teach me!

[makatak123]

I wanna set up a cichlid aquarium but dont know what i need. help me name good fish and what i need(thank you)

[algarciajr]

What size tank do you plan on setting up?

[mark razmandi]

thats a super vague question. my best advice would be to do some research on some cichlids and pick one that you like. If you go with what everyone says here you will have a tank full of tropheus i keep only geos, i find them to be so entertaining and a beautiful fish. you might like some larger SA/CAs too like rico keeps, or africans like some peacocks or tropheus...then once you decide the fish you want, you get a tank and setup that will bet suit their needs

[dblondfemme]

I have some Midas Fry that would work really well if you are aiming for larger Cichlids. One parent was white and one was orange. Right now they are kind of peach colored and holding their own among some good sized fish.

[armthehomeless]

I'd recommend going through the cichlid section of this site and also checking out the species list at www.cichlidforum.com. Once you have more of an idea of what type of fish that you want, some of our experienced cichlid keepers will be glad to help out. Here are some question to get you started...

How big of a tank are you thinking?
How important is color (of the fish)?
How important is temperment?
Do you want of bunch of different types... or to stick with one or two types of fish?

[Darbex]

+1 on Tims suggestion. Cichlid forum has the best profiles on cichlids until people start adding on to ours on HFB. Hint hint.

[makatak123]

im thinking of having frontosa or peacocks in a 30g or up.

[Fire_chair]

You could do a trio of smaller Peacocks in a 30 long, but not Fronts.

[Darbex]

IMO Peacocks or Fronts need a bigger tank than a 30G. You could probably do small Tang tank like shell dwellers and calvus

[Fire_chair]

There are some smaller, 4-5", Peacocks that he could do, but I wouldn't do more than a trio. It wouldn't be the best bang, but it's do able.

[Darbex]

I guess I like the bigger tanks with a colony of any of the larger Africans, which is the reason I mentioned a colony of the smaller Africans. But you are right you could do a trio of peacocks.

[TaTeR ToT]

i had a a pair of gold occies, a pair of julies, a callochromis and 3 red lipped botia in a 29g.

they all got along fine.
i would stick wit smaller tanganyikan cichlids.

i really like shell dwellers.
i would get a colony of like 6 shelldweller and let them slowly breed and grow in numbers in your 30g

[Fire_chair]

If it was me, I would do a Tang community tank. Assuming that this is a 3ft tank the peacocks are doable if he really has his heart set on them, so I didn't want to make him think that it wasn't possible. Less than 3ft, then no.