African Cichlids seem unhappy

[koleary317]

Hello there. My wife and I have a 29 gallon tank with three African Cichlids and one Parrot Cichlid. We’ve had these guys for about 2 months now. The Parrot Cichlid has always been a bit timid, but the three African Cichlids used to swim around the whole tank and dig holes in the sand. However, the last 3-4 weeks or so, the African Cichlids have been hiding, not exploring, one of them hasn’t grown since we got it, and another one seems pale. We’ve been doing the biweekly water changes, the water parameters are normal, no ammonia or nitrites, pH is between 7.5 and 8. We are at a loss on how to make these fish happy. They don’t even go after bloodworms like they used to. Right now, it feels like we are just keeping them alive, but they seem miserable. Any suggestions on how to make them happy again?

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Bummer! You've come to a good place for help.

Have you tested for ammonia, nitrate, nitrite? What kind of African cichlids? And how hard is your water? East African cichlids need hard water; west Africans tend to need soft. I believe blood parrots need hardish water too; someone can correct me if I'm mistaken. I wonder if that could be the problem.

 

[koleary317]

We’ve tested for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate and all levels are zero. I’m not sure what kind of African Cichlids they are. We got them at PetSmart. I’ll include a picture for reference. Is there a good way to test for the hardness of aquarium water?

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Those look like east Africans to me, but I'm not an expert on them. Someone else will chime in soon and let you know what you have.

You should be able to get a hardness test kit from your petsmart store or online. Get a liquid kit, not strips. The strips are notoriously hard to read and inaccurate for hardness.

 

[koleary317]

Those look like east Africans to me, but I'm not an expert on them. Someone else will chime in soon and let you know what you have.

You should be able to get a hardness test kit from your petsmart store or online. Get a liquid kit, not strips. The strips are notoriously hard to read and inaccurate for hardness.

Thank you so much for your responses! I’m glad I found this forum. I’ll look for a hardness test kit and make sure to get the liquid one. Any recommendations on changing the hardness of the water after we figure out what kind of African cichlids these are?

 

[GaryE]

Stop bloodworms right away. Your (east) African Cichlids are largely veggie eaters, and have been known to become ill on high protein, low roughage foods. Give them plant based foods.

Your centre fish is a Melanochromis auratus, one brutally aggressive creature. If he has reached maturity, those tankmates are probably getting the snot beaten out of them as soon as they show their noses. You also have what seems to be a Maylandia kennyi, a fish almost as hyperaggressive. But it is smaller. The third Mbuna fish, the yellow one, doesn't show enough for a guess as to its identity. But it is hiding. The parrot is way out of its league aggression wise in there.

The 3 Lake Malawi Mbuna are beauties, but that tank is like the gang wing in a supermax jail... I doubt the water is any issue because they look healthy. The combination of fish would be my guess.

 

[koleary317]

Stop bloodworms right away. Your (east) African Cichlids are largely veggie eaters, and have been known to become ill on high protein, low roughage foods. Give them plant based foods.

Your centre fish is a Melanochromis auratus, one brutally aggressive creature. If he has reached maturity, those tankmates are probably getting the snot beaten out of them as soon as they show their noses. You also have what seems to be a Maylandia kennyi, a fish almost as hyperaggressive. But it is smaller. The third Mbuna fish, the yellow one, doesn't show enough for a guess as to its identity. But it is hiding. The parrot is way out of its league aggression wise in there.

The 3 Lake Malawi Mbuna are beauties, but that tank is like the gang wing in a supermax jail... I doubt the water is any issue because they look healthy. The combination of fish would be my guess.

Thank you for the response! We haven’t noticed any aggression from the big blue one, but we obviously aren’t watching 24/7. We have two other tanks. One 36 gallon with a minimally aggressive red tail, a guppy, two adult mollies, and one unexpected baby mollie in a mesh breeder. The other tank is a 20 gallon with a balloon mollie, a Dalmatian mollie who is unexpectedly definitely expecting babies in the next 2-3 weeks and we plan to move it into the 36 gallon with a mesh breeder, two black mollies and 3 dumbo guppies. Would moving any of the 4 fish into one of these tanks be a better option/combination? If not, do you have any suggestions as to what we should do? Thanks again for your response and expertise!

 

[GaryE]

Malawis are not for the faint hearted. I used to have several tanks of them, and I bred around 10 different mbuna species. The aggression of most of the species in the group drove me into other types of fish, as I didn't enjoy the mayhem. The two of yours I can identify were among the most difficult to enjoy. They are hardcore aggressive.

Any of those four fish would kill everything in your other tanks.

