Now that the Peacock bass have been sold, I am starting to get the "Shark" tank together. This will either be a disaster or things will work the way I am planning ( or is that hoping :lol: ). I am applying the malawi cichlid rule here, heavy stocking and so many species that none of them will be able to decide which to fight first. When fights do break out, there should be enough activity and distractions to stop any continuous bullying. So far so good and the plan seems to be working.

First pics are two pickups I made while I was at Andy_S's on Friday collecting his tank to take to Waynes (aka Labeo). We went to an LFS called BAS up in Bolton.

1st. Dolphin Labeo



2nd. Mekong Blue-eyed shark (They were still settling so the blue in the eye is not too apparent in this shot)



3rd. The black shark, the albino black shark and one of the mekong blue-eyes.



4th. Red dotted shark and the dolphin labeo.



5th. Black shark, dolphin labeo, blue-eye and the labeo parvus (he is the little dark fish to the right of the clown loach)



6th. Black shark, blue-eye, red dotted shark and the labeo parvus right in the middle.



7th. Black shark, Dolphin labeo, Red gilled violet shark, Albino black shark and the apollo shark just visible at the top of the pic.



8th. Black shark and the albino black shark (he is tiny compared to the black shark)



9th. There are a few non "sharks" in there. These are the trio of pink tailed chalceus and of course there are the clown loaches and gibbicep plecs (two standard, one albino)



10th. final shot is a full tank shot. 150UKG's of aggression....lol. I've added lots of bogwood to the bottom to give plenty of bolt holes for the smaller fish.



The wheels came off my plan slightly last week. I have had to take the mekong blue eyed sharks out as they chewed up the back of the big black shark pretty badly. Little b*****ds. Who would think two 4" fish could chew up a 23" black shark :banghead: She is now healing back up nicely. Other than the odd bit of chasing around, things are looking good so far. I will be adding a 4" Labeo calbasu into the mix today (fingers crossed with this one as he does seem mega aggresive).

Sweet setup and cool additions!
Sorry to hear about the injury, she's a nice specemin, glad she's on the mend.

cool shots and fish bro, sorry to hear about the black shark hope everything works out for ya'.

It looks great, your girlie have gotten chewed up but she is one fine specimen. She makes that big tank look small lol. I was looking and reading and in my head I was thinking if that's a 150 then that fish is like 2 feet long lol.

Outstanding pics as always dude, but! yes theres a but, it had me really tense looking at them. I fear for an outbreak of agression and fear for the parvus as well (as its so rare) You have your head on right and you know what your doing but I would remove the Red Dotted black shark, freaks me out.

Your giving me that tank as a gift?, im so happy I always wanted a tank like that, and you made me one!


god i want that tank so badly... its awesome...

but it wont rival the labyrinth fish tank im gonna set up

How's it going? Any more signs of aggression?

yeah, any more signs?

Everything is going fine at the moment. The parvus just goes about it's business and doesn't get bothered at all. Always first to the food. The albino is ignored also. A pecking order is establishing but there seems to be no ill effects from it so far. The red dotted shark bosses the dolphin, the dolphin bosses the boga, the boga bossed the chalceus as does the apollo. The black shark bossed everything, but mainly the red dotted shark. When a fight does break out, the black shark has a calming effect on it all mainly because she scares the cr*p out of all of them. As the sizes shuffle I'll be expecting the pecking orders to change, the dolphin for instance will outgrow the red dotted shark so I think it will eventually reverse roles. I'm expecting the albino to replace the boga in the standing as well before long. The parvus is much more secretive than the rest except at feeding times so I think it will stay out of trouble until it is big enough to cause trouble itself.

The black shark is healing quickly from the problems with the mekong blue eyed sharks.

Spectacular.

BTW...I like the label "Big Fish Tank"

that's what happens when your kids find the labelling machine :laugh:

:kewl: Awesome sharks! :D

:laugh: heh, thats funny lol.

I love watching the sharks fight, its a true sight to see isnt it, but it also gets your heart raceing as they really get stuck into each other.

You sold the cichla??

wtf...:(

Yup, I'm completely out of the cichla game at the moment. I sold the big two and also the 5 juvis I was growing on. I must admit that I am missing the big guys more than I expected :sook:

Very cool tank.