I Think Ive Mixed The Wrong Fish Together

[wonkey]

A Had a Plec that has been in my tank almost since day one of me starting this hobbie. ( roughy 4-5 months )

After getting the correct water chemical levels etc i popped to the local fish shop and noticed how cool
Zebra cichlids/convicts looked, so the guy in there sold me 3 of em 1 male 2 female ( this in its self i think a mistake)
his advice was that the males tend to fight with other males.

After reading about mating habits etc im now concerned that they will kill the plec, the tank is hardly big for him to hide
( 90 litre ).

I dont want to get rid of either species can they co-exisit ?

Cheers

Dan

 

[Johng89]

Wonkey

use www.aquaticlifedirect.co.ukto match tankmates and identify the actual fish you have
should help to check until a more experienced member comes along

you could also post in the Chiclids forum for a quicker response

 

[wonkey]

Wonkey

use www.aquaticlifedirect.co.ukto match tankmates and identify the actual fish you have
should help to check until a more experienced member comes along

you could also post in the Chiclids forum for a quicker response

Just had a quick look and what i have are actually cobolt blue zebras Thanks for that link, it does say they can be mixed so that puts me at ease a little, but what i will do i think is create some more cave areas.

One thing i have noticed is they are quite shy and only seem to come out when the main tank lights are off is this normal or my lights too bright ?

 

[Johng89]

Glad I could help with teh linkI found it invaluable re tankmates
Not sure about lights as dont know much about them so free bump for lights issue

 

[tropic_john]

Wonkey

use www.aquaticlifedirect.co.ukto match tankmates and identify the actual fish you have
should help to check until a more experienced member comes along

you could also post in the Chiclids forum for a quicker response

Just had a quick look and what i have are actually cobolt blue zebras Thanks for that link, it does say they can be mixed so that puts me at ease a little, but what i will do i think is create some more cave areas.

One thing i have noticed is they are quite shy and only seem to come out when the main tank lights are off is this normal or my lights too bright ?

probs settling in, will cme out in about 3 days.

 

[dthoffsett]

Cobalt blue zebras (Metriaclima callainos) are one of the mbuna (rock-dwelling) species of Lake Malawi, Africa. They are a fairly aggressive species and should be kept in at least a 4ft (55gal) tank. While juveniles they will be fairly peaceful, but once they reach adulthood in your small tank the male will likely kill the two females and the plec. Plecs (notably bristlenose) can usually be kept with mbuna with no problems in a large enough tank.

For more information read: [URL="http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=299333"]http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=299333[/URL]

And just to be sure is this your fish?

 

[wonkey]

Yer it does look like that but with stripes and yellow markings on the tail.

Im looking at getting a bigger tank at the moment (money allowing )

How would this tank fair ? [post="0"]Tank[/post]

Im hoping to prehaps use my fluval 90L for smaller species, or maybe just the plec on its own.

Thanks

Dan

 

[dthoffsett]

Hmmm, M.estherae don't have any yellow markings on them, you may have one of the Cynotilapia afra variants, tank requirements are the same for them though. If you could post a pic of it we may be able to give you a positive ID.

The link to your tank is broken so I can't comment on that.

 

[Wills]

Hi I think you might have the same fish as me - do they look like the ones in my picture to the left?

Easy way to identify these - does the male have a pink tail with a blue edge? And do the females have red bellies and dark blue fins?

There is a chance these are Honduran Red Points which are the same as mine. The question is are they true HRPs as breeders cross a true HRP with common cons and sell the fry which are usually more aggressive than the HRPs I think size will play a factor as well as the common cons and the hybrids get to about 5 inch where as HRPS stay at 4 with a smaller female.

Idealy these should stay as a pair not sure how a trio would work but as Ive read most CA cichlids pair up. I think before we say much else we need to get a positive ID

Can we get any pics?

Also with the plec is it a common plec? As this will rapidly outgrow your tank and will end up needing a 5ft or 6ft tank.

 

[wonkey]

im going to try and get a pic of em tonight, but here is one that looks the same : http/www.aquaticlifedirect.co.uk/Fish/Fr...lueZebraCichlid

(sorry i dont know how to insert a picture at the moment.)



as for the link here it is just copy and paste http/cityaquaticscardiff.co.uk/store/ind...products_id=497


the plec was kinda donated to me so yes i would imagine it is a common plec.

Thanks

Dan

 

[OldMan47]

The way that you put a picture in is easy. You put in front of the picture address and the same thing but [/xxx], where the xxx represents the letters img, after the address. The result should bring up the image but in your case you have an image file that the site does not like. This image says it is the same fish so I will use it the way that I described. I could not show the whole thing with code as it would have tried to link to an image using the text that I typed between the two sets of double brackets and would not have shown the code. I know because I tried to do it the easy way first.
[img]http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f370/Porkibear/BlueZebra.jpg

 

[dthoffsett]

Ok, so you likely have Pseudotropheus sp. "Zebra", cobalt zebra usually refers to M.callainos, but it's not unusual for the same common name to be used for multiple species, that's why scientifc names are so important with mbuna.

The tank you linked would work great for them, most people either supplement or remove the included Juwel filter as filtration needs to be pretty high for mbuna tanks.

Btw, lovely P.demasoni photo oldman47.

 

[wonkey]

Ok, so you likely have Pseudotropheus sp. "Zebra", cobalt zebra usually refers to M.callainos, but it's not unusual for the same common name to be used for multiple species, that's why scientifc names are so important with mbuna.

The tank you linked would work great for them, most people either supplement or remove the included Juwel filter as filtration needs to be pretty high for mbuna tanks.

Btw, lovely P.demasoni photo oldman47.

Thats great! probs going to order one next month and get the cycle going ( another headache hehehe ), Thanks for all the help guys

 

[dthoffsett]

No problem, glad to help. When you get a chance post a pic of them so we can confirm ID.