General Questions on African Cichlids

[outdoorzgirl]

I am thinking of starting up another 55 gallon and making it an african cichlid tank. I am thinking of the african cichlids that you see in every pet store. The ones i suppose that are the really aggessive kind. I went to a pet store today and I was telling the owner of how I was thinking of setting up another tank with just the african cichlids and He told me that "for a 55 gallon tank, I should put about 40 to 50 of the 1 inch cichlids in there . He said it was best for them to grow up togethor and that by the time they reached adulthood they would have probably killed themselves down to about 10 or so. Is this true? Because I think he thinks I just fell off the turnip truck and thinks he can just sell me alot of fish . But what do I know, I have always kept community type fish. I would hate to buy all of those fish and then have to buy 2 or 3 more tanks after a good majority of the ones made it. And the other question I have what ph level is best suited for these fish. He said 8.8! Do they really need to be kept in a ph this high?? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[semper fi]

first of all you did not say what lake you are considering. there are three major lakes that the africans come from. lake malawi is the most popular. mbunas come from lake malawi, so it is divided into two groups, mbuna and nonmbuna. lake tanganayika and lake victorian are the other two. to get really basic, tangs from lake tanganayika and vics from lake victoria.

you stated that you want the more aggressive of the africans, so i am going to assume that you mean the mbunas. mbuna (pronounced "um-BOO-na") means rockfish and refers to the small number of rock dwelling fish of lake malawi. the other group of fish that come from lake malawi are the utakas. utakas refer to the fish that dwell in the more open waters of lake malawi. any aquarium decor should reflect the natural environment of the lake suitable to the fish.

mbnas like a ph of atleast 7.5. you did not say what your ph was, but you could always doctor the water if it is too low. not my cup of tea. also one of the tricks so to speak to calming the aggression of the mbuna is to overcrowd them. i would not go back to the lfs that told you to get a whole bunch of them and let them kill each other off. would not happen. you would wind up with a tankful of fish. or several tanks. mbunas do need protein but survive on a diet comprised mostly of vegetation. the open waters of lake malawi are heavily planted and provid cover for the utaka. the mbuna are notorious diggers and plants are not a good choice for them. although some of the hardier plants can be put into their tanks. mbuna are fry predators and will eat fry if given the chance. they are also mouthbrooders. you will want to be careful in your choice of mbuna as far as sex is concerned. they are harem breeders. the male will need several females atleast three preferably five. females that are not willing to mate with the male will be killed by him. the most aggressive out of the mbuna is the auratus and chippokae. they have similar coloring yellow and black horizontal striping. the auratus also have a thin white stripe against the black which the chippokae does not. psuedotropheus, melanochromis and labidochromis are some of the many mbuna in lake malawi.

malawis are prone to malawi bloat. too much protein in their diets make them bloated, basically constipated. malawi bloat can be fatal, but if you feed them a diet consisting mostly of vegetation they will be fine with the occassional treat food of bloodworms or brine shrimp.

mbuna are mouthbrooders. like i said. getting distracted by a four year old here. sorry! mouthbrooders will dig a pit in the gravel. the female will lay her eggs and the male will pass over and fertilize the eggs. the female will then scoop the eggs into her mouth and tumble them til they hatch. this is called holding. the throat will become enlarged from the eggs. generally, the female will not eat during this holding period which lasts up to approximately three weeks. some females still will eat while holding though. there is always the exception to the rule. when a female is holding it is best imo to seperate her since she cannot defend herself and will weaken from this fasting period. when the fry have hatched and are free swimming the female will "spit" the fry. if the female feels the fry are threatened she will allow them to swim backinto her mouth.

a good source of information on lake malawi cichlids and views of some malawi tanks is geiorge reclos' site www.lakemalawicichlidhomepage.com he has some gorgeous tanks! and fish.

hth, if you have any more questions just ask.

maggie

 

[outdoorzgirl]

Maggie,
Wow, thank you for all the information. You really know your fishies!! To tell you the truth , I am not quite sure which kind of cichlid they are and I have been looking around on the internet trying to find out. It seems like in the pet stores , the people that they hire (mainly kids) don't know much of anything about what they are selling. Almost everywhere I go, they just tell me african cichlid..and that is it. Maybe you can help me. These cichlids seem to be the most popular fish in my area. You see them everywhere...Pet smart, local small pet stores, even walmart. The ones that I see that are always grouped togethor are colored...yellow, light purple, yellow with black horizontal stripes. What kind of cichlid do you think they are? It sure would help if the people in the pet stores were as knowledgable as you. It would save alot of heartache for fish and their keepers!

