Questions on Red Jewel

[TNG]

One of my Red Jewel cichlids has black blotches on its body, and they grow larger over time (bottom left of the photo). It’s not a concern to me, but wondering if anyone knows what causes these and if it’s common for red jewel.

There’re 3 fish in the tank, the red jewel, a yellow lab and a rainbow shark (above the heater). The tank was initially set up as a refuge for the yellow lab as it wasn’t “well liked” by its cichlid tank mates. The rainbow shark was moved there later when it became anti-social in the tropical community tank – as you would expect. The red jewel was the last one to join the other 2, when it was targeted by its tank mates - that was about 2 years ago.

Also, can anyone tell the differences between Hemichromis lifalili and H guttatus? Or are they the same fish?

 

[Rusty_Shackleford]

They don't look like normal markings. Is it perhaps a mark of an injury?
What is really troubling is this mix of fishes. Someone is suffering. Jewel cichlids and Mbuna come from totally opposite water conditions. Your jewel cichlid is from Africa, but prefers soft water with a pH below 7. The Labidochromis comes from Lake Malawi which is very hard and alkaline with a pH above 8. Also your red tail shark prefers softer more acidic water as well.
So I ask what your water parameters are? Which fish are being kept in unsuitable water?

 

[GaryE]

I go with injury marks as well.

They are no longer Hemichromis, but Rubricatochromis. Species identification is extremely difficult, as the group is externally quite similar, and a lot of misidentifications were made by earlier researchers.

But as noted above, they are Western African rainforest and savannah softwater fish. Yellow Labs are East African lake Malawi hardwater fish. And red tailed sharks are Asian barbs from softer water. It's a difficult mix of fish that may not have fit in your other communities, but won't co-exist especially well.

 

[TNG]

Thanks for your responses.

Injury was my initial thought as well, but apart from the initial sparring you’d expect when cichlids are first placed together in the same tank, this tank is more peaceful than my tropical community tank where the 3 spot gourami occasionally chases the ruby barbs.

The markings have grown in size as the fish grows, and you’d note that they appear on the tail as well as on the body. I have been very careful observing these fish in the past 2 years as I placed them there to save them from certain death (rehoming or returning them to the store do not guaranty their survival), and I can say that there have never been a missing scale or torn fins, so I doubt if they are caused by injuries. I’ll keep watch and see how they develop.

I’m aware of the different locations / continents these first originate from. As for water parameters, the tank’s pH is 7.4 to 7.8 and GH 6 to 8. My tap water is soft (pH 6.8, GH 2) so I use Seachem’s Cichlid Lake Salt to raise GH. Seachem’s interest is to sell more products, but it recommends GH 4-8 for Lake Malawi, which is at odd with what we all read on the internet which mostly says Lake Malawi should be kept in GH 10-20.

I searched the net for info on any water parameter tests for the lakes, and the only paper I could find is the research by Tailling and Tailling back in 1965 which reported that total hardness for Lake Malawi is 60.58 – 85.60mg/L. That is well below dGH 10 to 20. If anyone is interested, do a search for “tailling_tailling chemical compositions of African lakes”. I’m not claiming that higher GH is detrimental to Malawi cichlids, but I’d say that they do just as well in lower GH. So none of the 3 fish in the tank suffers as far as water parameters are concerned.

With many members on TFF, some may have visited these lakes. If anyone had tested the water I’d greatly appreciate you sharing the results.