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| Focused exclusively on African Rift Lake cichlids - III Stefanos Fluntzis and Nathan Makris 430 liter African Cichlid Tank Owned by Panayotis Flountzis This tank belongs to my father Panayotis, has a net volume of 430 liter, measuring 160 x 42 x 65 cm and has been in service since July 2002. My father is the kind of man who will go an extra mile just to make sure that his fishes have got everything they need so he is filtering his tank with an external Rena XP3 and two Fluval 2 plus filters. This way, the total filtration turnover is 6 x tank volume / hour. There are two heaters in this tank a 300 W Rena and a 200 W Ebo Jager. Lighting is provided by 3 Gro Lux 120 cm fluorescent tubes by Sylvania. Temperature fluctuates between 25.4 and 26oC and is monitored by two thermometers; a sticker type one by Hagen and a simple internal one. Water changes (10%) are performed on a weekly basis. pH fluctuates between 7.8 and 8.0 and the fish really enjoy it. Substrate is sand from the beach which has been prewashed and the decoration consists of rocks collected and washed by ourselves. All these elements were collected from a nearby beach and are used in such a way to create a lot of caves and hiding spots, although the fish managed to create even more of them. Speaking of fishes, the tanks hold a Cyrtocara moorii pair, five Cynotilapia afra “mbamba” (1 m / 4 f), five Labidochromis caeruleus juveniles, five Otopharynx lithobates (2 m / 3 f) and three Haplochromis (Pundamilia) nyererei (1 m / 2 f) most of them donated by our friend George Reclos. We are now expecting our first fry from our H.nyererei and since this is going to be our first Victoria cichlid to release in our tanks, we are really anxious about it.
A view of the tank
My pair of adult Cyrtocara moorii.. in their new home. I was really happy to see that they are doing well. Many thanks to Stefanos by the way.. |
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