The 30 gallon tank was my first aquarium. It has been up and running since September 2002. Originally,
it was home to a whole bunch of Characins - blackskirt tetras, red-eye tetras, neon tetras, phantom tetras,
and black neon tetras, as well as some Cyprinids - danios and rasboras. A new pleco that was added introduced
some type of disease which caused all of Characins' fish to flake and rot. It seemed like their
skin and eyes were peeling and falling off. Melafix, a good mender of all things, didn't make any improvements,
neither did anything else. Needless to say, I lost over half of my tank and was pretty much devestated. It was
then that I swapped the rest of this community tank into my 10 gallon tank and (after a thorough cleaning) moved my
cichlids into this tank. I was happy with the move as the cichlids were outgrowing their old tank. This tank
now houses 4 cichlids and a blue lobster. The landscaping consists of black gravel and a whole lot of big rocks.
I find that the cichlids really love swimming in and out of the big rocks (natural habitat), and moving around the
smaller rocks. If they don't like how something is, they will re-arrange it by scooping up a few of the
pieces of gravel, moving to a location where they choose, and spitting the rocks out again - it is the funniest
thing. Another bad habit they have it flicking water up at the top of the tank. Overall, I think that they
are territorial over their 'part' of the tank. I have seen some of them get into jaw-locks, do funny territory dances,
and vibrate next to each other. The lobster is fitting in well so far and hasn't been bothered (or bothered) the others
as far as I know. I can only manage to keep one frail little stem of Wisteria in the tank as they
nip away at its leaves and uproot it when they have had enough of it. This tank is filtered with a Fluval 3 Plus
filter and aerated with an air stone. This tank gets cleaned weekly as well.
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