African Cichlids Anyone?
- Thread starter LAZY EYED SNIPER
- Start date
DaveinCT
20g
I've got a 30 gallon tank going with African Cichlids, love the breed!! I've got got a yellow lab that's female and has given us about 6 litters of anywhere from 20-40 babies.. As you mentioned LAZY, the Cichlids are mouth brooders and carry and circulate the eggs in her mouth until they hatch and she evens carries them for a while after they hatch. We could tell when she was carrying eggs and pull her from the main tank and put her into her own 10 gallon tank. I've had this tank going for about 2 years and TBH, I'm about sick of the hobby now seeing most of the work is done by me.
Nice Dave!
Post up some pics brother...
Post up some pics brother...
Nice Dave!
I see a couple demasoni and an acei in there too...
I see a couple demasoni and an acei in there too...
I hear ya,
I've gotta snap some new pics of the tank now that the whole bunch is in there. I added some new ornaments and cichlid stones as well...
I've gotta snap some new pics of the tank now that the whole bunch is in there. I added some new ornaments and cichlid stones as well...
COFirefighter
.410
Dave- Have you thought about maybe putting some vinyl backing on your tank? It's really a personal preference since there are so many patterns to choose from, mine is a basic solid blue, but IMO its nice to hide the wires and such and give a backdrop to the tank.
On the note of Cichilds- I was at my local fish store today and picked up some night crawlers to feed my big ol' Oscar, great nutrition and super entertaining to watch, however, your fish must be large enough to eat the earthworm so don't go feeding a 2" Johanni a 3" worm from your yard, haha. Remember that it's important to vary a Cichlids diet, so don't feed them flakes for every single meal. I use blood worms, spirulina-infused brine shrimp (or sometimes just spiru flakes), tropical crisps/flakes, frozen krill, sometimes jumbo krill, and now night crawlers. Varying their diet, much like a human's, help to regulate their digestive systems, among other systems vital to their survival and overall health and color!
On the note of Cichilds- I was at my local fish store today and picked up some night crawlers to feed my big ol' Oscar, great nutrition and super entertaining to watch, however, your fish must be large enough to eat the earthworm so don't go feeding a 2" Johanni a 3" worm from your yard, haha. Remember that it's important to vary a Cichlids diet, so don't feed them flakes for every single meal. I use blood worms, spirulina-infused brine shrimp (or sometimes just spiru flakes), tropical crisps/flakes, frozen krill, sometimes jumbo krill, and now night crawlers. Varying their diet, much like a human's, help to regulate their digestive systems, among other systems vital to their survival and overall health and color!
COFirefighter
.410
Forgot to add, nice tank by the way Dave! I like the schooling effect you kinda have going on, sticking with the Cichlid family
DaveinCT
20g
Thanks for the tips COFirefighter, I've been through many different options for backings and usually have my wires hidden but not lately!! 
This is my second go around with the Cichlids, my wife and I had a room full of tanks back when we first met about 20 years ago. This time around we have made an environment that they obviously enjoy seeing all the litters of babies we've had and it's been fun.
Some pics of my tank after cleaning it earlier.
It took a while to achieve and maintain the proper PH and the Coral gravel really helped that.
This is my second go around with the Cichlids, my wife and I had a room full of tanks back when we first met about 20 years ago. This time around we have made an environment that they obviously enjoy seeing all the litters of babies we've had and it's been fun.
Some pics of my tank after cleaning it earlier.
It took a while to achieve and maintain the proper PH and the Coral gravel really helped that.
Nice Dave.
I love the last pic with them all huddled together in hiding.
I love the last pic with them all huddled together in hiding.
Thanks Brad,
There are three of the little boogers in the tank, but they hide out when there's any light in the room. They were only about twice the size of a tadpole when I put em in and have almost doubled in size so far and they have taken to huddling together inside one of the tank ornaments. I don't see em much, but it looks like they're doin well. I'm hoping that they'll start to venture out more once they get some size to em.....
There are three of the little boogers in the tank, but they hide out when there's any light in the room. They were only about twice the size of a tadpole when I put em in and have almost doubled in size so far and they have taken to huddling together inside one of the tank ornaments. I don't see em much, but it looks like they're doin well. I'm hoping that they'll start to venture out more once they get some size to em.....
LES,
I'm going to be getting some cichlids before the end of summer. I was wondering what sort of stuff you have in your tank. I really like the bright colored plants,coral, rocks and stuff you have.
I have lots of questions and probably more later, :geek:
Is that gravel/stone I see at the bottom?
Is that fake coral?
How do you vacuum the tank? And with what? ( right now I just have a siphon vacuum, Not too keen on it though, I think It sucks up more water than is acceptable.)
Do you feed them other live fish? (feeder fish, guppies,ect...)\ :shock:
I went to Petco last night and got schooled on the basics of fish. Apparently it's not fish,filter,and food. I have some goldfish, dalmatians and 2 mollies (that my stepson bought for his kid. So...It's now my responsibility to care for em.) :roll:
I wanted to get some Bala Sharks, But was advised not to. That's fine. Learning all about em is good for now. My friend used to breed fish in his cellar, (the guy I got the Mosin from) so I know he'll steer me in a good direction for tank prices. I want a huge one.
