CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

thanks, i had treated a sick fish with melafix and it aparently extended my cycle. it took two months to finish. this is my first real tank so im a bit jumpy! its actually my daughters tank, its a 20 gal and as of today she has 1, 2in red jewel, 4, 1 in yellow labs 1 m/3f and 2, 1.5in unidentified cichlids of different types, one blue with wide black stripes and a bluntish nose and one blue with a yellow tint on the top of his head. i think the first one is a Pseudotropheus demasoni but i have no idea what the other one is. both are fairly mello though, so far! anyway, thank you for the input. i really enjoy your forum and i come in quite often now. i think im hooked. i asked my wife what she thought about a 100 gal tank and she said no, we shoud get 130...

Well, glad to hear your joining us suckers on keeping these amazing fish. You're already showing symptoms of big tankitis. Nothing to worry about until you have used up all available space in the house and start looking in the backyard for pond space. LOL. Hope you have as much fun as we do.

so far i luv the little guys! just waiting for tax time to pass then we start shopping. i was looking on line, there seem to be some good deals every once in a while. any sugestions on equipment.

For canister filters my suggestion is Fluval, magnum or Ehiem. For filters that hang on the back of the tank I suggest aqua clear filters. I myself used fluvals and aqua clears and liked them alot but fluvals were best for tanks 50gal and larger. As for filter media I suggest bio-max for the benificial bacteria as well as a sponge no matter what filter you get, and any active carbon. Heaters I would have to say ebo jager. I never really used air pumps too much but there is only two that come to mind, vibra-flo and elite. Make sure that if you get an air pump that you put one way check valves in the air line so that if you have a power outage the water can't back track up the tube and into your pump. If you have any more questions just ask and If I'm not around to answer there are alot of really experienced people here to help.