Newbies

[Daznsheen]

Hi guys!
We're Róisín (sheen) & Daz, we are newbies to this forum and to fish life! We recently got an aquarium from a couple that were moving countries. We would love some advice!
We have gone to a couple of "pet shops" and researched online but we find a lot of conflicting advice. I'm new to this forum craic and fish parenting so please have patience!!!
So our tank has mostly cichlids, I will try and describe below and post a picture. We're not a thousand times sure of the breeds either so please feel free to help.
Also the set up in the tank is pretty temporary when we got it, it had one rock and a those elbow pipes. We have bought the fresh plants and we are currently boiling rocks as I type (which I could also seek some advice about??) So here we go.
Tank : 19 Gallon
Fish:
2x Maingano
2x Electric Yellow Cichlid
1x Bristle nose pleco (new)
2x Convict Cichlid (new)
1x Bronze Corydoras
1x Unknown

So the three fish that have new we just bought them the other day and introduced them. Hopefully you guys can shed some light on our tank, what breed they are, female, male, the dos and donts, what behaviours we should look out for. For example. One of our blue guys is currently pulling all the stones out under the rock. We were told he she is nesting?
Also one of our new guys was very black and blue in the store and his blue has become so faint, daz reckons its as simple as the lighting but he seemed a lot friendlier in the shop, maybe it was just the drive that scared him home? Am I naive?
We are feeding them cichlid sticks also.  Thanks guys!!!!!!
I got as many pictures as I could!


Sent from my HTC One M8s using Aquarium Advice mobile app


Sent from my HTC One M8s using Aquarium Advice mobile app


Sent from my HTC One M8s using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[nirbhao]

How long ago did the "not new" fish join you? Is this set-up theirs? How long ago was just a couple of days? The color might be fading because of stress or poor water conditions. It sounds like there have been a lot of changes recently, which is absolutely stressful for fish.

I'm actually pretty new to this, too, so I can't give any real answers. Sorry.

Sent from my LG-H811 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[Daznsheen]

Yesterday they joined this set up which was home to the other fish (which don't have 'new' beside them)
He's eating and him and his buddy that came home with him are lively in the evening, not so much in the day. They seem to be eating though.

Sent from my HTC One M8s using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[Daznsheen]

Any advice is greatly appreciated!!!!

Sent from my HTC One M8s using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[kay-bee19]

The two maingano and two 'electric yellow cichlids' are mbuna's (african cichlids which originate from Lake Malawi), and can have aggressive traits of varying degrees depending on variables.

Mbuna's (long term) are best kept in larger tanks and in greater numbers (55gal minimum and at least 2 or 3 females per male) and lots of rocks. Smaller tanks and smaller numbers have a way of amplifying aggression.

Your current set up may work for awhile while things are still new. Mbuna's will dig in the substrate and the activity you're seeing may be more on the lines of territory establishment than nesting.

I've kept BN pleco's with mbuna's before with no issues. Not sure how compatible the other fish in the tank are with the mbuna's or each other.

 

[Daznsheen]

The two maingano definitely seem more aggressive than our yellow cichlids. They seem to be doing the territory plays whether the yellow guys seem mellow but playful. Let's hope our size tank is sufficient!!

Sent from my HTC One M8s using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[plantnoob]

Hi Daz and Sheen, welcome to the forum and to the beautiful world of fish keeping! Those are some beautiful cichlids you have there. Like one of the other posts says, these are all aggressive fishes to varying extent. The bronze Cory is an outlier. Maybe he has made friends with the cichlids, but with the territorial cichlids, especially the convicts, be ready to rehome him if he gets bullied. The BN pleco should do ok, but they eventually grow to 5 or 6 inches. 19 gals may not be a sufficient tank size over the long term. Make sure you get the API master test kit and measure water parameters. Is the water new? Did you use the same filter media that your friends had? You may want to read the sticky thread in the getting started forum to learn about nitrogen cycle if you don't know about it. Also visit aqadvisor.com to enter you tank dimensions and filtration to get an idea about your stocking levels.

Hope you're enjoying your new tank!

Cheers.


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice