Lake Victoria Aquariums
Part 1: The Initial Set-up
by Dave Ball
President of the Southern Colorado Aquarium Society
Aquarticles
Most aquarists are now familiar with or have heard of the species problems* in East
Africa’s Lake Victoria. With the introduction of the Nile perch as a food fish, the
population of endemic fish in the lake have been disappearing to the point of extinction.
It is estimated that 150 plus species have already become extinct! As a result of this,
the popularity of the lake's endemic species has grown in both scientific circles and in
aquarists' tanks. Many aquatic museums have captive breeding programs centered around
these fish. A lot of the species are now available to the hobbyist and can be found at
very reasonable prices. Many of them go under trade names because the scientific work is
still incomplete as far as taxonomy is concerned. I don’t wish to get into that side
of the Victorians, but to share my successes with these fish and to tell how to set up a
Lake Victoria aquarium.
Victoria fish will tolerate a pH range from 6.0 to 8.2 and a hardness range of 6.0 DH
to 20.0 DH. Even though these are fairly wide ranges, they are easy to achieve and
maintain. In order to get these levels of pH and hardness, I use a product called
“Rift Lake Cichlid Salts” and “Instant Ocean” sea salts. These help
buffer the water and provide trace elements that are needed to keep up the pH and the
health of the fish. Lake Victoria is part of the African Rift but is not a “Rift
Lake”. The rift lakes are very deep lakes that are V-shaped at the bottom, where as
Lake Victoria is on a plateau, is bowl shaped and is much shallower. It also has a
relatively soft bottom with scattered rocky areas. The reason trace elements should be
added is because the lake was formed due to a lot of geological activity and there are a
lot of dissolved minerals in the water. My tank is a standard 30 gallon (36 x 12 x 15), so
it is treated a little differently than my rift lake tanks, but only slightly. Normally
you use the rift lake salts (“Doogie salts”) at 1 tablespoon per 10 gallons for
“Rift Lake” aquaria, so I dose my Lake Victoria tank a little less and treat for
20-25 gals. The same goes for the sea salts. I use 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons and treat
for 25 gallons. I would guess that the difference is nominal but I have had great growth,
no losses, and several spawns. I will try the higher concentrations at a later date with
some different species but for now things are fine.
The substrate consists of a mixture of crushed coral and “Tex-blast” blasting
sand. The coral was initially used to help buffer the water but with the appearance of the
“Doogie salts” I can change the substrate to a softer sand to accommodate the
species I have selected to work with. A moderate amount of rock work and some driftwood
are needed to help out the tank. These will allow the fish to set-up their own territories
and feel comfortable. Caves should be provided for spawning and to create hiding places. I
made mine from slate and river rock. These were chosen for the following reasons. I could
terrace the bottom of the tank for caves and then put driftwood on top of the slate and
the edge to create a barrier. Then, more of the substrate was poured behind the wood. This
created a second level for plants to be placed and allowed for spawning areas if the fish
wanted to dig a little, which they did. These fish aren’t nearly as bad at digging as
many others but they can get a little carried away.
The tank contains four different species of cichlid and one species of Synodontis
catfish. Keeping catfish and cichlids together is one of my favorite projects that are
always ongoing experiments. What I wanted to try in this arrangement was to see if the
catfish possibly spawned the same way as S. multipunctatus from Lake Tanganyika.
As it turns out, they don’t at this time but things may change later.
Currently housed in the tank is a trio of Haplochromis nubilus (Astatotilapia
nubilia), a trio of Haplochromis (Astatotilapia) alluaudi, four Haplochromis
sp. “Darlingi”, a single Haplochromis perrieri and several Synodontis
sp. “Victorian Silver” catfish. All of the cichlids have different body shapes
and color patterns, so cross breeding is not a problem. The fish are relatively small and
breed when they are small, most at 2 inches or slightly less, and do well together. I have
had the H. sp. “Darlingi” spawn several times with 4 successful full
term broods without having to strip eggs by just pulling the females and letting them
raise the young on their own. The fry will follow the female around the tank to feed with
her and they swim right into her mouth whenever they get frightened or get signaled by the
parent. The species that has spawned but not held full term is the H. nubilus.
One female has spawned twice and held for only three or four days. Why this is happening
I’m not too sure, but they’ll spawn again.
The Synodontis sp. “Victorian Silver” catfish have not interrupted
any of the spawns nor stolen very many eggs, if any at all, judging by the size of the
spawns I’ve had. They tend to fight and chase amongst themselves. One thing I
discovered by accident is that they like to dig in the sand for their food. This was seen
when I had these catfish in a Lake Malawi sand tank. I placed a small piece of frozen
bloodworm in the sand and they dug it out.
So now I have to put the two projects together. This will be the main subject in part
2. I plan to place the cichlids and catfish together with a soft, fine, sandy bottom with
the same type of cave and driftwood set-up and see what happens.
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