 

[cichlidmaster]

Since Maggie has done such an outstanding job so far, I am just going to "lurk in the shadows" on this one

Keep up the good work, Maggie

CM

 

[semper fi]

thank you wise mastah, you have taught grasshoppah well!

as for outdoorzgirl....

the most popular fish in the chain stores that you mentioned are the mbuna. you usually find them in tanks marked assorted african cichlids. i would suggest that you do not buy fom these tanks. alot of times there is crossbreeding with these fish and they are not the true strains. one fault of africans is that they are not picky about who they breed with. one thing you have to be careful with is to not get two species of fish that are breedable in the same tank, they will crossbreed.

as for the fish that you described.

yellow and black horizontal stripes. this is either the auratus or chippokae. look carefully at the fish. if you notice a thin white line against the black, it is the auratus. the chippokae is colored the same way as the auratus without the white line. auratus and chippokae are the most aggressive of the mbuna. they are usually the king of the african tank. you will need atleast three, but i would suggest five females with every male. the most interesting thing about these fish is that the sexually matured active male will display different coloring than the females with the subdominant inactive males displaying the female coloring also. when the dominant male is removed the remaining males will thenvie for his position in the tank and color up.

auratus scientific name: melanachromis auratus
chippokae scientific name: melanochromis chippokae

yellow. more than likely this is a yellow lab. sometimes they may have black edging on their fins, especially the dorsal and tail. supposedly the more dominant the black the more likely it is a male, but to be sure you have to vent the fish. also called a lemon drop cichlid.

yellow lab scientific name: labidochromis caerulus

purpley. more than likely this is a cobalt blue which has a periwinkle purple color to it. this is one of the fish that will crossbreed with the other color morph of it the red zebra. you may even notice very faint vertical stripes on this fish.

cobalt blue scientific name: psuedotropheus collainos

if you are serious about having the africans i suggest that you either go to a specialty store where the fish are divided into species only tanks or a breeder. it will be well worth the extra money. cichlidmaster is a good source to get fish from. top quality.

also check out the site that i referenced in the previous post. very informative also.

maggie

 

[outdoorzgirl]

Maggie
Thank you ! I couldn't have got a more descriptive answer from a book! Very well informed. And you are right about the tanks being labeled assorted african cichlids. I went to my local pet smart today and looked at the labeling and that is exactly what it said. Does Ciclidmaster have a website if I were to be interested in purchasing from him? I just bought another 55 gallon today so It might be awhile. I think I am going to go the Fishless cycling method this time and save some fishies unwanted hardship. It is great to know there is an informative forum to go whenever I have a question about our finned friends. One more question. I am going to go with crushed coral to get my ph up to par. One pet store told me they carry bags of crushed coral that carry the beneficial bacteria needed so that your tank is cycled from the start. Have you heard of this? I thought of going that route. It is kinda expensive, but I figured if it really was true, I might possibly go that route.

 

[semper fi]

crushed coral is used to stabilize ph. when i first started keeping fish a few years ago i tried using the crushed coral to bring up my ph. ended up bringing up the ph up with baking soda and using the crushed coral to stabilize it.

would not think that the crushed coral, unless it was packed in some type of liquid would have the bacteria needed to jumpstart a tank. there are a number of ways to jumpstart it though. one way is to use your existing tank. you have gravel with the bacteria in it. you could move some of it and mix it with the crushed coral. also when you do water changes, do a large water change, about 50%, and put the old water in the new tank.

another way to jumpstart the tank is to use pure ammonia. shake the ammonia before purchasing it. if it bubbles it is not pure. this wayyou cannot use any fish or plants. add a tablespoon of ammonia to the new water til you raise the level of ammonia to atleast .5. wait a day or two and do a 10% water change. keep doing water changes on a weekly basis til the ammonia zeros and the nitrites peak then the nitrites zero and the nitrates peak and then zero. this will eliminate the need to create ammonia in the tank. when all levels are zero then you can safely add the fish.

cichlidmaster is here at this site. he has some beautiful quality fish for sale. he may pop in here and let you know what he has in stock right now. if you would like to see one example of his fish, check out my post in member's pics of my frontosas. i got them from him last october.

maggie