Living Is Learning
Written by Monday, 30 December 2002 00:00
If your tank is your first tank, your fish are African rift lake cichlids and you are a newbie, you can be sure that it is going to be a long way. The things you have to know are not written in a book therefore your fish and your mistakes will teach you a lot. Following this general pattern I was soon faced with my first mistake. My tank was too small for my 4 Pseudotropheus socolofi, I had added too much sand and my rock pile was about to collapse - apart from not doing what it was supposed to do = provide shelter to my fish. The result? The largest fish was swimming in the tank while the rest didn't have a place to hide. It wasn't long before I found one of my fish with an eaten tail and half dead. There was no disease in my tank, neither enough hiding spaces.
The wounded fish was transferred to a bigger tank with a Haplochromis nyererei and day by day (without the use of any medication) the wounds were healing. The Ps. socolofi started to swim in the new tank which had enough hiding places to help it avoid its aggressive tank mate thus showing me that I had the responsibility to change the first tank. Simply put, my tank was not correctly set up. I decided to set it up from the beginning creating a better environment for my fish.
I already knew that many times fish get sick because of stress which weakens their defense mechanisms. This can be due to extreme aggression against it or by many changes in its environment (like moving the rocks around every now and then). I knew I had to change something and this time aesthetics should play a second role. My mistake in the initial setup was that the way I had constructed my rock pile, all hiding spots were both ends open, in short they were not "hiding" places. Whenever a fish decided to move it could see all the other fish in the tank therefore they did not feel secure. One of my Ps. socolofi had outgrown the others and by being always aggressive (I think it is a male) it had forced the smallest of its tank mates to be permanently hidden. It wouldn't even come out to eat. Therefore, one Sunday, I setup this tank from the beginning.
It was obvious that I could not use the old stones and I decided to use new ones. Fortunately, I had collected enough "traganes" (marine limestone) from Syros island in the summer. Apart from the beautiful appearance (and sharp edges) they are also too light. Ideal for a small tank since they occupy much less water, and most suitable to create many hiding spaces. Their sharp edges were a problem. They are as sharp as coral and I had a really nasty experience when collecting them in the summer. It was nice to see that time had taken care of that. When we brought them from Syros, we washed them and let them dry under the very strong summer sun for more than a month. They are easily broken therefore after being transported they were already much smoother. Thus, I did not have much to do. I took every stone and further smoothed it by rubbing it against hard surfaces (floor and external walls). When all the stones felt smooth to touch I washed them again to remove the dust and the small particles.
Back to my tank. I first removed half the water and all the stones from it. My fish were really shocked. They were all gathered in a corner and it was very easy to net them and transfer them in a floating nest in the bigger tank.
Then I removed at least half the sand as well as the filter which was placed in the bigger tank (running) to keep the bacteria colonies alive. I then started to add the "traganes" in the half filled tank. I soon found out that I could put a great number of them creating many hiding spots. I decided to add enough of them to reach the water surface. This is essential for a small tank if you want to use the upper half of the water column.
In the initial tank there were also some plants which had a satisfactory growth while the mbuna didn't bother to uproot or eat them. It was an excellent opportunity to add one more plant at this point. A Microsorum pteropus var. "Windelow" a healthy beautiful plant donated by Tolis Ketselides. Its common name is Java fern. I preferred to secure it between two "tragana" stones to be on the safe side. Apart from that, this was enough to hide the filter which (sometimes) becomes an excellent hiding place, too ! I also noticed that my Pterygoplichthys gibbiceps soon found out that the bogwood on which the plant was attached was really tasty.
After waiting for many hours for the water to become less cloudy and reach the correct temperature I thought it was about time to put back my mbuna in the tank.
Of course, this is what I thought, not what my mbuna wanted. I must confess that I am not very experienced in netting them, so while trying to get them out of the floating nest, one of them jumped to freedom and ended up in the big tank. Although this bigger tank is just 210 liters, it must have looked like Lake Malawi to my small Ps. socolofi. This is my young Don Quixote and it is true that its gentle character does not permit me to think of returning it to its small "jail" - my small tank. For the time being I have two Ps.socolofi and two C.moorii which were moved in my tank because they were harassed by the Pseudotropheus acei. However, despite the presence of many hiding places and the completely new environment which is - in my eyes - greatly improved the everyday routine has not changed much. The big Ps. socolofi chases the bigger C.moorii while it completely ignores the smaller one. This may be so, but I feel that this re-decoration was not useless. Yes, there is some chasing going on but things look more peaceful than in the past. You have to keep in mind that once you choose to keep African cichlids you have to expect this behaviour.
I do not know what I have achieved up to now or if I am close to becoming a conscious hobbyist however I am sure that every day I learn something new. The one thing I learned recently is that my 80 liter tank is very small for my cichlids. I can now fully understand all those hobbyists who dream of one more bigger tank and I have come to think along the same line. As a woman I want to believe that I can think more practically and see this issue globally. I cannot think of my tank as a glass pool with some fish and water. I feel that a biotope in my house must have the best possible. Even if this means waiting for two more years till I manage to make what I can now only dream of. To me, my tank and my fish are part of my everyday life, a love which grows by the day. You can call it addiction. The best part of it is that I really enjoy it.
Photos by the author.
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