New Cichlid(s)?

[kellula]

Hello all

We have a 40l tank. We chose cichlids because our water is naturally very high ph and I didn't want to be battling against the water.

Anyway, the lady in the fish store sold us a Dwarf Gourami as a "cichlid". We fell in love with a red crab at the same time and brought them home while we waited for them to get some more cichlids in.

The two were doing fine, despite the 8.0 ph. When we realised our Gourami wasn't a cichlid, we decided not to go back to that store. The next store we found didn't usually deal with cichlids but they had a few. We got a medium sized yellow lab (2") and a tiny blue and black striped fish, I think it's a Demasoni.

They have all been quite happy there for over a month. Recently, the yellow lab has been nipping the Gourami a lot more, chasing it round the tank and now the gourami looks very unhappy, spends a lot of time hiding.

I was told to try "crowding" a little. Are there any small cichlids or hardy schooling fish that could handle these conditions that could act as a distractor? We also considered a kuhli loach or two to keep algae under control. Any ideas?



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[Brian_Nano12g]

Hi and welcome to AA! A yellow lab should only be housed with other African cichlids, to my understanding. Perhaps you should rehome the gourami ASAP. I'm sorry to hear that the LFS mislabeled the fish species. I wouldn't go back there either.

This thread may be useful for you:

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f100/tankmates-for-the-yellow-lab-cichlid-252297.html

 

[Freakgecko91]

Is that a 40 gallon long tank, or a 40 liter tank? If it's liters, yellow labs, and any other mbuna (or any fish from Lake Malawi) will quickly out grow it. Mbuna typically require a 4 foot tank (so over a meter long, which is 3.333 ft)


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[CCXGT]

40l is FAR too small for any Cichlid species.
People use 40l tanks for hospitals, never mind a full tank.

If the Labs and Demasoni are small enough, they might be ok in a tank that size for a short amount of time but you will really be wanting to get a 55G (at least) setup for the future.

Also, Gourami's are community fish, Cichlids are not. You will want to re-house the Gourami as soon as.


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