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CichlidMom

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
May 11, 2022
Messages
6
Location
California, USA
Hi All,

I started freshwater fishkeeping in 2003. We have had as many as 12 tanks at one time, but now only six:

125 gal (1 oscar named Hal, 1 Texas cichlid named Killer, 2 blood parrots, 1 upside down cat)

55 gal (1 wild severum, 1 juvenile gold severum, 1 juvenile Texas cichlid, 1 redtail shark, 1 adult /4 juvenile roseline sharks, 1 gold gourami)

40 gal (1 blue acara, 1 juvenile green terror, 1 juvenile firemouth cichlid, 1 redtail shark, 3 juvenile silver dollars, 1 pictus cat)

30 gal (2 adult/3 juvenile African cichlids)

30 gal (8 black skirt tetras, 3 kuhli loaches)

2.5 gal (1 betta named Phillip, after Lip in Shameless)

I've been doing this for a while, but there's always more to learn :)

Heather
 
Hi heather.

Looking forward to seeing and hearing about what you are getting up to.

Good morning Aiken,

First if I have a general question about pH or water parameters where should I post it?

Second since I have your attention can you tell me what you think I should do? I have a 40 gallon tank with a couple of tiny juvenile cichlids. A firemouth, a chocolate, a green terror. They are about one and a half or two in long and I do have two other tanks that they can successively grow into when they get big enough that this tank is overstocked.
I tested the water parameters and nothing but pH seemed off but I did a water change and tested them again. Ammonia nitrate and nitrite, none above 0. The pH is high that's all. Like eight or close to it. I'm going to test it again this morning but I put a couple of pieces of Driftwood in the tank last night. I do have terracotta pots for hiding places. Should I remove those? That's the only thing that is in this tank that is a little off. I have a double sided whisper power filter 60 running.
 
Hi heather

If its FW water parameters you are concerned about.

https://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f12/

SW

https://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f11/

Sorry, i dont know much about cichlids. With your extensive collection of cichlids im sure you know more about them than i do. DW will bring pH down a little bit if thats what you are asking.

A bit of reading though, it seems that green terror and firemouth cichlids like alkaline water while chocolate cichlids prefer acidic water. Thats not from first hand experience of keeping these fish though. Does that sound right?
 
Sorry, i dont know much about cichlids. With your extensive collection of cichlids im sure you know more about them than i do. DW will bring pH down a little bit if thats what you are asking.

A bit of reading though, it seems that green terror and firemouth cichlids like alkaline water while chocolate cichlids prefer acidic water. Thats not from first hand experience of keeping these fish though. Does that sound right?

Okay I have it leveled out around 7.4 now. I think the driftwood and water change helped. I still lost my young albino briststlenose :( I'm going to test nitrates etc again today. My cichlids still seem to be hiding more than they should.

As for the pH preferences, I hope to keep it under 7.4 so the Chocolate is happy. When I researched tank mates, it listed most of the other fish I have in this tank (and in the next bigger tank up where he would live next.

Other than my feeling paranoid that these juvenile fish that I love are not happy, they do come out and swim around happily when I feed them, so that is good. The Acara may just dislike change and be feeling a little antisocial after I added two fish to this tank last week.
 
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