46gal bowfront

conger

hey all, this is my 46gal freshwater bowfront... its been up and running for around a year or more


whole tank


closeup of the left side


closeup of the right side


even closer, this is my Jack Dempsey's favorite cave of all (notice how he has dug out the sand from inside!)


and here's the Jack Dempsey himself, in all his moody glory :)


I know a 46 may be a little tight for a large Jack Dempsey, so if push comes to shove I have a good friend in town with several tanks, including a 55 gal (with a large female Jack Dempsey!)... I could transfer the Dempsey to him to keep in the larger tank, but so far Jack is doing great in my tank (I got him when he was just a baby).

Cody

I really like that set-up. Could we have a fish-list? :)

Jasey

Very beautiful! I love the white sand and bamboo. :)

conger

thanks :) I'll give a fish list, though I'm afraid I'll get chastised if I've mixed species that are traditionally incompatible or require vastly differing water conditions In my defense, I've had most of the fish in the tank for around a year, with no disease outbreaks, no fighting amongst inhabitants, and no odd/stressful behavior.

With that out of the way, here goes:

1 Jack Dempsey cichlid, ~6"
1 Venusta cichlid (have hard time finding info on this species), ~4"
1 unknown cichlid (LFS told me incorrect species, cannot identify... actually, maybe I can post a pic and you guys can help me identify it :))
1 black ghost knife
2 tiger barbs (used to be 4, over the months a couple have died.. one jumped out of the tank overnight!)
1 red stripe barb
1 large spotted pleco, ~6"
1 catfish, also unknown species (you can see him in the lower right corner of one of my pics above)

I feed them small amount of flakes, cichlid pellets, algae disks, and live feeders (ghost shrimp and guppies), so they get a diverse diet and everyone gets something to eat :)

okiemavis

Those are some awesome caves! Gonna have to build some like that for my new tank...

Amphitrite

That's a really unusual and lovely looking setup. Out of interest, how do you have the rocks secured? Are they balanced there, or do you have them siliconed together?

Lupin

I get shivers from seeing the rock structure.

conger

haha, thanks all for the comments. As far as securing the rocks, believe it or not the structure is very stable. The bottom-most rocks are completely embedded in the sand, so the bottom won't move regardless of how much the cichlids dig. All of the rocks are fairly solid/heavy, and I have them arranged such that they can't fall in any direction (and heavy enough to not be moved by something other than the base rocks shifting, which won't happen). The only exception is maybe the lowest "horizontal" piece on the right side, but its super light and thin.

Every three months or so, I take out all rocks and plants, and give a thorough clean so I can keep all of the sand clean, even under the rocks. I initially did want to have at least key rocks glued/siliconed together, but my LFS told me not to, as it would be a pain for cleaning purposes. It made sense to me at the time, but I am beginning to mistrust some of the employees there. If you guys think I should definitely glue them together, I'm certianly willing to. But I've had that structure and these same fish for a while, with no trouble so far.

Irish

Very nice setup, The bamboo looks great and thats one
nice looking JD.

rummynose

that tank is very well set up and I love the Jack Dempsey.