[heyheychris10]

I am a newbie. I have a pretty basic knowledge on cichlids and I was wondering if anyone can just tell me about some species.
I want ones that are colorful, or have an interesting pattern, brown is ok, like I saw one that was brown with white spots, that one was cool. I like that one thats above next to the title cichlid forum title. But I also love the bright colorful ones. Dos'nt everyone. AND I like the buffalo head one. I am pretty sure I want to get within the peacock family. Are there other species that mix well with them?
I want ones that have a great personality and are interesting. I heard about one that keeps its babies in its mouth, thats cool.
I have a 55 gallon aquarium.
I want sand, and plants. I heard those don't mix well, so I guess I have to pick one or the other.
Thanks!
:fish:

 

[Dewdrop]

Plants and some cichlids don't mix well. Some of them will eat most kinds of plants. Sand is great for cichlids though. Look in the library here under the "cookie cutter" for suggestions on stocking a 55g. then you can look up the species under the profile section. It's hard to tell somebody what to get. Good luck.

 

[Fogelhund]

Plants and some cichlids don't mix well. Some of them will eat most kinds of plants.

I'm not so certain I'd agree with that.

I have sand only, in all of my tanks... as you can see, plants seem to do just fine.

The question really becomes, what type of fish do you want?

Take a look through the Profiles, under the Genus Aulonocara. Pick out a couple of those, and post in order which ones you like the most.

You will have a couple of main options. You can either have all males, which should mean more colour in the tank, or a few groups of breeding fish, perhaps three species in a 55 gallon. Pick one fish you'd like, and I'll help fill in the rest.

In addition, let me recommend looking at the Cookie Cutters in the Library section.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/q ... e_list.php

 

[cichlidaholic]

Plants and some cichlids don't mix well.

I thought the same thing until I saw Fogelhund's tanks...

Then I realized "plants and Kim don't mix well". :lol:

Kim

 

[hollyfish2000]

I still think steering a newbie away from plants to begin with in an African tank is a good suggestion. Someone like the OP still has a lot to figure out in terms of good fish-keeping, without adding the extra challenge of plants. I have two planted community tanks, and they're great. But with my Africans, I wanted something simpler -- and I'm happy with my rocks!

 

[cichlidaholic]

I think the key is having lots of plants and not just a few...And a planted tank certainly looks better, IMO.

I just seem to kill all things green.

Kim

 

[MalawiLover]

I just seem to kill all things green.
Kim

I guess its a really good thing that there are very, very few green cichlids then :lol:

 

[convictkid]

My Kenyi are in a heavy planted tank. They love to nibbles at the tips, buts its great for them, and they don't do much damage.

 

[Afishionado]

Fogelhund, those are just about the best looking planted African cichlid tanks I've seen! Makes me want to give the live-plants-with-cichlids challenge a more serious try.

 

[Dewdrop]

Those sure are gorgeous tanks. Like Kim said, maybe heavily planted is the key but it didn't work for me. I had several plants that got chewed up and was down to a moss ball left. They're working on tearing it up now :? .

 

[heyheychris10]

Wow your tanks are gorgeous. Thats kinda how I want mine to look. I really like the second picture. Yes, I want allot of color, but I would be fun to have a breeding pair. Can you do both?