New Cichlids, Need Help!

[fishie_bird]

Hey all, On tuesday night I FINALLY got 2 african cichlids, (I have ALLWAYS whanted them but never got any for my self, and finally desided to do so) anyways, it looks like its a baby female electric yellow (my faves) and another blue one that im not sure the EXACT speceies, but have ideas, anyways, I havnt seen them eat yet and im worried, ive tried EVERYTHING, like flakes, and blood worms and orange and roman lettuce and everything, I bought a zucceny (sp) today and am going to try that ,but im worried! now keep in mind their are TINY like 1 1/2 inch or somthing very small, so HELP!

 

[Ferris]

Most Mbuna are herbivores so get them a good veggie flake, preferrably spirinula based and don't feed them anything meaty like bloodworm, this can kill them.

They probably just need some time to settle in, drop the bloodworm and you should be OK.

 

[fishie_bird]

Oh whew, ok, i also have a few live plants in their, but another thing i forgot to mention, they dont come out when the light is on, they hid, its so weird, but if I turn the light off, they come out and have a good time! But THANKS!! whew feel better now!

 

[freddyk]

Time will help and they'll eat soon enough. Try peas and wilted spinach as well once they're eating.

In the mean time you might want to consider the future plans of the tank - having just two Africans like this will rarely work out for very long.

 

[fishie_bird]

what do you mean?

 

[jakey boi]

hi,
sorry for changing the topic but shouldn't you buy african cichlids in large groups of 6 or more ???
or that is what i have been told by my lfs.
i bought my cichlids in 2's and 3's and it went horrubly wrong,
just advice mate !

 

[freddyk]

what do you mean?

Just read up a bit on mbuna and you'll get an idea how agressive they can be - these tanks are usually pretty well stocked to disperse this aggression. With just two fish the result is more often then not one going after the other.

 

[SamUK]

and its best to go with a species tank so only malawis in the tank.