right.
Here's a shot of it on Saturday night (borrowed from Jack/Slayz_ on the photo thread - Thanks!).
(Additional evidence of googly-eye vandalism shown)
Over the weekend, I decided that I liked the setup so much that I would replace the current tank in my kitchen.
So, with Anton staying with us on Sunday and Monday nights, I put him to work...
^^^ I used large chunky rocks to build up a base on the side.. This stretches the gravel out a lot as well as can provide some cool, built-in caves if planned right. (Always add substrate before water)
^^^ Preliminary layout with fish added.
I shot some video as well and will post it up either on this thread or the CARES B. nigrodorsalis thread once I have a chance to edit it.
Thanks for looking. I hope that this thread had some different ideas for those looking to setup new tanks or reboot existing ones.
Anyone considering getting into West African cichlids should absolutely give them a shot. Absolutely amazing fish!
Cheers.
