My 75g Cichlid tank

S

Steve C

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SE Michigan
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The local cichlid club I am a part of had our annual fall auction today. IMO one of the best yet. Picked up some beautiful fish (9 new ones today) which completed the stocking of my 75g office tank now. The VC10 caught my eye soon as I walked in and I was not about to leave without him!

I have been working toward completing sticking this tank for some time now. Now that it's done I am working on finishing another 75g tank I'm building into the wall which will be a Discus tank.
 
Sorry about that 2nd pic being so big. I just tried to fix it but it wouldn't let me do it.
 
Nice tank, and fish. I used to be an Aquarium guy myself. I never really cared for cichlids, but loved Discus. In college I had several matted pairs of Angels and made money selling to pet shops all over Alabama. At one time I had a 50gal, 75gal, 30gal, 110gal and several 10's. One of these days I'll set some of them back up.
 
Yeah it is for sure a hobby that can get very addictive, just like bonsai lol. About a year ago I had a 7ft long 265g, 75g, pair of 55g, four 20gs,a 29g and pair of 10g up and running. Then I downsized to just a 75g and 20g for the past 9 months but now am back up to pair of 75g's, a 29g and pair of 20g's. Plan to try to limit it to that this time though.
 
I think discus are very beautiful and I want a few myself- but why are they so (relatively) expensive?

I think live aquaria sells them for almost $60 per fish and I have always wondered why.
 
JoeR said:
I think discus are very beautiful and I want a few myself- but why are they so (relatively) expensive?

I think live aquaria sells them for almost $60 per fish and I have always wondered why.
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Mainly growth rate and the energy/expense of growing them out to adult size. They grow a bit slower then most other cichlids (on average) they require almost daily to bi-daily water changes when they are juveniles if you want them to grow faster and to full potential. And they also require a bit more of a specialize diet than most other cichlids. So that usually ends up equating to higher prices. On average I have seen them from $30 for 2" juvies up to $200 for full size show pieces. Once I get my 75g Discus tank done I know a few breeders in my cichlid club where I will be able to get 3" ones for about $30'ish each just depending on which ones I go with.
 
Steve C said:
Mainly growth rate and the energy/expense of growing them out to adult size. They grow a bit slower then most other cichlids (on average) they require almost daily to bi-daily water changes when they are juveniles if you want them to grow faster and to full potential. And they also require a bit more of a specialize diet than most other cichlids. So that usually ends up equating to higher prices. On average I have seen them from $30 for 2" juvies up to $200 for full size show pieces. Once I get my 75g Discus tank done I know a few breeders in my cichlid club where I will be able to get 3" ones for about $30'ish each just depending on which ones I go with.
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Thanks, I knew there was a reason. Not bad I suppose for such a specialized fish. I also know live aquaria is on the higher end in terms of price and quality.
 
Nice tank Steve. I used to be into african cichlids too. I notice you're mixing lakes. How do the frontoso get along with the lake malawi fish? They will eventually outgrow 75g won't they?
 
I started out with just Lake Malawi fish but over the past year or so I have mixed some Tangs and such together. Long as I feed them twice a day and do 80% water changes twice per week they get alone pretty well. If I slack off and let the nitrates start to raise by missing a WC then they start to get grumpy. I stay pretty much on top of it though so they get along pretty well.

Most the ones in the tank will be fine even maxed out size, except for the Bleekeri he will need to be rehomed in about a year, the Frotosa may need to be rehomed about the same time as well once she gets to about 8-9". That's usually not a problem though with being a part of the club, once certain ones get too big then they go to an auction and I come home with something in place of them:cool:
 
JoeR said:
I think discus are very beautiful and I want a few myself- but why are they so (relatively) expensive?

I think live aquaria sells them for almost $60 per fish and I have always wondered why.
Click to expand...

Discus are also difficult to breed reliably. They tend to eat the eggs if they are frightened. Couple that with the difficulty in raising them to large specimens and you can understand the cost.
 
80% water change 2x a week seems like a lot. The fish look great.
 
I had aquariums most of my life. We got into cichlids by accident! We bought a young pair of "kissing Grommies" from the local aquarium store... Only one turned out to not be a Grommy! It was a pink cichlid and it killed ever fish in the tank! LOL

After that, all we could keep Alive in that tanke were cichlids... So we went with it. We got into some stripped convicts, next thing you knew they were breeding and we had about 300 babies swimming around in the tank... We wound up selling some fish back to the aquarium store we got them from!
 
Eric Group said:
I had aquariums most of my life. We got into cichlids by accident! We bought a young pair of "kissing Grommies" from the local aquarium store... Only one turned out to not be a Grommy! It was a pink cichlid and it killed ever fish in the tank! LOL

After that, all we could keep Alive in that tanke were cichlids... So we went with it. We got into some stripped convicts, next thing you knew they were breeding and we had about 300 babies swimming around in the tank... We wound up selling some fish back to the aquarium store we got them from!
Click to expand...

I did the same thing with Angel fish. In college I had three mated pairs. I had tanks set up all over my trailer. Made gas money by selling them to pet stores. It didn't take long to flood the market (300 eggs/each every 7 - 10 days). When ever I went home for the weekend I would pack a couple of coolers with bags of fish and stop at all the pet stores along the way.
 
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