African Cichlid Question?

[lovebug2867]

We had a heater malfunction this past weekend while we were away and we lost our pictus catfish and glass catfish. The only fish that were left were 3 strawberry tetras and 2 snowball plecos. The tetras have been moved to my sisters community tank with her tetras. I decided I wanted just 1 species in my tank and my local fish store had Cichlids. I don't know what type of cichlids these are only that they are African Cichlids. (they were marked as assorted) I did see in the LFS in their project tank (for the local school) there were a couple of these same Cichlids in with the other various fish and that tank has been running with the same fish for a year and a half. The cichlids in there were about 3.5 inches long. Mine currently are about 1"-1.5". One is blue with very very faint grey stripes, the other is blue with dark black stripes, and the other is yellow with brown "leopard looking spots". They are in my 40 gallon tank with my two plecos. My questions are how many can I have in a tank? How do I tell if they are male or female? And do they need anything special in the tank? (I already have lots of caves/hiding places)

 

[wrs]

do you know what lake theyre from?

 

[yhbae]

Some picture would be helpful...

 

[lovebug2867]

No unfortunatly they were labeled as Assorted African Cichlids. I could probably ID them from pictures...

 

[yhbae]

Perhaps you can go to the profile section and try to identify by looking at the pictures... How many you can accomodate in your tank totally depends on which species you currently have, unfortunately.

 

[lovebug2867]

You can see pictures of what they look like here:

http/fnp_africancichlid.tripod.com/afric...ancichlids5.jpg
(the blue striped ones)

and

http/fnp_africancichlid.tripod.com/afric...ancichlids4.jpg

(the yellow spotted ones)

 

[yhbae]

I don't see either of those pictures....

 

[lovebug2867]

Hmmm..

If you go here

http/fnp_africancichlid.tripod.com/afric...icancichlid.htm

The pictures I was listing are under - Miscellaneous African Malawi Cichlid 2. (the yellow spotted ones)
- Miscellaneous African Malawi Cichlid 3. (the blue striped ones)


So I'm assuming they are African Malawi Cichlids

 

[yhbae]

Hmmm..

If you go here

http/fnp_africancichlid.tripod.com/afric...icancichlid.htm

The pictures I was listing are under - Miscellaneous African Malawi Cichlid 2. (the yellow spotted ones)
- Miscellaneous African Malawi Cichlid 3. (the blue striped ones)


So I'm assuming they are African Malawi Cichlids

Perhaps you have Nimbochromis livingstonii for the first one, and the second one is probably Labidochromis freibergi. (The nose seem too long to be P Elongatus)

I could be wrong though...

 

[vantgE]

I would say nimboshromis venustus they are quite similar but venustus is much more common, and i'm too colorblind to say for the other, but either way the one is a nimbochromis and needs a tank over 100 g