You are in a bind. You were sold an impossible combination, and as the probably young fish grew, their nature has come out. The fact any store sold you a blood parrot for a 29 gallon is criminal. If you look them up, they become huge fish, at 8 inches plus with a hefty weight to their deformed bodies. Alone, it would be too large for a 29. Your only hope is rehoming. That is easier said than done. The store should take them back, but probably won't.

I feel for you, but have no easy solution. Changing pet stores would be a start.

 

[koleary317]

Malawis are not for the faint hearted. I used to have several tanks of them, and I bred around 10 different mbuna species. The aggression of most of the species in the group drove me into other types of fish, as I didn't enjoy the mayhem. The two of yours I can identify were among the most difficult to enjoy. They are hardcore aggressive.

Any of those four fish would kill everything in your other tanks.

You are in a bind. You were sold an impossible combination, and as the probably young fish grew, their nature has come out. The fact any store sold you a blood parrot for a 29 gallon is criminal. If you look them up, they become huge fish, at 8 inches plus with a hefty weight to their deformed bodies. Alone, it would be too large for a 29. Your only hope is rehoming. That is easier said than done. The store should take them back, but probably won't.

I feel for you, but have no easy solution. Changing pet stores would be a start.

Wow, thank you for all the insight. The lady at PetSmart sold us all 4 of those fish in the same trip and said they should be fine. I wish we would have had this info prior! Would the parrot fish and the red tail shark be ok just the two of them in a 36 gallon? I’ll call around the pet stores and see if they’ll take any of our fish. We are past the return policy on them, but at this point, I’d rather them get into better situations than the current one, and we really don’t have the time or space to add another fish tank to separate them, but are happy to move fish around to other tanks to have a better balance. We definitely think our cichlids are beautiful, but we are a peaceful household and really don’t want our 3 year old to have to witness any carnage.

 

[Byron]

Good thinking. And before getting any new fish, we should determine your water parameters which refer to GH, KH, pH (and temperature, obviously that is under our control). See if this info is on your water authority's website. And, never but never take the advice from any pet store as "factual" unless you know the background of the individual. But this would rarely if ever apply to chain stores.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Yes, pet stores, especially chain stores, are notorious for giving terrible fish advice. I've known a few local sellers who actually care about the fish more than they care about making a sale, but most are just trying to do a job and make some money.

 

[koleary317]

We found a local store that has been around for 30+ years that specializes in all types of aquariums and has everything from exotic aquatic mushrooms and coral to sea cucumbers to axolotls. They said they take fish donations, so we are going to go there from now on. The prices there are much higher, but I’m thinking the higher initial price will save us money in the long run instead of buying new tanks for bad fish combos. The guy I talked to on the phone also had similar comments as GaryE. Thank you everyone for your input, advice, recommendations, and information. I’ll be sure to follow up with a happy fish update after we get everything sorted out!

 

[Colin_T]

The three fish listed below are from Lake Malawi in Africa and need water that has a pH around 7.6-8.0, and a GH around 300ppm.

The skinny fish on the left looks like a Pseudotropheus demasoni (pretty peaceful for a Rift Lake cichlid). You can deworm fish. See section 3 of the link below.

The fish in the middle looks like Melanochromis maingano (again pretty peaceful for a Rift Lake cichlid).

Orange fish in the cave looks like an orange Melanochromis zebra (nasty piece of work when mature).

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

www.fishforums.net

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Part of the problem is how bright the tank is. White substrate and a light make it too bright for many fish. Some floating plants like Water Sprite or Red Root Floaters would probably help. Alternatively turn the light down or off.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Pet stores like that are a good find. I've found it's almost always worth the money long-term to order fish online from reputable sellers and pay the shipping (hard to beat The Wet Spot in Oregon, as they won't send out fish that show any signs of poor health).

 

[koleary317]

The three fish listed below are from Lake Malawi in Africa and need water that has a pH around 7.6-8.0, and a GH around 300ppm.

The skinny fish on the left looks like a Pseudotropheus demasoni (pretty peaceful for a Rift Lake cichlid). You can deworm fish. See section 3 of the link below.

The fish in the middle looks like Melanochromis maingano (again pretty peaceful for a Rift Lake cichlid).

Orange fish in the cave looks like an orange Melanochromis zebra (nasty piece of work when mature).

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

www.fishforums.net

-----------------

Part of the problem is how bright the tank is. White substrate and a light make it too bright for many fish. Some floating plants like Water Sprite or Red Root Floaters would probably help. Alternatively turn the light down or off.

So you think the small one is still small because it may have worms? I will definitely look into the deworming solutions in the post! Thank you. We decided on turning off the light and letting a little light in through the blinds to see if that helps while we research dimming lights for the lid. Ours is currently a one setting LED light that came with the tank.