Christmas Fulu??

[Mommachef]

Can anyone tell me anything about them? Does anyone have any of them? I've found a little bit of information on them online, but was wondering if anyone had any first hand experience with them. I really like them, and would like to know what other breeds they get along with, how big they get, how easy they are to breed (I don't plan on breeding any of my fish but I still like to know)...
Also with cichlids in general do you have to keep them in male/female pairs or can you (peacefully) keep all males? I've read so much info on them that I feel like I'm banging my head against the wall and confusing myself!
I just finished setting up and cycling my 110 gallon tank which will be my first ever cichlid tank.... I want to do Africans (lake Malawi?), but I've found so many different lakes and areas that I don't know what can be kept together and what can't? Any suggestions of what to get and (more importantly) how many of each kind??? Sorry this is so long winded I'm just trying to get all my facts straight because I'm ready to start stocking next week, I think!

 

[Mommachef]

Ps... I really love the peacocks! I definitely want a few of them, just not sure if i want to do all peacocks or a mix of them and something else or if I can even do that? So confused! Lol

 

[tbrazil230]

First off, post pics! We all love to see others tanks, especially that big, and as a general rule you're not supposed to mix peacocks and mbunas, but I think you'll be fine in a tank that large I have several friends with em mixed in 55s and they are doing ok, but I don't have any first hand experience with the Christmas fulus. But I do have a couple lake Victorian cichlids in with my Malawi mbunas and they are happy happy happy,

 

[Mommachef]

I've added more rocks and caves to it since I took this picture, and I think I'm going to add a few smaller plants to it still. I think I'm going to do some more research on them before I decide for sure what to get!

 

[Mommachef]

as a general rule you're not supposed to mix peacocks and mbunas

Is this due to aggression or size or different places of origin or.....??

 

[tbrazil230]

Its aggression, mbunas are territorial and some are highly aggressive, you would be fine with the less aggressive 1s though if you add plenty of rock work and hiding places.

 

[kjacks]

Is that a 5ft tank or a 6ft ? Depends on what your mixing if its ok and the length of the tank plays a part in it as well as which fish you pick .. why dont you find all the ones you like then research their dietary needs and temperment and of course the size. You can check cichlid-forum.com/profiles and if you dont wanna order online check out what you hace locally. Victorian Cichlids from my experience can be more territorial and less willing to back down from a challenge but that also depends on which ones you have ..

 

[kjacks]

Oh yea i meant to say i have a nix thats a headache sometimes i jve a few lake tang, mostly mbuna (malawi) , and victorian in my 125g the bigger footprint has helped alot with aggression but well fish will be fish...lol

 

[Mommachef]

It's a 6 foot tank, and I have a ton of rocks and caves for them to hide in! would I be able to keep just one or would it be best to keep a pair of them? If I do get them I don't know if I want to buy multiples if they might be aggressive towards everyone else (I don't want to get attached and have to rehome them, basically. Lol).

 

[Mommachef]

Is that a 5ft tank or a 6ft ? Depends on what your mixing if its ok and the length of the tank plays a part in it as well as which fish you pick .. why dont you find all the ones you like then research their dietary needs and temperment and of course the size. You can check cichlid-forum.com/profiles and if you dont wanna order online check out what you hace locally. Victorian Cichlids from my experience can be more territorial and less willing to back down from a challenge but that also depends on which ones you have ..

I went to my LFS when I started building this tank and decided on cichlids and took pictures of all the fish I liked, what the names were, and how their tanks were set up. It's helped me a good bit, but it's taken me forever to figure out what fish is what because they abbreviate all the names so they can write them on the glass! Lol

 

[kjacks]

I went to my LFS when I started building this tank and decided on cichlids and took pictures of all the fish I liked, what the names were, and how their tanks were set up. It's helped me a good bit, but it's taken me forever to figure out what fish is what because they abbreviate all the names so they can write them on the glass! Lol

All the ones around me only use common names so i understand..lol took me months to figure it out and lots of help but once you figure out what you think you want you can post it on here to double check it .. A nice tank with normal aggression levels and a happy healthy environment will make it worth while in the long run bc its such a headache to try and fix aggression or uncompatibility issues

 

[Mommachef]

Lol that's what I'm worried about, I've never kept
Aggressive fish before so I don't want to have to separate the children. Haha

Here's what their chicken scratch and abbreviations look like.... This is from the main tank that I am trying to loosely duplicate. It's great if you already know what everything is!

 

[kjacks]

Those should be easy lookups.. I dont really have any experience with any of those .. if i remember right i saw zebras on there i recently got albino ob zebras so far so good guess time will tell i havent had them a full month yet though .. frontosas get big and i think prefer a group of them .. i think they are gorgeous and want some one day . Peacocks well i dont know much about them except they can get costly . Ob peacocks are said to be unpredictable temperment wise and are usually on the more aggressive side.. I have mostly mbuna a couple compressiceps from lake tang and a few victorian basin cichlids that IMO are great but VERY territorial

 

[Mommachef]

What does OB mean? I see it everywhere but haven't been able to figure it out yet! Haha

 

[kjacks]

Orange blotched

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=2316

It shows one example if an ob zebra

 

[kjacks]

Actually here is what the albino ob zebras look like.. i have 5 or 6 of them


Not a great photo insteads of black it has pinkish blotches n kinda looks neon in the tank

 

[Andrew McFadden]

Lol that's what I'm worried about, I've never kept
Aggressive fish before so I don't want to have to separate the children. Haha

Here's what their chicken scratch and abbreviations look like.... This is from the main tank that I am trying to loosely duplicate. It's great if you already know what everything is!

Is ordering online an option for you? Those prices are really high especially for hybrids IMO.

Out of those what ones do you want? It will help to give a full list or show what you like. If you make a big list we will help you narrow them down.

 

[Mommachef]

Ordering online is an option, yes. I'm not sure what lakes I can mix and what i can't, because I've read that you can mix them and you can't mix them. I've settled on (I think) lake Victorians, because I really like the coloring of the ones I have seen (I like fancy!). I like the sa/ca ones too, but my water has too high of a ph for them I think, and I don't know if I could change that now or not.
Here's a few of them I have wrote down that really stuck with me- but I don't know if I can safely mix them all together, or how many I can have of each. Is it doable to have only 2 or 3 of several different kinds? Or do you run into too many territorial issues like that?
Christmas Fulu
Pundamilia crimson tide
Pundamilia blue bar hippo point
Mbipia lutea yala swamp crossbar (?)
Enterochromis red back scraper

All these scientific names drive me nuts! I can't even pronounce half of them! Lol

 

[Andrew McFadden]

They can be mixed to answer your question to tell the truth. Is it easy? No not by any means and that's why we don't recommend it to newcomers.

The best advice I can tell you is don't pick two that look anything alike. Even then there still may become problems, but that's cichlids for you. Some of the more aggressive mild mbuna should be fine with them imo.


The Christmas Fulu, Pundamilia crimson tide and
Pundamilia will more than likely not work together

 

[Mommachef]

Don't pick two that look anything alike, GOT IT! Lol I like it, that will actually help me a lot. I'll keep looking and reading. Thanks for the advice!