Underated fish species perfect for beginners

Neolamprologos Briccardi are perfect for beginners who would also like to try their hand at keeping live plants. Fairy Cichlids are easy to keep, plant friendly, active with fascinating behavior and grow into truly beautiful specimens. For the life of me I can't understand why most beginners all go for swords, guppies, tetra and barbs etc.??? Hey and for the high tech plant guys who love their shrimps, I think Brichardis are way prettier. You can't keep both together though; as the Fairies are purely carnivorous and will destroy all the shrimps in your tank with relish, but they will not touch any of your prized plants. Just a thought!

 

Always wanted to keep some of these, tempted always. Maybe when I get a bigger place one day I will give these a try.

 

Also people who start in the hobby, like to have a community tank with a variety of fish. They love going to the lfs and just buying more and more fish.

Bricardi are not that popular at the lfs, they cost more than guppies and they can only be kept in a species only tank or they will harass their poor tank mates.

Most beginners want a variety of fish.

 

Well for any of you who might be interested, I have plenty available...

 

What size tank would you recommend for a school of these?
How about a species write up for the beginner?
What would they cost?

 

only had mine for a few months ... started with 5 are these Neolamprologos Briccardi got them from the LFS as that. If not my bad ... wrong thread ;-)





They are in my 550tl .. in what used to be the tertra tank ... probably have 5 white tips left, not that any of them have all of the finage anymore .. I would not recommend them in any cube - they seem rather territorial in the planted tank. Another side affect other than loss of fish and fins is I only have large rams horns left in the tank. Plants are ok but they seem to pick at the ground cover.

Not sure I want to add some BN's to the tank, since they managed to harass a 12 cm SAE that is either in hiding or has moved on ... I seldom seem to find any fish corpse.

Later Ferdie

 

Best to keep Fairy Cichlids on their own. This way they don't loose their lovely long fins or harass other species. For a beginner with a three foot tank, I would suggest planting the tank up first with proper lighting and filtration etc using a fine sand substrate or ADA if you can afford it. Once cycled; add around ten Fairies for an awesome beginner tank.

I've now just decided to stop selling direct to the public, sorry guys, but I'm a busy guy and I can't take hours out of my day to sell ten fishes at R30 each! If you want my Brichardis you can get them at the Wierda Park Pets pet shop, I'm not sure what they're asking for them?

 

BTW for all the beginners: Change 90% of your water once a week every week! Tanks are a commitment, if you don't want this kind of commitment; rather just don't go there!

 

Beautiful fish! Wish i could keep some of them.

 

90% of the water?

 

90% wc might cause more harm than good if not done right

 

50 % is the norm if you are doing EI dosing, but somewhere around 30 % usually does the trick. Depends on aquarium set up and fish species being kept. A few small fish in a heavily planted tank probably never need WC if no ferts are being dosed