best way to look after africans

[darrin34]

I have a 55 gallon tank with 9 chiclids a pleko and a zebra lobster what chemicals and setup is best for them my cichlids consist of a ,blue peacock,red jewel,electric blue alley,yellow libido,an albino,red empress,and others i dont know the names of .I keep my temp at a constant 80f and my filter is a cascade 300 please respond i like these fish and i want to keep the as comfortable as possible ty all

 

[Fishyfanatic]

No Chemicals are needed except for a dechlorinator.

I'm not sure what a yellow Libido is or which type of albino you have, but we need to ID all of your fish to determine if they are compatable. Do you have a camera?

You need to upgrade that filter. I'm running a Cascade 1000 on my 55 community. For an African tank I'd up that to a 1200.

 

[Idealconcepts]

darrin34 - Also what is your Ph, KH, and GH. If its not too far off you should be fine. Also when you fish are identified you'll need to make sure they have the right diet.

 

[Zagz]

Definately ID'ing your cichlids is important as not all Africans are compatible. How long has your tank been set up? I use only dechlorinator in all my tanks. No need for anything else in the tanks IMO.

 

[kay-bee19]

Looks like you have quite the mix of african cichlids there (peacocks, mbuna and haps from lake malawi as well as a west african cichlid, not to mention the unidentifieds you have.

Going by name alone, the 'yellow libido' is probably a yellow labido a.k.a labidochromis caeruleus a.k.a electric yellow lab.