MORE QUESTIONS on Cichlids

[ringram]

I've seen people mix African with South/Central American cichlids, but its not recommended. The main reasons are the different water requirements and the different levels of aggression. Generally speaking, Central American(Firemouth, Green Terror, Jack Dempsey, etc) cichlids are more aggressive than South American(Angelfish, Discus, Geophagus, etc) and Africans can be either, so its a gamble. I knew a guy who had mostly Central/South American Cichlids, but he also had a Five star general in there(African) and everyone seemed to be doing well, except for the Salvini that kept trying to mate with the Flowerhorn. Granted, the tank was about 250g.

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[TAF CAF]

They all seem okay for now in a quarantine, though I did put the baby dafoldils in their own quarantine since they are smaller than the rest. There is some chasing but it is more like no one can really get after anyone else, since there is some other fish in the way. The only one that is extra grumpy is the bigger guy who has desided that under the heater is HIS, but the rest are getting used to this and leave HIS area alone.

When I get them into real tanks (maybe I will try to split them up by type), I think it would be cool to do the thing one of my lfs has done and use clay flower pots stacked on their sides to provide them each their own area. Will I need to boil or do anything else to these pots to make it okay?

[keitone]

Originally Posted by TAF CAF

Cool and thanks.

Next question.... I have heard (from who knows where) that feeding meaty foods can make the fish even meaner than they would otherwise be.

Is this at all correct? And would frozen brine shrimp and blood worms be considered 'meaty', and is it good or bad for their agressiveness to give them live fish to eat, like guppies?

I would worry about feeding them "meaty" foods (i.e. brine, bloodworms), but I would stay away from feeding them live fish. Not only can they carry diseases and parasites, it will condition them to view any other fish you add to the tank as food.

The "best" food you could feed them is NLS. Its a really high quality food. I use it for all my fish.

With the floating pellets, your fish just need to settle in and realize that they have to go and get the food. Once they get hungry they wont have a problem going to the top of the tank.

You wont be able to mix any other fish with the dafodils though. They are a colony fish and the previous batch of fry will help the parents guard the new batch. They are very prolific breeders and very good parents (read that as aggressive).

[TAF CAF]

Ahhh, so I will need to keep them seperate. What size tank would you recomend for two parents, their older juvi helper and their 3 babies?

Thanks for the food suggestions too.

[TAF CAF]

Okay... still working this all out, and man are these fishies dirty eaters!

I normally quarantine fish with a scoop of rocks from my well establised tank, and a sponge filter (from same) over bubble flow. Do medium water changes, and try to keep the food on the slightly low side.

But these guys are messier than my angel fish, and even with daily water changes, the water gets totally funky before the next change.

So on their pemanent tanks, I am thinking of going with big canister filters and a small grain pebble bottom with large grain sand all mixed in (to keep food debris from going down into the gravel and rotting).

The big question in all this speil is, normally I have corries, and prefer shrimp to clean my substrait and nibble up loose food that makes it to the bottom. However, no shrimp with cichlids, and I am wondering if there is a fish compatible with cichlids that would really eat up the fine bits of food that the cichlids spit back into the water?

[toddnbecka]

Could you list the cichlids by species? The daffodils should have a 30 long of their own, they will fill it quickly with dozens, then hundreds of fry. If they make too much mess w/pellets, feed them African cichlid flakes. Omega One is a very good brand, occaisonally supplemented with frozen foods.

[TAF CAF]

toddnbecka, thank you.

I have two daffodil types, one with the kinda marroon boddy and yellowish fins, and the other looks just the same, but is a pale silvery white.

The colored kind is the one that I have a mated pair, a mid-juvinile helper, and 2 babies. The silvery white are mid-juvi and I have 5 of them. Would it be okay for all of these to go into the 30 long, or should I put only the breeding pair and helper in there?

My husband got south africans... a breeding pair (and helper) of 'Nicks' he calls them, some smaller juvi 'Nicks', and some little guys (I don't know what they are, but they have a stripe vertically at their eye and a spot on their middle). He also has a Geophagus (spelling?). Who is as big as the 'Nicks' but just kinda stakes out the area right under the heater and doesn't do much else.

At least I think that is what they are. LOL

Am I right to assume his will need a 30 long as well, and will they be okay with each-other?

[Mori]

Terracotta (clay) pots should be fine. Try to find unglazed ones since you never know what's in the glaze. A good scrubbing should be enough but boiling never hurts. If there is a glaze, I'd boil, just to get off anything that is ready to react..but that might loosen stuff...hmmm....nah. Try to find unglazed

[TAF CAF]

okay... unglazed. Sounds good...

Right now they are poking around in 8 straight peices of plastic 'habitrail' that were on clearance at WMrt for 10 cents a piece. (Fully cleaned, of course.)

They seem much more happy and are moving at all levels of the tank now, but I think the pots will look much more atractive for a permanet solution.... now if only I can find a bunch of them on clearance. LOL

My husbands mated pair are doing a face-off back and forth thing a lot... kinda like they want to kiss but don't want to get cooties. Does this mean they want to 'get it on'?

[jgc]

I am no ciclid expert, but did keep ciclid tanks for a few years. I personally really enjoyed cichlid tanks - they fish are beautiful and fairly active. The cliff dwellers I had were somewhat shy, but would come out if not disturbed (I had lots of (Texas Holey) limestone for them to hide in).

Anyway, they might not really like eating under a lot of light, try feeding them w/o the light on and see if they will go to the top if you are a few ft away from the tank.

I have heard they will tear up a planted tank - but one of my favorite lightly planted tanks has both Malawi cichlids and some Val and looks great (not geographically correct correct I guess, but still looks good)

[TAF CAF]

Since I put in the habitrail tubes, they seem soooo much happier, and come right up to the surface to eat. I got them some small cichlid 'granuals' that are a 'clear water' formula, and they love the flakes, too. The water is looking much better.

I think I will do the same plant plan as I am doing with my angels.... lots of hornwort and a few vals.

[TAF CAF]

I have two daffodil types, one with the kinda marroon boddy and yellowish fins, and the other looks just the same, but is a pale silvery white.

The colored kind is the one that I have a mated pair, a mid-juvinile helper, and 2 babies. The silvery white are mid-juvi and I have 5 of them. Would it be okay for all of these to go into the 30 long, or should I put only the breeding pair and helper in there?

My husband got south africans... a breeding pair (and helper) of 'Nicks' he calls them, some smaller juvi 'Nicks', and some little guys (I don't know what they are, but they have a stripe vertically at their eye and a spot on their middle). He also has a Geophagus (spelling?). Who is as big as the 'Nicks' but just kinda stakes out the area right under the heater and doesn't do much else.

At least I think that is what they are. LOL

Am I right to assume his will need a 30 long as well, and will they be okay with each-other?


Also still wondering what clean-up the bottom fish are best with cichlids?

[toddnbecka]

The daffodils, or any brichardi-type cichlid, will murder any other type of fish sooner or later, when the colony fills the tankspace.
Would the "nick's" happen to be nicaraguense? If so, a pair MIGHT get along w/a Geophagus in a 30, provided there's somewhere it can get away from the pair when they spawn. A BN pleco, or a few botia's (red-tails are tough enough to handle themselves) should be alright for bottom-feeders.

[TAF CAF]

thank you...

Would corries be okay?... I did see some jade corries (the kind that get big) available at the lfs lately for a decent price. maybe they would get big enough to not be bothered?

[toddnbecka]

Not sure about cory's, I never tried keeping them with my nicaraguense. Check out cichlid-forum.com for more info, it's a really good site for cichlids.