OK..that's it for now bro...let me know what you can...I'm all ears.
I'm going to be getting some cichlids before the end of summer. I was wondering what sort of stuff you have in your tank. I really like the bright colored plants,coral, rocks and stuff you have.
I have lots of questions and probably more later, :geek:
Is that gravel/stone I see at the bottom?
Is that fake coral?
How do you vacuum the tank? And with what? ( right now I just have a siphon vacuum, Not too keen on it though, I think It sucks up more water than is acceptable.)
Do you feed them other live fish? (feeder fish, guppies,ect...)\ :shock:
I went to Petco last night and got schooled on the basics of fish. Apparently it's not fish,filter,and food. I have some goldfish, dalmatians and 2 mollies (that my stepson bought for his kid. So...It's now my responsibility to care for em.) :roll:
I wanted to get some Bala Sharks, But was advised not to. That's fine. Learning all about em is good for now. My friend used to breed fish in his cellar, (the guy I got the Mosin from) so I know he'll steer me in a good direction for tank prices. I want a huge one.
OK..that's it for now bro...let me know what you can...I'm all ears.
LAZY EYED SNIPER said:Snapped a quick pic when one of the Johanni came outta hiding (bottom right)...
Another one is poking his head through a hole in the coral there in the middle. The yellow labs still won't come out, but they'll come around. They're still juveniles and should get a a lot more active as they mature. You can see the tiger barbs that the Johanni corralled over in his corner too. I'll get some better pics up when I can...
I saw this thread title and thought a spammer got through!
Damn, I forgot about this thread.
That was my 20gal starter tank in that photo. Only had four juveniles in there at the time. I upgraded to a 55gal about six months after that and added a bunch more fish. These are some old shots of the new tank. I've added some more coral and ornaments since this was taken...
Cichlids are crazy territorial and like to stake their claim to a relatively small area, so putting something in the tank with lots of holes or areas to hide will help keep the fighting to a minimum. Here is what I have in mine now...
One of these in the middle...
Top Fin® Stone Coral with Coral and Plants
Two of these, one on each end...
Top Fin® Coral with Plants Aquarium Ornament
...and one each of these placed in at random...
Top Fin® Stone Cave with Snail Aquarium Decoration
Top Fin® Barrel Aquarium Ornament with Airstone
...and a set of these all around the tank...
Glo Moon Rock Cave
They are burrowers too, so anything you put in the tank needs to be heavy enough that they can't uproot it. They will tunnel under anything you put in there. My new tank has a layer of gravel about 1" thick with a 1" layer of sand on top of that. It's completely self-sustaining. I don't use any sort of under-gravel filter, 'cause those things are a PITA and create more algae than they filter. I just scrape algae off the glass about once every couple weeks, but it never gets that bad. Uneaten food sits on top of the sand and I have a team of Emerald Cory catfish (Brochis splendens) that clean up. Those things are vacuum cleaners and the only thing I've put in the tank that the Cichlids haven't killed. The clown loach in pictured above only lasted a couple weeks. All I found was its head minus the eyeballs. :? Put two synodontis petricola (African pygmy spotted catfish) in there too and they didn't last three days. For some reason, the cichlids completely ignore the Cory cats.
As far as the cichlids, I started off with these...
2x Yellow Labs (Labidochromis caeruleus)
2x Electric Blue Johanni (Melanochromis johannii)
2x Giraffe Hap (Haplochromis Venustus)
2x Kenyi (Maylandia lombardoi)
2x Demasoni (Pseudotropheus demasoni)
2x Lavendar Mbuna "Rusty Cichlid" (Iodotropheus sprengerae)
2x Bumblebee (Pseudotropheus crabro)
2x Snow White (Pseudotropheus socolofi)
2x Cherry Red Zebra (Pseudotropheus estherae)
You can see pics of most of them on the first couple pages of this thread. All of the species listed above are Mbuna cichlids (endemic to Lake Malawi, Africa). Most Mbuna are vegetarians and are algae grazers in the wild. They eat low protein spirulina flake food, so you don't have to worry about feeding them live fish, bloodworms, or anything of that sort. Some are more aggressive than others and all got along pretty well as juvies. Once they reached maturity my tank turned into an all out gladiator academy. They are more aggressive toward fish of the same species/color and the pairs went at it relentlessly. Here's what I have left...
2x Yellow Labs
1x Electric Blue Johanni
1x Giraffe Hap
1x Kenyi
0x Demasoni
2x Lavendar Mbuna "Rusty Cichlid"
1x Bumblebee
1x Snow White
2x Cherry Red Zebra
The less aggressive species stay out of each other's way, but the more rowdy ones didn't stop until one died. The demasoni were my favorite, but they fought so hard that both died from injuries. They all started out about 1" long of just under but now they are all 3-4" long, except for the giraffe hap which is the largest now at about 6". Just make sure when you start out to get them all about the same size. If I had it to do all over again I would have bought a couple pairs of yellow labs and one each of the rest. The yellow labs can get along in groups for some reason.
