starting Tang tank

Hello everyone,

I haven't been to any forums for awhile, but I've gotten the bug to make a change. I have a 5' x 20" x 20" 100gallon tank that I've had Malawi Haps and Mbuna in for a good while. I've been thinking that although I, and everyone else, like the pretty colors, I would rather have a tank with more interesting fish. So I've decided to change my tank over to a Tanganyikan community. I'm looking for suggestions on a good setup and also any advice is appreciated.

So far, I know that I definitely want an open water Cyp (or paracyp don't know much about them) colony, a shellie bed (I like the occies,) A. comps (goldhead look good,) and definitely a goby pair or two. I'm stuck on what else I should put in there. I was thinking Juli transcriptus or another small juli. Sandsifters could also be added.

Basically, what's a good setup for the most diversity and behaviour? I would like my guys to breed at their leisure, but I'm not concerned if the fry live or not, so fry predation is fine, adult predation is not. Also, specialized feeders are out, they really need to be ok with eating NLS because I'm lazy

Edited to add: Also, would catfish like petricola or multipunctatus be a good or bad addition?

Hey FedExGuy, welcome to the dark side.

I have a lot of the same species you're considering in my 125 gallon (see my 75 gallon thread in this Forum- the tank grew) for details. You'd be somewhat more limited than I was because of the 1' shorter tank.

For shellies, I've only had my occies for a week, but I already love them. I've already been attacked for messing with the dominant one's shells. I couldn't believe a fish 5/8" long at best would actually attack my arm. Too cool.

For gobies, I wanted more than one in the worst way, but I was told that they're pretty tough on each other and in a community tank a single would be my best bet. I did go with just a single and he's my favorite fish out of all 30+ fish in my 125. Down the road I'd like a tropheus/goby tank. I think that would be a great looking tank for sure.

I think if you wanted sandsifters you could do a shell area on one side for your shellies, a large-ish rock pile for your altos toward the middle and then leave the other side of the tank basically plain sand for the sandsifters. Alternatly you could do a rock pile on each side, the shellies in the middle and have altos and julies with the shellies in the middle.

I feed NLS mostly and I've read a lot of people saying it works fine for the gobies. Mine eats like a pig but like I said, I've only had him a week.

Have fun planning your tank, I think that's more than half the fun is contemplating the possibilities.

Hmmm, I hadn't thought about doing the rock pile in the center. Food for thought. As far as gobies, I'm fine with it being only one, but I've seen a number of people that ended up with a pair in their 75s, so I figured I could at least give it a shot.

I find it funny you were the first person to reply to my post on "the other forum" about this BTW, love to see more pictures of your tank, it looks good.

LOL, I think it's just because I had recent experience with doing pretty much the same thing as you.

thanks for the kind words on my tank. I started a photo thread in the Tanganyikan Photo section at the top of the Tang forum. I wish I had a better camera, but then again 10 years ago I would have loved to have a digital camera half as good as the one in my iPhone. hehehe

Hi, FedEXguy,
You got good advice from Norm, and he's just done all the homework you're doing now.
I have a 55 gallon Tang tank, right now I have in it 2 small comps, 2 same size black calvus, some gold occies, and 3 very small helianthus, and a male and female paracyp.
I'd like cyprichromis, but the 4 foot tank is not enough swimming room for them. I tried keeping some small julis successfully in that tank, but the group of multis I tried held
the whole tank hostage, and when I tried 3 leleupi, one killed the other two, and then started on the other inhabitants, and I traded him at the lfs!
This has been my experience so far, but as they say, "your mileage may vary".
And the "dark side" fish are very interesting--my favorites are the shellies.
J

What are thoughts on putting a single tropheus in a community tank for a "show fish?"

I've seen it done in tanks occasionally, as well as in "mixed african" style tanks. Just wondering if it'd be disruptive to the others or especially cruel to the tropheus.

I remember reading a thread at cichlid-forum where several people had good luck with a single tropheus in mixed tanks. I don't recall any of them having them in Tang community tanks, but that doesn't mean anything other than I don't remember. hehehe

Did you clean your shells, and if so, how did you do it? I just boiled a bunch for awhile and let them dry out. Is that good enough?

I bought my shells from cichlid-breeding.com. They claimed they were clean and ready for the tank so I took them at their word. I've done it twice now with them and haven't had any issues whatsoever. Depending on where you get them I think boiling them is definitely appropriate. I know some folks get their shells from arts & crafts stores, those I'd be afraid of some kind of polish or something on them.

I started to order from there, but I found I could get them waaay cheaper at Hobby Lobby. I looked them over and I couldn't find any evidence of polish, paint, or lacquer. In fact, the presence of, I'll call them "sand artifacts" like a coke bottletop and trash, make me think they came straight from the beach. Anyway, after boiling they seemed very clean, so I guess I'll give it a try