what kind of cichlid is this?

[dingogirl66]

Thanks, I was reading it wrong...To early in the AM...

 

[mr funktastic]

thanksfor the link. perhaps someone could find a pic of this red top zebra as a juvi? i really do hope it is one of these is the red top zebra becasue i really like the look of him. thanks for the help

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I checked Malawi Mayhem, who have almost all Malawi species, and it is not listed. I did a search and only found three sites that mention it. One being the one linked above. And the other two were false sites (the kind that are full of nothing but search links). I don't think that it is actually a specie.

 

[mr funktastic]

lol wow i have a fish that might be a fish that doeasnt exist lol. gotta love fish

 

[Fishyfanatic]

LOL Actually, gotta love Africans since they will breed with whatever is there.

I think it's a mixed specie. But hey, as long as it doesn't cause aggression issues and you don't plan on breeding it, I don't see a harm in keeping it.

 

[mr funktastic]

ya thats true. i completly forgot that africans will do anything that swims infront of them lol. i want to try breeding cichlids eventually but i expect i will start with something easy like labs. i just bought a pair of peacocks that i hope to eventually breed once they are older. i also got a few yellow labs and some golden algea eaters. any big advice for breeding africans?

 

[jrp1588]

well...I've had mine for about a month...already a couple have bred. lol

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Everyone says how easy Labs are to breed but mine just don't want to procreate. I have 4F and 2M and they just don't even seem interested. Ugh. Hopefully someday soon we'll have little yellow fry. Or even better, little purple fry from the Aceis.

 

[mr funktastic]

lol good luck fishy finatic. what do the need specifically to breed? i know angles need a flat surface to lay eggs on and gouramis need calm water to build the nest but do cichlids require any special set up? i am currently working on my tank becasue i feel that it needs something else. once i figure what that somethnig else is i will try a little harder to breed them.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Africans need a higher pH (aim for a minimum of 7.6, 7.8 to 8.0 is preferred) and hard water. They also require a flat surface to lay eggs. Well, it's not really laying eggs. Basically the female will do the shimmy over the rocks. It will look like she is being electrocuted. She will start to release the eggs. Then the male will come along and fertilize the eggs. The female will then pick them up into her mouth. So provide several flat surfaces. Stacking rocks and providing space for them to swim through works well. The stup that you currently have looks perfect. Just make sure that the pH is high and the water is hard (crushed coral will make this happen if you have naturally soft water and a low pH). Also do regular water changes to keep the nitrates down.

 

[mr funktastic]

i am very lucky to have hard and high ph water naturally. the water here is practically perfect for cichlids and thats why i started a cichlid tank. will nay of them breed even with the tank mates that i have in there? and if so whaich ones are the most likely to? i was hoping that my peacocks that i just bought will pair up and breed becasue i would love to have peacock fry, they are worth quite a bit. i currently have the 2 mystery cichlids the one cichlid pictured at the begining of the thread above the mystery cichlid in the pic(not sure of the name right now) 2 peacocks that i have to verify the type, 1 demasoni and 2 yellow labs(which i will be adding at least 4 more for a grand total of 6 or more).Any other suggestions to make this tank more attractive? oh i also have 2 golden algea eaters working hard to get rid of the brown algae that formed during the cycle.