Tank Development/Inroduction of Cichlids

[begginersluck]

I thought i would post a thread on how my Juwel Rio 350 Freshwater is doing. I Recently bravely added 4 baby cichlids. I dont know their exsact type but 3 of them a yellow and 2 are blue and black striped. In the tank i also have 4 clown fish, 2 albino red tailed sharks, 1 red tailed black shark, 3 rainbow tetras, 3 angels, 1 gourami, 1 convict cichlid, 3 black mollies and 2 orange swrodtails (plus about 20 babies in a breeder). I know this seems like a lot of fish reading it out aloud however they seem to be doing fine.

I have however noticed a couple of changes. Firstly 2 of my clown loaches have lost a lot of colour. They are also fighting a lot! I am guessing the colour loss is due to the fight for heirachy?

I have also noticed a couple of slashed fins and white patches on the black mollies. I am worried this is down to the new cichlid even though they are small? I did however anticipate this so i will eventually be getting rid or starting a smaller aquarium for live bearers.

Well all this being said, Water parameters are great. I clean it regularly and change the top filter pad once every 4 - 6 weeks. I'm pretty sure maintenance is kept on top of in this case!

Look forward to your comments

 

[carey]

What? No pictures? LOL

Sounds like a nice setup. I keep cichlids as well, I have a 125g african malawi tank. I have two blueberry loaches that will change color sometimes, not sure if thats just normal with loaches in general or just the Botias' I have. Mine never seem to fight either, but then again they might be a mated pair, one is much larger than the other and I've had them since they were so tiny. lol

 

[begginersluck]

Sorry bout that! Hope you enjoy these ! Actually that was my first upload. lets hope it works.

I have read an artical about groups of clown loaches getting quite nasty with each other and soemtimes to a worrying state however this is in their nature! Hopefully they are just acting naturally. i bought them young so it could be part of the maturing?

 

[Ld123]

Hi I don't know if u can help my ammonia keeps going from ok to a little high

 

[garfy]

I thought i would post a thread on how my Juwel Rio 350 Freshwater is doing. I Recently bravely added 4 baby cichlids. I dont know their exsact type but 3 of them a yellow and 2 are blue and black striped. In the tank i also have 4 clown fish, 2 albino red tailed sharks, 1 red tailed black shark, 3 rainbow tetras, 3 angels, 1 gourami, 1 convict cichlid, 3 black mollies and 2 orange swrodtails (plus about 20 babies in a breeder). I know this seems like a lot of fish reading it out aloud however they seem to be doing fine.

I have however noticed a couple of changes. Firstly 2 of my clown loaches have lost a lot of colour. They are also fighting a lot! I am guessing the colour loss is due to the fight for heirachy?

I have also noticed a couple of slashed fins and white patches on the black mollies. I am worried this is down to the new cichlid even though they are small? I did however anticipate this so i will eventually be getting rid or starting a smaller aquarium for live bearers.

Well all this being said, Water parameters are great. I clean it regularly and change the top filter pad once every 4 - 6 weeks. I'm pretty sure maintenance is kept on top of in this case!

Look forward to your comments

I don't think that stock list will work very well at all.IMO the rainbow tetras,Angels,Gourami,Black mollies and Orange Swordtails should be re homed that is if you want to keep cichlids.
You might also want to consider re homing 2 of the red tailed sharks as when they get bigger one will probably kill the others.
Without knowing the type of your new cichlids it's hard to say if they will go with your Convict but they sound like Malawi mbuna specifically yellow labs and damesoni's in which case I doubt that will work either.
I'm not trying to be negative just trying to forewarn you what could happen.

 

[Ukdans1k]

+1 on rehoming.

You will be finding a lot of dead fish otherwise.

 

[Maxkolbe]

Te first pic looks like a mbuna to me (either a kenyi or a zebra) both of which are very aggressive and would most likely destroy your current stock.

If you want to keep cichlids try to stay away from mbuna and other aggressive species and try something like dwarf cichlids, I believe rams would work. I would also rehome one of your sharks as they grow to be very territorial and one of them will most likely be killed by the other.

That's my two sense, cichlids are great fish but always be sure that the species you get is compatible with your current stock.

 

[begginersluck]

Ok i am starting to re think my choices although this was just an experiment. I would like to keep the live barers a little longer as its giving me good practice on fish breeding. I will get rid of the cichlids for now i think!

Going back to the 3 sharks i have....... 2 of them are albino and are less than half the size of the black one i have. Are these more likely to get killed by the black shark? They are ALWAYS in hiding!

On a good note my orange molly is almost ready to give birth to her next batch of fry. I currently have about 20 of her previous batch in a small breeder. I am worried this will stunt their growth and never be as big as their ancestors. What do you recommend i do with the babies for future reference?

 

[Maxkolbe]

If they are always hiding and half the size there is probably a very good chance that they are being bullied.