ok im thinking about setting up an african cichlid tank. its gonna be a 75 gallon. for a filter i want to run an eheim canister and a biowheel 440 or whatever the number is.
for stocking i know i want a frontosa but will it tolerate tankmates at all?
-frontosa
- calvus
- Synodontis species.

thats pretty much all i can think of so does anyone have any suggestions?

Glad to hear you've decided to do an Rift Lake setup!

Sounds like you are planning on having plenty of good filtration for that tank...

Hmm....you might want to read up a bit and do some research on the open water predator C. frontosa...they tend to do best in good sized groups of their own and get pretty massive in size...I'm not sure that 75 gallons is really optimal for them....try looking into Neolamprologus tretocephalus or Neolamprologus sexfasciatus which look a lot like fronts, but don't obtain the size and normally live around the rocks..


You could very easily have a breeding trio of A. calvus in that tank...

Synodontis species make greak tankmates for most rift lake cichlids.

If you skip the frontosa, you could easily house a trio of Altolamps,breeding group of N.tretocephalus, a colony of shell dwellers, some Julidochromis/Telmatochromis/Chalinochromis type species and a small school of Cyprichomis or Paracyprichomis species...

and a couple of synotdontis species or a bristlenose pleco or two...

ok. i thought i was chancing it with the frontosa but altolamps sound just as interesting and im pretty sure my LFs has a lot of tangs. ive seen Neolamprologus in there before so well see when im ready to set up the tank.

You might have a look though Armkes.com They have a wide variety of African Cichlids for sale, including some hard to get stuff...If you are in the USA they will ship.

holy moly. NICE selection there. Im probly not gonna have the money until sometime this winter because i cant get my working papers until school starts again. this tank is gonna be fun though.

if any of the fish i get do breed can they survive in the main tank or will i have to get another tank for the fry.
so far i liked
altolamp calvus probably more than one color strain
neolamprologus similis and audopunctatus
chalinochromis brichardi
neolamprologus nigriventris and leleupi
brachysyno batensoda
synodontis acanthomias

i dont really know what else is out there so ill se whats available when i get the money raised