Trip to Big Al,s

[Randy]

Well I took a trip to Big Al,s on the weekend,and talk about confusing. They have about 40 tanks of cichlids over there .So I made out a list of fish I,m interested in. I,m going to by a 30 gal tank for my set up. So I was wondering if I could get some feed back from you guys on the species that I looked at. The fish I liked are the following.( Juli Marlieri, Demasoni, Mel Auratus, and the Apisto Borelli ). Man where do they come up with these names :shock: Are any of these fish compatable with each other. I,m looking at hopefully just small fish here. I dont want real big ones. Thanxx for taking the time for your feedback. ps. do I put salt in the water for these fish and if so what kind and how much???

[jonah]

[quote:10174874ea="Randy"] I,m going to by a 30 gal tank for my set up.

The fish I liked are the following.( Juli Marlieri, Demasoni, Mel Auratus, and the Apisto Borelli ).

I,m looking at hopefully just small fish here. I dont want real big ones.

ps. do I put salt in the water for these fish and if so what kind and how much???[/quote:10174874ea]

With just 30g to work with you'll be limited on what you might be successful with. Do not mix the four fish you mentioned. The auratus would most likely kill the others. The Apisto is a softwater American cichlid, while the others are hardwater African rift lake fish, so they definitly should not be mixed.

Demasoni stay small, but they're aggressive. Melanochromis auratus get at least 4+" and they're really aggressive. I'm not sure about the Julidochromis marlieri, but I think they get around 4" and are aggressive to their own kind. I have a Juli. dickfeldi in a tank of Neolamprologus multifasciatus and it's fairly peaceful by cichlid standards.

The Apisto will be the smallest of the fish you listed and they're fairly peaceful from what I've heard, but I've never kept them. I know you can keep them in a planted community tank with peaceful tankmates like neon tetras and corydoras. They'd work really well in a 30g, probably better than any of the others.

What I would do is find out what my water's pH is and decide from there. I mostly keep Africans because my water supply matches up to them really well. If you have 8+pH I'd get Africans, maybe a demasoni species tank. If your water measures in the lower 7's or below I'd get the apistos.

I don't use salt in my freshwater tanks. Some people use it as a general tonic or for treating ich, but I don't seem to ever need it. If you buy aquarium salt it'll have the dosage on the package.