Would love to see some saltwater tanks.

Outstanding, Fish! Are those the fish that the mom will protect the babies in her mouth? Or am I getting that mixed up with another species?

Yeah, these are all Malawi cichlids. They're mouth brooders. The female will poop out the eggs on a rock. The male will come over the eggs and do a little dance and toss his load onto the eggs. The mother then scoops up all the eggs in her mouth, and holds them there until they hatch. They still remain in her mount until they're big enough to survive, and she spits them all out and they're on their own. Usually takes several weeks, and she doesn't eat anything that entire time. It's pretty cool to watch. Of course once in a while something happens and the mother ends up getting stressed out or something, and she just eats all her own kids and starts over.

Ain't that just typical. No matter the species, it's just another bitch that won't swallow.

I love fish tanks. I got hooked at 18 yro with a 55g tank. They are a moving painting. When ever we have people in the basement, they don't look at me, but the tank.

I designed this tank 20 yrs ago to maximize low maintenance. It is built into a wall with access to the rear. I have well water, thus no hassle with chlorine. The pond pump, which provides tons of mechanical filtration and a current for the fish to play in, also provides powered draining of the tank for water changes. Flip the switch, the water gets pumped into my sump pump and goes into the yard. Turn on the water faucet and fill it back up with well water. 50 gallons changed in 20 minutes.

I haven't posted any pics of my 125g tank. It is fresh water, mainly cichlids of all sorts through the years (20). 300 lbs of rock for them to hide in. To provide hidey holes, I laminated Tupperware with slate and the bottoms cut out then built large rocks around the holes.

I use an "over engineered reverse flow under gravel" system with 3 penguin 1140 power heads (mechanical) to reverse flow, 2 penguin emperor 400 hang on the back filters (mechanical/biological/chemical), a pond pump (mechanical) that circulates the water through pvc to provide a current that they play in (like a garden hose). In the end, it turns the water over 3 times per hour (I can't remember exactly, but a bunch).

UG (biological/mechanical/chemical) provides the largest amount of sq ft for bacteria beds to form. The draw back is the maintenance in vacuuming and dead spots under large rocks for ammonia build up. In normal flow (not reverse) stuff gets sucked down into the bed where the bacteria eats it up, thus the need to vacuum. Reverse flow pumps the water column down under the plate and pushes the stuff up into the column that gets trapped in the pre-filters on the power heads, pond pump pre-filter or sucked into the back filters. Once a month, I change out the pre-filters and back filters...done. 15 minutes.


OVERENGINNERED:
With a typical UG filter, if you put big rocks on top, there will be dead spots where ammonia will build up because of no water circulation. Using the layers provides that circulation.

On top of the filter plate (under gravel) I have 3 layers of blue/white filter media separated by "egg crate light diffusers" (a grid of little squares used to diffuse florescent lights), which allows water to flow between the layers covered by window screen to keep it in place. That by its self is 36 ft sq of filter media to provide bacteria beds. This does not include the back filters with bio-wheels. The gravel on top is just for the cichlids to play with and dig.

I haven't vacuumed my tank in years. I do water changes maybe monthly, if that. It is in my basement, thus no algae. I over load on catfish and plecos.

Just did a water test N 0, ph 7, kh 40, gh 120.

Also recommend a LED lighting system that simulates sunrise/sets. They can do lightning storms as well:)

My buddy (a Chiefs season ticket holder for +20 yrs), who is into fish big time like me, has a beautiful discus tank with cardinals and live plants (which I did in the past). He lives in Overland Park, KS but can't do this setup. Need a wall, well water, sump pump, and the initial time it takes to set the whole thing up. He spends a lot of time and money to keep his set up. I don't have to.

I know ...TL;DR

You might keep a small white upside down teacup saucer in the bottom of your tank. This helps them locate a nice spot to lay their eggs.

It helps localize the eggs for you. Be careful of the other cichlids in the tank because the kids will be a free meal for them.

Raising the kids is tough. Mess with the parents too much (stressed out), instead of cleaning the kids in their mouth, they could eat them as well.

I am no expert. I have had a number of broods over the years with not much success. I had a hospital tank (10g) setup to move them into. Stressed. Bad ending.

Google, maybe there are better methods now. Still touchy though.

It is fun remembering the 2 parents swimming around with this cloud of itty bitty fry following them around.

I’ve got a customer who has 25+ tanks in their small 2 bedroom house. Several of the smaller tanks were exactly for the above reasons. Medical, birth isolation, etc. Let’s just say getting cable around some of these tanks was a challenge :)

That's ****ing brilliant!

Lot of respect for discus owners. They take a lot of work.

Sounds like a helluva setup! Waiting to buy a house, then I want to setup a 125.

I have tried MANY ideas to form hidey holes. Stacked rocks, glued rocks (worried about the chemicals), looked at forming a rock wall out of stable plastic.

The tupperware frame has worked the best.

Yup. His tank is simplistic. Sand bottom, plants in containers camo by rocks, cardinals in swarms, and 8 discuss roaming about. A tall 110g. Beautiful.

Actually, I've never really had issues with the eggs hatching. In the past, I've just moved pregnant mother fish to a separate smaller tank. It's super obvious when she's holding babies in her mouth. I just gently snag her and move her. After she spits out the babies, I just toss her back in the main tank, and let the fry stay there by themselves to grow enough not to be immediately eaten. Sold a few fries to the now defunct City Pets a few years ago. Had OB peacock babies out the ears. Usually ~40+ per fry. Tried to give them a way for a while here even. After a while I just started using them as feeders. LOL. :evil:

OOps I lied.

You are a sick man.:)

Believe it or not, I have tried mouth to mouth resuscitation on fish before.

Didn't work.

You are right. Never thought about that. I did try the hospital tank...smaller tank, but too late.

I lied...

I did do the tupperware, but it was cheap crap and caved in. The best idea is to get Trex composite wood decking post covers...4x4. Cut them to the right depth, toss them in and surround by other rocks/boulders. You don't have to worry about the glue or collapsing.

Have you heard about over population with cichlids?