55 gallon african cichlid tank

Hi,
my wife and I have a 55 gallon african Cichlid tank we have a total of 10
cichlids and we were wondering what would cause a fish to discolor our
labidochromis caerulues (electric yellow) is now a brown color and we are
not sure why, he doesnt looked stressed we have had our water check on a
regular basis to see if maybe it was a ammonia problem the water checked out
fine our PH lvls are good and we were just wondering what it could be, we
have 2 Pengiun 350's as our filters and a bunch of real rocks, any ideas
would be great as the only other people we have to ask is around here is the
local petsmart (not saying anything bad ) but they are not the best of
advise for cichlids we went ahead and put ammo lock in there just to be safe
than sorry and we did a 15-20% water change as well


Thanks
Jason

*Note: There are two *Koi-Lo's* on the pond and aquaria groups.

" wrote in message
...
Hi,
my wife and I have a 55 gallon african Cichlid tank we have a total of 10
cichlids and we were wondering what would cause a fish to discolor our
labidochromis caerulues (electric yellow) is now a brown color and we are
not sure why, he doesnt looked stressed we have had our water check on a
regular basis to see if maybe it was a ammonia problem the water checked
out
fine our PH lvls are good and we were just wondering what it could be, we
have 2 Pengiun 350's as our filters and a bunch of real rocks, any ideas
would be great as the only other people we have to ask is around here is
the
local petsmart (not saying anything bad ) but they are not the best of
advise for cichlids we went ahead and put ammo lock in there just to be
safe
than sorry and we did a 15-20% water change as well
========================================
It's spelled LABIDOCHROMIS CAERULEUS and there were 80,000 hits on Google
for the name. I had them in the past but none ever turned brown. Could it
be dietary? Are you feeding them a good variety of foods? There's a
cichlid NG you may also want to ask this question on.
--
Koi-Lo....
Aquariums since 1952.
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
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"Koi-Lo" none wrote in :

It's spelled LABIDOCHROMIS CAERULEUS and there were 80,000 hits on

L. caeruleus refers directly to the blue Lab., most recent texts classify
the yellow Lab. (generally the only Lab. ever found in stores) as
Labidochromis sp. as there is ongoing debate on whether or not the many,
many forms of Labidochromis found in Lake Malawi are indeed just multiple
colour forms of one species or really multiple species.

Labidochromis is actually one of the most omnipresent fishes in the lake,
but the yellow form originates only from one particular small part of the
lake.

Incidentally, we brought in wild Yellow Labs. from the lake once for a
store owner's brother. They are reportedly one of the most hard to catch
fish in the lake and if I recall correctly cost nearly CND$40 a piece
wholesale! You don't want to know what they would retail for at that
price.

*Note: There are two *Koi-Lo's* on the pond and aquaria groups.

"dc" wrote in message
...
"Koi-Lo" none wrote in :

It's spelled LABIDOCHROMIS CAERULEUS and there were 80,000 hits on

L. caeruleus refers directly to the blue Lab., most recent texts classify
the yellow Lab. (generally the only Lab. ever found in stores) as
Labidochromis sp. as there is ongoing debate on whether or not the many,
many forms of Labidochromis found in Lake Malawi are indeed just multiple
colour forms of one species or really multiple species.

This is interesting to know.

Labidochromis is actually one of the most omnipresent fishes in the lake,
but the yellow form originates only from one particular small part of the
lake.

Incidentally, we brought in wild Yellow Labs. from the lake once for a
store owner's brother. They are reportedly one of the most hard to catch
fish in the lake and if I recall correctly cost nearly CND$40 a piece
wholesale! You don't want to know what they would retail for at that
price.

