Okay, I have been quite busy here at the house the past month or so and really havent kept everyone up to date with my tanks. Over this last month I have done some major stock changes and rescapes.
First off the fish I sold and lost
The 75 Mbuna tank I had has been changed back to a Wet pet Tank(If anyone remembers Mr.Flowerhorn). I traded all the MBuna and fry to Animal Jungle on Memorial Day out of the blue. I have to say keeping Old World Cichlids is not my cup of tea. I was losing fish from agression in every African tank I had running. In the Mbuna tank I had a Large yellow lab die once a week for a few weeks , then the Rustiies. The fins of the fish showed brutality and no other signs of death. When I netted all the fish I had two holding mainganos and one male, 1 holding yellow lab with 7 others, and 8 Rusties. I took them to AJ and traded them all for a Peacock Bass !
I know that crazy right but I have decided My fish of Choice are Medium to Monster New Worlds. Plans for the future may not be a bunch of tanks in a room , its gonna be one massive one and a few 125+ for grow outs/Breeders.
I also got into the planted tank thing as everyone knows, and I recieved my 4' Marineland plant Led. So I stuck it on the 75 and planted it.

Full tank shot


The Cichla monoculus



So like I said earlier the African cichlid tanks were at war. I had the peacocks breeding and eating very well until the biggest male I had went postal and killed everyone in the tank. I couldn't keep up with all the attitude in the tank. I saw little squabbles every so often but would come home to a dead fish every other day. The male was alone in the 55 for a week or two until I found some very nice fish.
Craigslist is so sweet sometimes! Jen ran across an ad for 5" Festae (red terrors) on Cl for $15. I told here to call and ask about the fish and ask for pictures. She called around 930pm and we got in contact with discusken from the other forum. We talked for an hour on the phone about fish and ended up working out a trade. By request He asked for my smallest Festae for his two large ones. I quickly accepted the offer . I met up with him the next day got these guys
Amphilophus festae (Red Terrors)


These guys are going to make the switch to the 125 in the close future. I also may be gettin grid of the Green Terrors in order to keep all the Festae and my beloved EBJDs

Your planted tank is awesome. Great job! Love the new Red Terrors. Can't wait to see how they look in their new digs

wow! great tank flip!

The tanks look GREAT Brian but I've gotta say my heart aches hearing that your getting away from Africans!!! So were the freebie bengas/German reds among from the casualties??

Sadly yes, They were fine for a few weeks and one would die off. I raised the temp in the tank and slowly added salts to help with any issues but they continued to pass in larger numbers. My multies even went nuts. I had 3 males and one female with a spawn of 25 or so and the female ended up dead. Now all I see in that tank is the main male with the fry and the lone black calvus. I have not seen the other two males in a while, I think they are hiding in the lace rock. While all this was going on all of my other fish were breeding regularly and happy.

When I started the journey to Old World cichlids a little over a year ago I said it was a trail and that it was, at least I gave them a shot. Substrate spawners and monster mouth brooders for me (Tilapia). So I guess I still have West Africans

Sorry to hear that your African fish didn't work out but I can certainly understand why. Attitude in a tank has never interested me, it only makes me tense. What you've got in mind to replace all that will certainly be a nice step in the hobby for you. Good luck.

That first pic of the Amphilophus festae (Red Terrors) is quite amazing. You've captured (or Jen has) the personality of the fish. This is EXACTLY the sort of pic we should be showing on our portal page (once we get the *new and improved* version going ...)

Jen did snap those pictures for me. I took some before these and was going to use them but She wanted to take some pics.

I have a pretty good archive of pics for the portal. We should definitely get a bunch from the members if they wish to submit any

I'm sorry you've had so much trouble, Brian, but I have been through just about everything you have with Africans too, and I can understand you wanting to switch things up. I've had peaceful community tanks where a single male peacock went ape and killed everybody, and that happened when I tried to keep shellies as well. I have pretty good luck (in terms of the fish getting along peacefully) with Tanganyikans, aside from the shellies, which were N. ocellatus.

I've kind of switched my focus now to SA cichlids for the time being, but I've had fun and games with angelfish going off and killing each other, too! You've got a great collection so far and I hope you find things a bit less dramatic!

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I do know cichlids are aggressive fish but with Africans its a whole different ball game. It's not a pair usually its more Like a ton of fish stuck in a tank and hope for the best. Also the overstocking rule. You spend so much money on these fish just to get rid of them when they are not the male to female ratio.
I like looking at African cichlids but keeping them is a crapshoot to me. I can buy 6 hyper aggressive substrate spawners and be able to keep all the fish alive and pair off a few. With mouth brooders the rules change......

You are right Flip, they can be a challenge, and you do have to crowd the tank. Just a little sidebar for others, I have found horizontal striped Africans to be killers, vertical striped just plain mean, and no stripes grouchy/mean. I know not exact and some may argue, but my observation such as it is.
Good luck with the new fish and plant tank. You certainly have done a good job and they look great. There are times I think about switching to SA's too.

I got some plants mailed to me from a subscriber on youtube! Here is the video

So in the next week or 2 I am taking the 40 planted down and turning it into a grow out tank for fry and swapping the substrate out in the peacock tank to flourite. Updates to come. The Pbass is gaining a lot of size .

Great job, reallylooking nice

A nice display tank, Flip! Looking very good so far.

I can't tell you for your exact product but the numbers on the container or bottle refer to the main nutrients required by plants and their proportion in the product. (Like 5-10-5 fertilizers that you use on your lawn.)
Aquarium Plants need potassium, nitrogen, calcium, magnesium, and iron to grow properly and some other trace nutrients besides.

Iron is essential to most aquarium plants, and many of the red plants get their great color from the proper dose of iron. The substrate FLOURITE is basically iron as provided by crushed red clay. I have used Flourite in planted tanks for years and currently have about 35 pounds of the regular variety (brownish red) clean and waiting to be reused. It rinses up and dries out beautifully to store for the next use.

Only thing I don't like about Flourite is that it is harsh and abrasive for digging or burrowing fish. It is NOT appropriate to use with Corydoras, despite what you may hear. When you set up that planted tank with just plant-friendly fish, you will want some Otocinclus catfish. And some Caridina or Neocaridina shrimps. It will be awesome! Add some nice micro-rasbora or other tiny fish and you will practically never have to feed them or change the water!

From what I see of your tank as shown in the video, you will need more plants or algae will start to grow. Artificial aquarium lighting is responsible for most algae problems, and if you run the lights too long with not enough plants you will start to see little short black hairs growing along the edges of the broad leaf plants. Other algae will step in as well. Not all algae are unsightly and not all are bad, but too much will starve the "real" plants and not be the look you want.

In the first days and weeks use a light hand with the fertilizers. The bass will provide some plant food via its waste. Remember that plants compete with each other and it will be hard for slow-growing crown plants to compete with wild and free stem plants. You may have to make adjustments there.