[lorax84]

This is my new Tanganyikan community. It's inhabitants are 3 julidochromis marlieri, 2 neolamprologus brevis "kitumba orange belly" and a yet unidentified hypostomus pleco that I plan on rehoming.

 

[KatSea]

Love the way you have it set up.

 

[lorax84]

Here is a better pic of he fish.

 

[Chesh]

Very pretty tank! It's refreshing to see a bit of asymmetry and style in the setup of this type of tank. . . too often the standard 'rock wall' is done, which is fine for the fish, but it's refreshing to see a bit of a different take Pretty fishies, too!

 

[aussieJJDude]

I really like this!
Looking good

 

[lorax84]

Very pretty tank! It's refreshing to see a bit of asymmetry and style in the setup of this type of tank. . . too often the standard 'rock wall' is done, which is fine for the fish, but it's refreshing to see a bit of a different take Pretty fishies, too!

Thanks, I'm a form and function type of person. I wanted it to be as close to the actual lake as I could get. Other than the Jave Fern, everything is pretty close to Lake Tang. I spent way too much time building and rebuilding that huge pile of rocks to ensure they would not tumble and would still look good, but I am really happy with the final result.

 

[MoneyMitch]

i too have some tangs, was going to setup my layout simular to this but feared that there woudl be a domminat that would claim the entire pile. have you had territorial issues with only having the one pile liek that?

 

[KatSea]

Thanks, I'm a form and function type of person. I wanted it to be as close to the actual lake as I could get. Other than the Jave Fern, everything is pretty close to Lake Tang. I spent way too much time building and rebuilding that huge pile of rocks to ensure they would not tumble and would still look good, but I am really happy with the final result.

I was just wondering how you got your little structure to stay like that. I would be to afraid it would fall.

 

[lorax84]

i too have some tangs, was going to setup my layout simular to this but feared that there woudl be a domminat that would claim the entire pile. have you had territorial issues with only having the one pile liek that?

That was one of my worries as well. It's the main reason I put a small pile of rocks on the far left corner. Of the three julies in the tank, two stay in the large pile. The third has been bouncing back and forth between the two piles, but most recently has begun to stake out the small pile as his territory. If there are territorial issues in the future I may change things a little. I probably would not suggest this setup for more aggressive rock dwellers though.

I was just wondering how you got your little structure to stay like that. I would be to afraid it would fall.

I made sure the base was really stable, after that it was kinda like putting together a puzzle. Believe it of not, most of the rocks in that pile are not that heavy. I few fell while I was testing earlier iterations, without doing any damage. The large piece of wood also helps with the stability.


I took another FTS trying to cut down on the glare. Here is is.

 

[KatSea]

Now did you just find the wood and rocks or did you buy them?

 

[lorax84]

Now did you just find the wood and rocks or did you buy them?

The wood is Malaysian dritftwood, I think I paid $20 for it. I attached the java fern to it myself and let it grow into the wood.

The rocks I have had for about 10 years. I have used them in a number of tanks. I collected them with a friend in high school when his subdivision was being built. Every time I am about to get rid of them i end up doing another cichlid tank. If you are thinking about adding a lot of rock to a tank, look into a landscaping wholesaler. The fish store marks rock up big time.

 

[KatSea]

Well Im thinking about starting a Lake Victorian Cichlid tank in the future. So I'm doing my best to get ideas and stuff for the tank and I don't want to just do the norm I kinda want to go out of the box.

 

[lorax84]

Definitely check out landscaping wholesalers then. A friend of mine stopped at one and asked if they had any smaller pieces of slate he could buy and they let him fill up a 5 gallon bucket with anything smaller than his hand for $20.

 

[KatSea]

Wow thats awesome haha I kinda feel like I couldn't get that lucky

 

[MoneyMitch]

same exact thing i did with my rock, mine is from a little stream from behind the house and some is from landscape supply. i have more rock then i can fit in my tank all fro around 20$ ive learned over the years to avoid the word "aquarium" on anything i swear it costs them 50$ just to print that word and they pass all that cost onto us.

 

[VerdantGrotto]

The wood is Malaysian dritftwood, I think I paid $20 for it. I attached the java fern to it myself and let it grow into the wood.

The rocks I have had for about 10 years. I have used them in a number of tanks. I collected them with a friend in high school when his subdivision was being built. Every time I am about to get rid of them i end up doing another cichlid tank. If you are thinking about adding a lot of rock to a tank, look into a landscaping wholesaler. The fish store marks rock up big time.

What type of rock can you put into one of these tanks. Is it something you would want to not manipulate water chemistry or something you do?

 

[lorax84]

What type of rock can you put into one of these tanks. Is it something you would want to not manipulate water chemistry or something you do?

Lake Tanganyika has a ph of 8.5-9.0 with very hard water, so its not going to hurt to have calcareous rocks in the tank that will buffer the ph a little. Most of my rock is sandstone and limestone. Personally I don't worry so much about getting the water exactly like lake tang, especially with tank raised fish, I just want slightly basic water with a stable ph. My water out of the tap is decently hard and about 7.8-8.0 ph, so I don't really mess with the water chemistry too much.

 

[Tannerj]

Great tank! I was wondering if i could put a pair of Masked Julies( Alone) in a 10 or 15 gallon? Some books and websites say it is good. Opinions?

 

[lorax84]

Update!

I'll start with the bad. I the last two weeks one of my julies killed the other two. It was surprising because I hadn't seen much aggression until after the first fish was dead. Anyway, I am just going to keep the one julie for now.

Now the good. I purchased a group of lamprologus stappersi online last week. I moved the two brevis to their own tank for now. I'm thinking they are both males at this point, but Im gonna wait a bit before buy any more. Here are some pics of the new fish.

 

[Oxon Fish]

Looks really good, i do like sand covered aqauriums