Cichlids

[fatrip]

So today i come home from work and go into the fridge and just as i am crackin it open out comes my daughter yelling, daddy daddy come look at Fred. "ok", being pulled into her room what do i see. a cichlid sitting in my 2.5g top down camera tank. great, awesome. so we got this cichlid from some one and i could kill my wife. So now we Have Fred and i need to know some things. Hope you guys can help. any sites about them would be greatly appreciated. I looked up and found that temp 78, and ph 8.0 any other tips would be great. he is about 2 inch and is blueish striped, dont have a light over him yet so dont know what color he really is. The tank i just set up is a 20 long. I have a penguin filter for it. Do i need an air pump? what substrate should i use?

 

[reefscape15]

You should get an air pump, something small will do. Do not try to keep any plants in the tank with them, as you will need to add cichlid salt to the tank, making it slightly brackish. From your description it sounds like a Blue Mbuna (i'm not sure if thats how you spell it). The Mbuna is mostly black with blue stripes. I'm not exactly sure if I have the ID correct, but I think thats what i can remember from having a Cichlid tank for some time. You will want to add a few tsps of cichlid salt to the tank as it will help stabalize PH. Temp is correct at 78ish. Any gravel/pebles or river rocks either smooth or natural rough slab rock will be good for them. Try to make some shaded spots, and keep flow pretty low compared to what you would in a reef tank. Hope this helps a little bit. I'm sure I forgot some things, but it should give you a start.

All the info I found on them was from books @ the library and the internet. Just keep looking. If you can get a hold of either Jim or George at Finnyas Reef, I know they used to deal with Cichlids a lot. 800 257-2736

 

[truebeliever71]

Cool! I used to have 3 cichlid tanks. A great resource is www.cichlid-forum.com .

They need room... and a medium to strong current. If you can take a pic of it I can probably ID it for you. There are 5 main types (origins) of cichlids ... central Americia, South America and the Africans (Lakes Malawi and Tanganyika and Victoria). All have different water types and needs. As for substrate, a fine to medium pebble would work. All cichlids like to hide so give him plenty of spaces to do so (clay flower pots work good or build a rock cave.) When I had my tanks I built "rock walls" out of styrofoam, cement, and cement coloring or paint.

Cichlids are really cool fish, they all have really neat temperaments and personalities.

 

[St.james of reefdom]

PH- 8.2
current not an issue
light not really an issue but you will want goof filtration. African cichlids are particularly vegetable feeders although you can feed them stuff like daphnia, mysis shrimp.. brine shrimp and other foods that are "slimy" and soft do not do the cichlid any favors , an occasional shot of brine will be ok as a treat but not a steady diet. If you do you are playing fire and can have a fish that is prone to m bloat.
The good thing about the daphnia is the hard shell which cleanese the colon of the fish and keeps them cleaned out.
I suspect it is a African mbuna not Victorian. or south american. If you could post a pic that would be great then I could ID it fairly certainly. It is probaly in the Pseudotropheus family.

 

[fatrip]

thanks guys ill get a pic up soon.

 

[reepks]

I have a 100 gallon tank of African Cichlids.
at 2 inches it might be difficult to get an exact ID but im sure we can get you in the ball park.
I agree with the others, it definitely sounds like an African cichlid, most likely from Lake Malawi. It would either be haplochromines, Mbuma, or peacock.
Depending on the exact species, he may need a much bigger home. Some of my cichlids are well over 7 or 8 inches.

 

[reefscape15]

Nice reepks!