Welcome

[angel]

Welcome, Alla! We're also in Spring Hill and if you want, let me know where you are in Spring Hill and I'll come HELP you clean the tank! Click on my screen name and choose send a personal message and leave your information there. Glad you joined!
Tina

[jon carman]

Alla- put it under tank setup, or all else.

[oneyoda]

Yes welcome Alla! This is the place for help for shure! Definately give Tina a pm and hook up with her. She has a few tanks (LOL!!!) and should be a big help!

[cichlidguy82]

Hi all, My name is Ryan. I have been keeping cichlids on and off for a few years now. I live in knoxville TN. I have 5 tanks going now, a 120, 3x 55 and a 30 with central and south american cichlids. Hopefully I will get to go to the next swap and Im glad to be here

[angel]

Welcome, Ryan! April will be especially happy you joined--she's in Knoxville and feels like she's far away sometimes. Please post pics and your fish stories, as well as any questions you may think of along the way.

[cichlidguy82]

I know that im far away...lol I also enjoy rescuing fish.. I have a 10" male red devil, 2x 8"+ oscars, 8" female jaguar, 55 gallon with a ton of pink convicts, 5"+ female red terror 4" rescued jack dempsey 7" jack dempsey, juvenile black belt, green terror, texas, cutteri and jack dempsey. So if ya'll know anyone that has fish to big for there tanks shoot me a pm. Thanks

[oneyoda]

Welcome! Glad to have a Rescue Ranger among us!

[plantsamber]

Hi everyone! My name is Amber, I am new to keeping cichlids. I have only had my tank for about 4 months. I am new to fish in general but I love cichlids. They are so beautiful. Every day I learn more and more about them. I am excited to be here and to learn even more.

[angel]

Hi Amber! You've come to the right place. We love fish--especially cichlids! What cichlids do you have, and tell us about your tank--what size you've started with, and how you've chosen to decorate it. Would love to hear everything!

[jon carman]

Glad to have you Amber- What type of cichlids do you keep?

[plantsamber]

I am so new to this I don't have my names down yet but I posted a link to a video of the few I have. I am looking to get more for my new 30 gal tank but would like to get a little more experienced with the few I have before I buy fish and don't know how to properly care for them. Right now I just have a few from super Petz. Nothing fancy but I have been researching the other types and am very interested.

[jon carman]

Don't get any from there. They normally just carry the psycho mbuna(not all mbuna are psycho) In a 30g tank mbuna go nuts and kill each other which could be why yours are sick. They get stressed and get bloated. You could keep 1male and 4 females of the same thing in one, but even that is risky with mbuna.

[jeremyh81]

Good morning all! I'm Jeremy, a newbist w/ a 26-gallon bowfront community tank. Not quite a cichlid fanatic (yet), but they do have some beautiful colors.

My current tank has been running for over a month now and is home to 8 longfin zebras and 3 Otocinclus cats. It is naturally planted w/ some Amazon swords, Anubias nanas, Java ferns, and wisterias, but not quite the aquascape I'm looking for. My next fish additions will be a few Corydoras.

Now that I've gotten my feet wet and read a couple books and websites, I'm wanting to go bigger w/ a 55g tank and decorating it the right way. "Al-naturale" is what I like! Only plants, rock and driftwood for me, please!

On a side note about SuperPetz - I used to keep land hermit crabs until I realized that I don't have the patience when they all dig-in to molt at the same time. I bought one purple pincer crab from SuperPetz out of empathy because of the extremely poor conditions they were keeping the crabs in. There were several dead in the screen terrarium, and one even fell out of its shell when an employee was helping me pick one out.

Needless to say, I have personally boycotted SuperPetz and will never buy anything from them. AquaticCritter on Nolensville Rd is just as close and knows their fish, reptiles, and inverts!

Now that I'm done w/ the rant... :-p

I just visited the nashvilleaquarist.net forum, which is pretty much a dead site.

Thanks for having a forum dedicated to Middle Tennessee "cichlidiots" (as That Fish Blog once put it) and other aquarists alike!

[angel]

Glad you signed on Jeremy! Although we started out just cichlids we quickly found out we love all fish, and many of us don't keep cichlids at all so you're not alone. You're right about SuperPetz too. Been in there. Yuck! Did the crab live?
Have you looked on CraigsList today? There's a 55G with stand light hood driftwood rocks etc and some fish for $75.

[jeremyh81]

Thanks for the warm welcome!

The crab did live and eventually molted, but when the other 5 started molting at the same time, I decided that hermits weren't for me and gave them to an experienced crabber.

I did see that in craigslist, but my aquarium budget for the month was just spent on a new HOT Magnum w/ Biowheel. Plus I want to buy more plants and a couple rocks for the 26, and I'm still trying to build patience with the nitrogen cycle. I've been testing the water and changing it accordingly, but still can't keep the nitrates below 30ppm for more than a few days.

The tank was growing long hair algae, which was annoying me, but I'm letting it go so the ottos will have plenty of natural food. The 3 guys make a very cute cleaning crew! Yesterday I found one upside down on the air line, eating algae with bubbles in his face! :-D

I'll post pics shortly!