African Cichlids and Black lava rock caves

[islandguy11]

Jump forward a few yrs. Approx 180 pounds of granite boulders, just like in the lake, with natural sand, just like in the lake. Those rocks were smooth bottomed, and placed directly on the glass, with sand added after. I never had a rock shift using this method. The look of common LFS rock (lava, rainbow, etc) never appealed to me, anymore than brightly colored gravel did.

Great looking fish and tank set-up aside Neil, that's a lovely cabinet & canopy -- really hard to find anything like that here (and what few I've seen at one Chatuchak shop cost an arm and a leg compared to a regular simple metal stand which is most common here).

 

[RD.]

Thanks Barrett. I commissioned a local carpenter to make it. He pissed me off so bad with the length of time that he took to finish it, beyond what he had promised, that I went off on him pretty hard one day when I arrived at his home/shop early one morning unannounced, and kicked him out of bed. He finished it forthwith, and ended up selling it for a 50% reduction. lol

 

[tiger15]

You guys are making me want to set up an African cichlid tank. No worries about balancing light and co2 and ferts and SO much easier to clean a tank when you don’t have to siphon around clumps of s.repens or worry about uprooting your dwarf swords.
Rocks and colorful fish.
Sounds blissful.
Yeah think I’m gonna do it with the acrylic 90 I’m picking up next week.

I have moved in the opposite direction. I had African cichlid tanks with rockscape for decades and a couple years ago, I took the challenge and converted the rockscape into plant scape. Rockscape is definitely much easier to take care of. Plant scape takes a lot more TLC and a long learning curve to do it right, but the reward is worth 10x my effort. I still have all the rock I have for decades, just rearrange and attach epiphytte plants on them. Looking back, my old rock scapes were ugly, violating all aquascaping design rules, but at that time I didn’t care as fish were my only focus.

If you review rift lakes diving scenes, the rockscapes are all boulders, big and small. So boulder scape is natural and aesthetically pleasing. I used carved larva and rainbow rock, which was unnatural and artificial, but functionally provide better habitats for small fish. I have egg spawners raised successful generations of young’s in caves among tank busters. Now with plantscape, the habitat is even richer.

 

[RD.]

I have moved in the opposite direction. I had African cichlid tanks with rockscape for decades and a couple years ago, I took the challenge and converted the rockscape into plant scape.

Personally I wouldn't consider those to be "African cichlid" tanks, I think that a more accurate description would be mixed bag community tanks. Not nit picking, clearly we all do what is most rewarding to ourselves, just sayin.

If you review rift lakes diving scenes, the rockscapes are all boulders, big and small. So boulder scape is natural and aesthetically pleasing.

Agreed.

 

[tiger15]

Personally I wouldn't consider those to be "African cichlid" tanks, I think that a more accurate description would be mixed bag community tanks. Not nit picking, clearly we all do what is most rewarding to ourselves, just sayin.

My early years of cichlid keeping were all Africans, starting out with Mbuna, moved into Haps, and Tangs. In later years, I got into CA/SA, mixed in with Aficans as I found an all Haps tank boring for lacking diversity. Since I got into plantscape, I introduced schooling tetra, barbs and livebearer which is possible only after removing all tank busters. So you’re right my current set up is a mixed bag of community tank, but is still cichlid heavy. Many said plants and cichlid can’t coexist. I have proven it wrong by careful selection of the right fish, plants and scape.