New mini rift lake tank....

[elevatethis]

I had a bunch of extra fish stuff lying around, to the point where I had a complete tank. I have never done a african cichlid tank...so I decided to set one up. It finally cycled out and cleared up, and here's what I came up with:





So far all I've got is a pair of brichardi and some unidentified blue african. I had a yellow lap too, but the brichardi teamed up and took him out. The brichardi seem to get along with the other one, though. Eventually I plan to keep this a species only tank with a small colony of brichardi, but they are somewhat hard to find around here so I needed something else to get the bio load up and get the tank going.

[recycling goddess]

ya brichardis can be very aggressive when they are paired up... i have some daffodils and they rule the tank LOL little guys taking on my big 10" frontosas.

i know a guy who can hook you up with some brichardi - probably F1 or wild caught, which ever you are looking for.

http://www.riftzoneaquatics.com/

i know clayton personally... he's a great guy. really quality stock too. we've done many fish orders together in the past. he ships wherever the order needs to go.

[Evan Jamison]

I like it! Good luck on your search for more brichardi. That's too bad about the yellow lap.
Little cycling hint: If you can get a hold of some ammonuim chloride (NH4Cl) from a chemical supply company, you can can use that to cycle your tank rather than risking fish to do the job. 1 gram/100 gallons will put your NH3 at about 2.0 I'm not sure how practical this is if you don't cycle tanks that often, but you could likely buy a very small amount for pretty cheap if you have a local chem supply. Working at a public aquarium quarantine facility, I bleach out, and recycle systems on a regular basis, so cycling with animals just isn't practical (especially when you have to start with a "clean" system before any animals are added). I also use it to keep systems going that are empty, just dose once a week for many happy bacteria .

Be sure to post more pics when you get more additions!

-Evan

[jknudson]

Great looking tank Brad! I'm sure some nice mbunas would love that fancy rockwork! N. brichardi are great fish, good luck on your search.

Evan, great idea with the ammonium chloride...for those who may read the suggestion and want to try here's where you can pick it up online:
https://www2.carolina.com/webapp/wcs...y_rn=&crumbs=n

Aleesha, thanks for the link to the cichlid site, I'm setting up a rift lake tank myself any day here...Malawi for me...hard to decide on specific fish though, cichlids are so variable with color/size/temperment, and there are tons!

-Jason

[TekWarren]

Cichlids rock!

[Rapture]

Nice set up! The bottom level reminds me of Stonehenge.

[fishmommy]

that rockwork is awesome

be very careful....Africans are addictive!

[Ginevive]

AweOme. I kept those cichlids for years, and they will definately appreciate having all of those crevices and hidespots. Mine would each have their own little spot, and when you turned the lights on, at first it'd look like an empty tank; then they would come out one by one.
My favorite African is the drab Livingstoni. I still have mine; he lives fine with my Oscars. The rest, I auctioned off; got more into fancy goldfish. But those tanks are awesome!

[elevatethis]

Just some new shots...the Brichardi have been busy...

Original pair...


Male...


Wigglers...


Older fry...


Growing family...

[Uncle Festae]

Cool stuff Sad Brad.....get some real fish, those things would be feeders here LOL

One day I'll get around to posting up some of my fish pics...I only have like 3 gigs worth LOL