My first ever cichlids!!
 

Hello,

I have jumped in at the deep end and purchased 10 lake malawi (I hope)
cichlids for my 260 litre aquarium. I went to the LFS, and asked for 10
compatible lake milawi's, and he gave me a nice selection of small fishes.
He said they would fight over territory and I should have suffecient hiding
places, so I also purchased £100 of aquarium decor rocks. Some sandstone,
and a large bunch of lava rock. Also some nice marble rock. I also added a
"Fluval 4 plus" internal filter to help maintain water quality and provide a
strong current.

Anyway, he says I should sooner before later add my final selection of fish,
he reckons another 10 - 15 would be plenty for the aquarium. He says if I
wait too long, the first fish will stress the new comers out and potentially
kill them.


I can only identify these fish so far:
3 x : http://www.hagblomfoto.com/auratus.htm
They are yellow barred at the moment, I believe as they grow, the colours
change. The 3 of them are bickering over the biggest cave, and one of them
seems to be the dominant fish in the tank at the moment. These are lovely
fish! They all look identical, not sure if male or female.

The other 7 fish, I will take pictures of and post them to my site so you
guys can help identify. The fish shop guy told me the names of them, but
they are long scientific names and I have forgotten.

Regards,

Gary.

"Gary" wrote in message
...
Hello,

I have jumped in at the deep end and purchased 10 lake malawi (I hope)
cichlids for my 260 litre aquarium. I went to the LFS, and asked for 10
compatible lake milawi's, and he gave me a nice selection of small fishes.
He said they would fight over territory and I should have suffecient
hiding
places, so I also purchased £100 of aquarium decor rocks. Some sandstone,
and a large bunch of lava rock. Also some nice marble rock. I also added
a
"Fluval 4 plus" internal filter to help maintain water quality and provide
a
strong current.

Anyway, he says I should sooner before later add my final selection of
fish,
he reckons another 10 - 15 would be plenty for the aquarium. He says if I
wait too long, the first fish will stress the new comers out and
potentially
kill them.



with cichlids you should always try to add them at the same time. They will
stake out their territory right away. Then any new entries into the tank
will be harrassed to death as they try to find a place to hide and find them
all taken already.

--

Margolis
http://web.archive.org/web/200302152...qs/AGQ2FAQ.htm
http://www.unrealtower.org/faq

with cichlids you should always try to add them at the same time. They
will
stake out their territory right away. Then any new entries into the tank
will be harrassed to death as they try to find a place to hide and find
them
all taken already.



OK,

So if I am to add another ten fish, I should do so ASAP? Had the existing
ten for 3 or 4 days now. What I will do is when addintg the next batch,
upset the decor and move the material around to confuse the fish, and then
add some more rocks too to create additional hiding spaces.

Regards,

Gary.

"Gary" wrote in message
...
with cichlids you should always try to add them at the same time. They
will
stake out their territory right away. Then any new entries into the tank
will be harrassed to death as they try to find a place to hide and find
them
all taken already.



OK,

So if I am to add another ten fish, I should do so ASAP? Had the existing
ten for 3 or 4 days now. What I will do is when addintg the next batch,
upset the decor and move the material around to confuse the fish, and then
add some more rocks too to create additional hiding spaces.

Regards,

Gary.


Just watch for Nitrate and Ammonia spikes! Putting so many fish at once will
cause havoc to the biological balance of your tank.

Hi Dan,

I will keep a watchful eye. I have had my 100 litre tank up and running for
a few months, and I do a 30% - 50% twice a week, to try and be on the safe
side. I will do the same with the Cichlid tank. It also houses two
powerful filters.

Regards,

Gary.

You went in asking for compatible community Malawi Cichlids and they sold you M auratus... I'd be looking for another LFS.

Am I to expect future problems? They are fine at the moment, and they all came from the same tank. They chap said as long as plenty of hiding spaces, then they will all establish a pecking order and get on with it.

Gary.
"Phil" wrote in message ...
You went in asking for compatible community Malawi Cichlids and they sold you M auratus... I'd be looking for another LFS.

On Thu, 23 Dec 2004 13:36:49 GMT, "Gary"
wrote:

Am I to expect future problems? They are fine at the moment, and they all came from the same tank. They chap said as long as plenty of hiding spaces, then they will all establish a pecking order and get on with it.


Auratus are moderately aggressive. The dominant male (the one that
turns dark first) will try to kill any other males but may tolerate
females. If you pack them in and have a few hiding places at the
surface you will have less problems. Make an island with rocks all the
way to the surface.


Steve
--
EasyNN-plus. The easy way to build neural networks.
http://www.easynn.com

Auratus are moderately aggressive. The dominant male (the one that
turns dark first) will try to kill any other males but may tolerate
females. If you pack them in and have a few hiding places at the
surface you will have less problems. Make an island with rocks all the
way to the surface.



Hi Steve,

There must be almost 100 hidy holes at the moment, I will post a few pics.
When you say make an island, work from the centre of the aquarium up to the
top?
AT the moment, I have heavily loaded the entire back wall with Marble Rock,
Sand Stone and SHED LOADS of Lava Rock.

I will post a pic of feeding time, and as well as seeing the rockery, you
can help me identify the other fish too! (If you can be bothered) :)

Gary.

