What books said they are insectivores? I could be wrong-I don't feed
them exclusively vegetable matter(I feed spirulina one day, off brand
"Cichlid Pellets" the next, and a tropical flake food once in a while).
They didn't start breeding until the spriulina though...that may point
to something. I am going to do some more research on it when I get a chance-
I did all my electric yellow research when I was still really new to all
of this, and may just remember wrong.



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Deepseafisher wrote:
What books said they are insectivores? I could be wrong-I don't feed
them exclusively vegetable matter(I feed spirulina one day, off brand
"Cichlid Pellets" the next, and a tropical flake food once in a while).
They didn't start breeding until the spriulina though...that may point
to something. I am going to do some more research on it when I get a chance-
I did all my electric yellow research when I was still really new to all
of this, and may just remember wrong.


A Fishkeepers Guide to African Cichlids by Paul Loiselle lists all
Labidochromis spp. as micropredators and says to feed high-protein
foods. He doesn't address the yellow lab specifically. Then I found
this listing on the web and figured Loiselle was right about the
specific species. http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/caeruleu.htm

Once I read your post, I looked harder and found other articles that say
omnivore. http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/l_caeruleus.php is by
far the best article I have found and explains the interesting history
of the fish in the aquarium trade.

I think our best info by far is your fish breeding after being fed
spirulina. I'll take that over anything on the web or in a book!

--
__ Elaine T __
__' http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__

:) Ok this is not on the main topic. However after reading the posts,
:and noting the relationship of fish in the wildand what they eat. I
:would like to point out, that, what holds true for a fish in its
:natural habitate, may be extremly different, for a fish that is in an
:aquarium. In the wild the fish have developed a nitch, where they live
:and feed. However in an aquarium setting (and most fish here are not
:captured in the wild any more, but bred in captivity) they become much
:more oppertunistic at feeding. For an example of this, I use my own
:fish, Oscars, and plecos. The plecos, while for the most part eat algy,
:mine have found a taste for raw meat. They love the bloodworms, and
:beafheart, it seems more than the Oscars. One of my Oscars, loves the
:spirulina disks. I have not done, any looking around online, I am just
:basing my opinion on many post I have read, and my experence with my
:own fishkeeping.



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wrote:
A Fishkeepers Guide to African Cichlids by Paul Loiselle lists all Labidochromis spp. as
micropredators and says to feed high-protein foods. He doesn't address the yellow lab specifically.
Then I found this listing on the web and figured Loiselle was right about the specific species.
http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/caeruleu.htm
Once I read your post, I looked harder and found other articles that say
omnivore. http://www.cichlid- forum.com/articles/l_caeruleus.php is by
far the best article I have found and explains the interesting history
of the fish in the aquarium trade.
I think our best info by far is your fish breeding after being fed
spirulina. I'll take that over anything on the web or in a book!

Elaine T wrote:


I did some more looking into this, and read somewhere that many fish
that are considered insectivores are really more opportunistic in the
wild than anything. While labs undoubtebly eat insects in the wild, they
don't often have the chance.

Just a thought...

I am glad that I started with the spirulina though. The effects have
been great.



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Actually many species of pleco's in the wild change diet depending on their
age. When they are small they eat mostly vegetation because they can easily
find it & it will sustain them. When they get larger they tend to switch to
meat due to the fact its hard to sustain a larger body with just veggies.
That's why a lot of aquarium plecos switch to going after fish or eating
meat when older. Most large pleco don't even bother eating algae.

--
Craig
________________________________
www.CanadianCray.tk
www.Bluecrayfish.com
"Fuzzy" -DONTEMAIL wrote in message
...
:) Ok this is not on the main topic. However after reading the posts,
:and noting the relationship of fish in the wildand what they eat. I
:would like to point out, that, what holds true for a fish in its
:natural habitate, may be extremly different, for a fish that is in an
:aquarium. In the wild the fish have developed a nitch, where they live
:and feed. However in an aquarium setting (and most fish here are not
:captured in the wild any more, but bred in captivity) they become much
:more oppertunistic at feeding. For an example of this, I use my own
:fish, Oscars, and plecos. The plecos, while for the most part eat algy,
:mine have found a taste for raw meat. They love the bloodworms, and
:beafheart, it seems more than the Oscars. One of my Oscars, loves the
:spirulina disks. I have not done, any looking around online, I am just
:basing my opinion on many post I have read, and my experence with my
:own fishkeeping.



--
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:D It is funny to watch, they sort of suck it in, they will get a peice,
be it on the top of the water, (when they do this, they actually swim
upside down, and grab the peice on the surface from underneath) or one
that floated to the bottom. They just take in there mouth, and sort of
suck it to nothing. If I hadn't seen it, I would never belive it!



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Yeah, this is a bit off-topic, but interesting none-the-less. Your pleco likes meat better than spirulina?:eek: Thats hillarious!!! I didn't know they could even eat meat. Well, ya learn something new every day. Just more proof that the important part in feeding fish is researching them and fullfilling what they need instead of whatever they'll eat best. Talk about an insane pleco, though!



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If it's HBH 8 veggie flake then it's a perfectly fine food for them, mine
thrive on it intersperces with outher foods of course. I'd be more cautious
about the bloodworm though I guess an insectivore might be less susceptible
to the problems other rift lake cichlids can have with them.
My water is also soft(ish) but with a high pH, as is lake Malawi, where the
labs come from originally, so long as there's enough kH to keep things
stable then I think you should be OK, some salt added and some marble or
coral crush substrate would make it a bit harder which wouldn't hurt from
where your water is right now.
My real concern is the 26 gallon part, I know there' anecdotal evidence that
labs are ok in smaller tanks but mine were pretty agressive even in thier
55G and didn't settle (read stop killing each other) till they got into the
7 x 2 x2. However I did have a dispopoortionate amount of male fish which
would definately make them meaner.
I still fear that even being the only of it's kind once it gets bigger other
fish might find thier buttocks being handed to them.

My yellows showed no signs of bloat when pseudotropheus species were
dropping all around them, I keep mine with haps now and the diet has them
spawning constantly.

wrote:
My yellows showed no signs of bloat when pseudotropheus species were
dropping all around them, I keep mine with haps now and the diet has
them spawning constantly. Really? Thats interesting. What are you
feeding (I don't know what typical Hap diet is...)? Mine wouldn't spawn
until they had a large vegetable staple in their diet. My real concern
is the 26 gallon part, I know there' anecdotal evidence that labs areok
in smaller tanks but mine were pretty agressive even in thier 55G I have
had no problem with keeping 6 of them in a 29. I suppose it really
depends upon temperment of an individual fish. I am always reading about
super aggressive fish (like red devils) that for some reason or another
aren't programmed to be killers and end up being kept easily in
community tanks. I guess the opposite could be true as well. I still
fear that even being the only of it's kind once it gets bigger other
fish might find thier buttocks being handed to them.


I agree completely. However, you said the to add crushed coral to a tank
with Rams in it...I've never kept Rams personally, but have looked into
it. Everything I read about them says soft water and low pH, an entirely
opposite set of water conditions that I read about keeping Labs in. My
advice (and I hate to seem to be in direct confliction with what someone
else said) would be to not change your water conditions at all for the
sake of the Rams, Larry. Only remember that I have no personal
experience with Rams. Maybe someone who has some experience with keeping
rams in harder, higher pH conditions could reply and give Larry some
advice about what to do.



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