Most Important to Bring Out Colors in Cichlids?

[CraigMac]

I was watching my yellow tail acei and it got me thinking. Sometimes they look a very light blue, beautiful and almost sparkling. Other times they are so dark that they look black. Now I realize some cichlids change color shades based on mood etc but I had some questions.

What is more important to bring out the best in the fish's color? Is it the food you feed? The pH of the water? How important is the lighting?

Curious what you all think.

 

[Mrc8858]

Most important thing is to have females. That will cause males to go on full display but then you start to have aggression between males of the same kind

 

[Mogurako]

Most important thing is to have females. That will cause males to go on full display but then you start to have aggression between males of the same kind

Thats not necessarily accurate, normally only the alpha male will go into full breeding dress, and other sub dominate males to darken up. In terms of African cichlids you have a better chance of all your males coloring up in the absence of females. There are many people who do all male peacock and hap tanks for this very reason.

 

[HUKIT]

The top three factors is my opinion are:

1. Genetics
2. Water Quality
3. Diet

There are other small things like substrate color and lighting that may have an effect but those 3 being the most important.

 

[CraigMac]

I have males and females, mbuna and wanted to best bring out their colors.

Hukit, when you say water quality at number two, this includes pH? My water parameters are good but my pH is low for African cichlids. However, I went with the thought that stable is more important so I never did anything to up the pH.

 

[HUKIT]

While it's true that Rift lakes have a high PH, most fish are so far past wild caught and are overbred in local water that it's irrelevant. I've experimented with cichlid salts on idenitical tanks with the same stock, same diet, and same water change schedule for 6 months to be fair and there was zero changes in appearence. I agree with the stable PH thought, but unless you have a extremely low GH or KH then I would not be concerned with PH levels.

The most important reason for appearence is genetics, there are differences between show quality fish and overbred fish being offered at some local fish stores. I'm not putting anyone's fish down just merely pointing out the obvious.

 

[Jmedic25]

I think most people here have good water and feed a proper diet. If you want your fish to look good you need to do a few other things. 1. Select a background and substrate that matches the fish, and makes them stand out. 2. buy good fish. Genetics are very important in appearence. I have some demasoni that are stunning. but others that are drab. They are from the same batch. Some of this can be because mbuna "color up" for mating or territory displays. Watch your fish closly, they change a few times a day. 3. Lighting, IMO the most important. Selecting the proper lighiting for your fish colors is very important. I recomend AH supply if your handy. I built my own fixtures and I really like them.