More than I could afford. :-) I remember paying something like $8 or $9
for mine. That was in the early 1990s. African cichlids were very, very
popular here at the time. Now I notice they get a lot less tank space in
the stores.
--
Koi-Lo....
Aquariums since 1952.
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
Rude or obscene messages posted by my impersonator.
~~~~ }((((* ~~~ }{{{{(ö ~~~~ }((((({*

" wrote in :

10 cichlids and we were wondering what would cause a fish to discolor
our labidochromis caerulues (electric yellow) is now a brown color and
we are not sure why, he doesnt looked stressed we have had our water

How brown is brown?

The typical stress colouration of the yellow Lab. is a whitish yellow with
dark yellowy brownish vertical striping, but Labidochromis sp. has been
bred in captivity for SO MANY generations that there are a lot of subtle
and dramatically different colour forms of this yellow fish.

In the wild this fish exists in many, many different colour forms--from
brown to blue--some of which appear in the trade on occasion. It may be
possible your Lab. is a cross breed (captive African cichlids are not very
discriminating), or it may be that this colouration is a result of a
particular line of breeding of yellow Lab. (probably more likely).

I imagine that you are observing a stress colouration, especially if you
see any vertical bars at all.

Alternatively, though I have never observed it with Labidochromis, some
cichlids possess amazing mimicry capacity in their colouration. I have
seen a species of Apistogramma (not at all an African) colour up exactly
like Mikrogeophagus ramirezi (not an African either) when incorrectly
placed in a tank full of them, and then switch back to its natural
colouration almost instantly when reunited with its kin.

Is this the only Lab. in your tank? Perhaps if you added some more Labs.
(preferably not of the same sex, though Labidochromis is hard to tell
apart) your Lab. will regain its dominate display colouration.

Incidentally, for your Africans to display their most colourful nature and
appearance you should aim to maintain your KH around 12 dKH. The GH
shouldn't matter much to most domestically raised fish, least of all
Labidochromis.

dc wrote in
:

Is this the only Lab. in your tank? Perhaps if you added some more
Labs. (preferably not of the same sex, though Labidochromis is hard to
tell apart) your Lab. will regain its dominate display colouration.

A few tips on sexing Labidochromis...

As adults the female Lab. will appear as a slightly diminished male. She
will be smaller, have a slightly less pronounced forehead, less striking
colouration, and more pronounced jowls.

The most commonly communicated trait is that the female tends to have far
less intense black markings on her ventral and anal fins, but due to the
length of time Labidochromis has been bred in captivity, this is not always
a good marker--often one can find females with striking black colouration
on her fins.

Most Labs. are sold as juveniles so sexing is many times harder than it is
for adults, which is already rather difficult to do. The best marker I
have found is the slightly more pronounced jowls and slightly less
pronounced forehead on the female which will become more evident as she
matures.

To take a good guess one must take all this into account and then closely
observe the fish for a time. More boisterous fish that often make runs at
others are most certainly males. Fish that appear slightly diminished may
either be females or non-dominate males. Fish that are diminished and do
not pursue other fish aggressively are more likely to be females; fish that
do this and are almost ignored by dominate aggressive fish are more likely
to be females; fish that exhibit all of these traits and behaviours and
possess some of the afore mentioned characteristics are very likely to be
females.

Easy :-)
the lecky yellow is basically a melanistic fish. google image 'white knight'
and electric blue for an extreme example.
That means it has very little of the black pigment in it.
Now many have 'dirty' genetics and grow up with black spots.
But what usually happens is people feed a food high in these darker
pigments!
Think of the johanni, the female is yellow and the male black.
feeding food high in astax will flood the female cells with pigments only
the males usually bother to make.
The result is a female with male colours.
Yellow fish like the electric yellow often get dirty brown patches.
The good news is that if you stop feeding the enhanced food it will drain
out.
Bad news is that if you have been feeding for a while it can take some time.
A much better solution for better colour is to blend up prawn (shrimp for
you freekin yanks) shells and heads, mix it 50/50 with vege like
peas/spirulina powder zuccini and yellow squash and capsicums, maybe a
sprinkle of vit C and paprika as well. I crack an egg into the blended mush
and then mix it with a strong solution of disolved agar agar or geletine and
water. SImply pour into flat bags or ice cube trays and freeze.
This food can be googled for under 'european shrimp mix'
now to read the replys and see if i just repeated meself ad nauseum!




" wrote in message
...
Hi,
my wife and I have a 55 gallon african Cichlid tank we have a total of 10
cichlids and we were wondering what would cause a fish to discolor our
labidochromis caerulues (electric yellow) is now a brown color and we are
not sure why, he doesnt looked stressed we have had our water check on a
regular basis to see if maybe it was a ammonia problem the water checked
out
fine our PH lvls are good and we were just wondering what it could be, we
have 2 Pengiun 350's as our filters and a bunch of real rocks, any ideas
would be great as the only other people we have to ask is around here is
the
local petsmart (not saying anything bad ) but they are not the best of
advise for cichlids we went ahead and put ammo lock in there just to be
safe
than sorry and we did a 15-20% water change as well


Thanks
Jason