[sir_keith]

...I would make the island more proportioned to give everyone the same-ish amount of space...

The best-laid plans... I'm not going to comment on the details, but I think you are going discover in short order that it is the fishes who will decide in the end who gets what space. You can nudge things one way or another with the hardscape, but they are going to decide for themselves, and it rarely turns out just as you planned. Good luck.

 

[sir_keith]

I think the first tank looks very nice, but it does not look at all like Lake Tanganyika. I would prefer to try to recreate something closer to their natural habitat with lots of rocks, ledges and caves as well as a sandy area with shells. As a disclaimer I don't have any actual experience with these fish.

I agree; that tank looks more like a soft-water Amazon biotope than Lake Tanganyika. And the stocking appears to be really strange- a few Tropheus, and what appear to be Xenotilapia? That's not a combination that's going to be stable for very long. I do love the Vallisneria, which does grow in some sandy-shoreline regions of Tanganyika (although I've never had success with it in my Tanganyikan tanks), and the duckweed looks quite happy, although it prefers acidic water. One has to wonder whether the water parameters in this tank are actually suited to Tanganyikan fishes.

 

[sir_keith]

Anubias and Cryptocorynes work for me-

 

[sir_keith]

The Anubias in particular have been useful in breaking up the tank's sight lines, and Ophthalmotilapia seem to like them...