Cichlid Maturity

[LZAWADZKI]

HELP! I have a thriving 39 gallon tank of young adult African cichlid fish I raised from juvies, and I’m about to move them into a 55 gal. I only have 8 cichlids and a pleco, so I was looking to get more fish and a friend of a friend has six they’re hoping to get rid of. The only problem is, they’re very ugly and small but are supposedly a year old or more. I have not seen them in person but they appear to be pretty severely stunted and are too drab to be sexed or to guess the species. I’d really love to take them on, as I have one rescue cobalt zebra from petsmart who has the loveliest personality and colored up beautifully in my tank. But my question is, can these fish grow and color up more if they’re already mature and only 2-3 inches in length? (That’s the length they told me, and I can’t tell any different from pictures.) Is it safe to add Fish I don’t know the origin, sex, or species of to an African tank? I really want to give these fish a new home, but I don’t want to risk any harm to the ones I have. Apparently my cichlids are a great deal bigger than the new ones would be, but I have one 2nd gen baby in the tank that holds his own like a champ, so they’re good with little ones, but they killed their tank boss a few months ago so there has been a bit of a power struggle and I lost one because of it. If anyone knows about rehomed adult fish maturing in a new tank please comment!
Any tips on sexing an under developed and drab fish???

 

[Autumnsky]

When they start maturing things get difficult with behavior.

Hoping you can get a good solution for a hard problem.

 

[zipperfly58]

When you say African cichlids are you referring to Mbuna, haps or peacocks? The could be peacocks that take much longer to color up than say Mbuna’s. If they all look the same and lack color they maybe female peacocks which pretty much all look the same.
If they are Mbuna’s size really doesn’t matter I have 3 and 4 inch fish mixed in with fish less than 2 inches.
Also lack of color could be due to poor diet and or water conditions.

 

[V227]

To suddenly add six new mystery African cichlids into your established group of eight will likely result in mass aggression and death. A 55 gal. Tank is not that big. Introducing new fish will take planning and research. Extreme attention to hardscaping will need to be done.