OK Steve,

All pics under 100k :)

Links to the pics he http://www.cutecats.co.uk/cichlids.asp and also
pasted below.


ROCKWORK:
http://www.cutecats.co.uk/cichlids/cichlid-rocks.jpg

UNKOWN CICHLID # 1:
http://www.cutecats.co.uk/cichlids/cichlid-id2.jpg

UNKOWN CICHLID(S) # 2: (2 pictures)
http://www.cutecats.co.uk/cichlids/cichlid-id3.jpg
http://www.cutecats.co.uk/cichlids/cichlid-id4.jpg

UNKOWN CICHLID # 3: (IN FRONT OF ROCK, SMALLER FISH):
http://www.cutecats.co.uk/cichlids/cichlid-id5.jpg

UNKOWN CICHLID # 4:
http://www.cutecats.co.uk/cichlids/cichlid-id6.jpg

FEEDING TIME:
http://www.cutecats.co.uk/cichlids/cichlids-id.jpg



The rockwork is porbably pants, but my first time using extensive amounts of
rock. I normally have a piece of bogwood and a few plants.

Do your best with the fish, Im intrigued as to how these guys are going to
behave in the future. The fish shop chap told me they would be fine...

Regards,

Gary.
PS - Will also post thesde ID requests in the group in a new thread...

On Thu, 23 Dec 2004 15:00:24 GMT, "Gary"
wrote:

Auratus are moderately aggressive. The dominant male (the one that
turns dark first) will try to kill any other males but may tolerate
females. If you pack them in and have a few hiding places at the
surface you will have less problems. Make an island with rocks all the
way to the surface.



Hi Steve,

There must be almost 100 hidy holes at the moment, I will post a few pics.
When you say make an island, work from the centre of the aquarium up to the
top?

It not the number of hidy holes that count, it is the position so that
fish in trouble can escape.

I use a pile of large boulders up the rear corners of the tanks. That
way it is easy to make an island (or two) without displacing too much
water.

AT the moment, I have heavily loaded the entire back wall with Marble Rock,
Sand Stone and SHED LOADS of Lava Rock.

I will post a pic of feeding time, and as well as seeing the rockery, you
can help me identify the other fish too! (If you can be bothered) :)


I'll have a look later.


Steve
--
EasyNN-plus. The easy way to build neural networks.
http://www.easynn.com

On Thu, 23 Dec 2004 15:35:22 GMT, "Gary"
wrote:

OK Steve,

All pics under 100k :)

Links to the pics he http://www.cutecats.co.uk/cichlids.asp and also
pasted below.


ROCKWORK:
http://www.cutecats.co.uk/cichlids/cichlid-rocks.jpg


The rocky shoreline of Lake Malawi is mainly boulders covered in
algae.

I always tried to produce something vaguely similar.

Do your best with the fish, Im intrigued as to how these guys are going to
behave in the future. The fish shop chap told me they would be fine...


I've been away from the Mbuna world for too many years to remember
their common names and many of the scientific names have been changed
as well.

Go to Mike Oliver's web page and click on Mbuna.
http://malawicichlids.com/index.htm

Mike Oliver has been into Mbuna a long time and is still active in the
field.


Steve
--
EasyNN-plus. The easy way to build neural networks.
http://www.easynn.com

One article i read about mbunas was to silicon ALL of the rocks into a
wall, then lean the wall against the back of the tank, so it mimics the
sheer rock drops in the wild. This will create tons of space in the for
ground for feeding and general movement, create more strategic hiding
holes and when i fish dies, it wont be absolute murder finding it

Im a south american man myself, and not much good with africans(i know
their mean as anything though)

If you do add more fish REALLY keep a clsoe eye on the water params as
youll get a big spike, but if you do slowly introduce the fish, moving
the decore around (atleast with south american cichlids) really does
spread out the aggression.

Good luck, the fish sound like there in very good hands.



--
Posted via CichlidFish.com
http://www.cichlidfish.com/portal/forums

"Craig" -DONTEMAIL wrote in message
...
snip
(i know their mean as anything though)
snip

While this generalization can be true of many of the cichlid species, both
African, Central American and South American alike, it is too broad a
generalization for "African Cichlids". If you like the South American
cichlids, perhaps you should expand into some of the West African species.
They share much of the same behavior and water parameters you're currently
used to.
Then delve into some of the milder Rift Lake species and avoid the Mbuna.
You'll see that terms like "aggression" and "mean as anything" are all
relative. After all, I've seen quite a few Central American species that
make even some of the Mbuna seem sweet and innocent.
Tim

lol, too true.

i would love to expand my collection into some of the rift cichlids but
space is very limited at the moment and id rather get a propeer sized,
suitable tank then getting a smaller one which will harm the fish and
need replacing eventually.

Would be pretty cool though, although ideally id like to make an amazon
basin biotope tank, try to mimic thenatural habitat.

Peace out Craig



--
Posted via CichlidFish.com
http://www.cichlidfish.com/portal/forums

They are yellow prohibited at this moment, I believe that as they grow, the colour change. 3 pairs of which the largest cave quarrel, of which seems to be mainly fish in the tank moment. These are cute fish! They all look the same, do not know if male or female.