The other thing to research is setting up your tank before you get the fish. Especially with a new, large tank it could take 2-3 weeks for the water to run the nitrogen and ammonia cycles necessary to sustain the fish. Set it up how you want it with all the sand/gravel and accessories, plug in the filter and light, and then let it sit. The waiting is tough, but well worth it when you're spending a good amount of money on the fish. I tested the water out with a half dozen $.99 zebra danio for a week before buying the cichlids. Filtration is important too. I run a 75-100gal filter on my 55gal tank. It keeps the tank nice and clean while producing a current that the fish love to swim against.
Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions...
That was my 20gal starter tank in that photo. Only had four juveniles in there at the time. I upgraded to a 55gal about six months after that and added a bunch more fish. These are some old shots of the new tank. I've added some more coral and ornaments since this was taken...
Cichlids are crazy territorial and like to stake their claim to a relatively small area, so putting something in the tank with lots of holes or areas to hide will help keep the fighting to a minimum. Here is what I have in mine now...
One of these in the middle...
Top Fin® Stone Coral with Coral and Plants
Two of these, one on each end...
Top Fin® Coral with Plants Aquarium Ornament
...and one each of these placed in at random...
Top Fin® Stone Cave with Snail Aquarium Decoration
Top Fin® Barrel Aquarium Ornament with Airstone
...and a set of these all around the tank...
Glo Moon Rock Cave
They are burrowers too, so anything you put in the tank needs to be heavy enough that they can't uproot it. They will tunnel under anything you put in there. My new tank has a layer of gravel about 1" thick with a 1" layer of sand on top of that. It's completely self-sustaining. I don't use any sort of under-gravel filter, 'cause those things are a PITA and create more algae than they filter. I just scrape algae off the glass about once every couple weeks, but it never gets that bad. Uneaten food sits on top of the sand and I have a team of Emerald Cory catfish (Brochis splendens) that clean up. Those things are vacuum cleaners and the only thing I've put in the tank that the Cichlids haven't killed. The clown loach in pictured above only lasted a couple weeks. All I found was its head minus the eyeballs. :? Put two synodontis petricola (African pygmy spotted catfish) in there too and they didn't last three days. For some reason, the cichlids completely ignore the Cory cats.
As far as the cichlids, I started off with these...
2x Yellow Labs (Labidochromis caeruleus)
2x Electric Blue Johanni (Melanochromis johannii)
2x Giraffe Hap (Haplochromis Venustus)
2x Kenyi (Maylandia lombardoi)
2x Demasoni (Pseudotropheus demasoni)
2x Lavendar Mbuna "Rusty Cichlid" (Iodotropheus sprengerae)
2x Bumblebee (Pseudotropheus crabro)
2x Snow White (Pseudotropheus socolofi)
2x Cherry Red Zebra (Pseudotropheus estherae)
You can see pics of most of them on the first couple pages of this thread. All of the species listed above are Mbuna cichlids (endemic to Lake Malawi, Africa). Most Mbuna are vegetarians and are algae grazers in the wild. They eat low protein spirulina flake food, so you don't have to worry about feeding them live fish, bloodworms, or anything of that sort. Some are more aggressive than others and all got along pretty well as juvies. Once they reached maturity my tank turned into an all out gladiator academy. They are more aggressive toward fish of the same species/color and the pairs went at it relentlessly. Here's what I have left...
2x Yellow Labs
1x Electric Blue Johanni
1x Giraffe Hap
1x Kenyi
0x Demasoni
2x Lavendar Mbuna "Rusty Cichlid"
1x Bumblebee
1x Snow White
2x Cherry Red Zebra
The less aggressive species stay out of each other's way, but the more rowdy ones didn't stop until one died. The demasoni were my favorite, but they fought so hard that both died from injuries. They all started out about 1" long of just under but now they are all 3-4" long, except for the giraffe hap which is the largest now at about 6". Just make sure when you start out to get them all about the same size. If I had it to do all over again I would have bought a couple pairs of yellow labs and one each of the rest. The yellow labs can get along in groups for some reason.
The other thing to research is setting up your tank before you get the fish. Especially with a new, large tank it could take 2-3 weeks for the water to run the nitrogen and ammonia cycles necessary to sustain the fish. Set it up how you want it with all the sand/gravel and accessories, plug in the filter and light, and then let it sit. The waiting is tough, but well worth it when you're spending a good amount of money on the fish. I tested the water out with a half dozen $.99 zebra danio for a week before buying the cichlids. Filtration is important too. I run a 75-100gal filter on my 55gal tank. It keeps the tank nice and clean while producing a current that the fish love to swim against.
Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions...
Well I finally found this...I got a 40 gallon breeder tank. I'll be making my own stand for it soon. Gonna add to it a lil at a time....
just updating for future use, so I don't have to weed through 30 pages of topics.
More to come....
stay tuned...
just updating for future use, so I don't have to weed through 30 pages of topics.
More to come....
stay tuned...
Very cool bro...