Cichlid - Special/Exciting Factors.

[rvijay07]

What are some of the exciting/special factors in regards to keeping Cichlids ?

Can Cichlids be kept with cories and oto or Pleco ?

Thanks.

Vijay

 

[tkos]

A lot of people like many of the cichlids becasue they are colourful, aggressive and fun to breed. Many also grow very large (such as Oscars). However, there are some that are very small and live in large snail shells. ome like Discus are very hard to keep and cost a fortune. Plecos will be fine with most of them. Otos and Cories probably not as much as they tend to be very peaceful fish that would be beat up a lot by some of the more aggresive varieties. They tend to be fish that require a large tank to keep as they are heavy waste producers and need lots of swimming room, plus a territory. Also it depends on which part of the world they are from, America or Africa as to what type of water they need. African cichlids tend to like hard water that has a high pH.

 

[lashilia]

Cichlids are amazing. I first got into them via angels. Angels are great community cichlids and seem to be cleaner and nicer than most Convicts, Sheepsheads, or jewels.

tkos is right. They fight a lot, are very dirty, hoard food, and breed like rabits. They are very personable, easy to spoil and pamper (to certain types of food) and extremely territorial. On the up side, they are so much fun to watch and are very hearty (except discus).

 

[Zic]

Oscars grow large. People like them, in part, because they will eat just about anything you put into the tank. You could put half a McDonalds cheesburger and these fish would eat it! (Probably not too healthy for them, but they don't care. Typical Americans, eh?)

Angelfish are, like Lashilia said, good community fish. They may occasionally nip at the other fish, but they don't really do much harm (they CAN, but mostly they don't).

Now, African cichlids are different altogether. They will kill community fish. They grow large, so you need a large tank. They are territorial, so they need plenty of room (read: you can't put very many of them into the same tank. Not like community fish, anyways). As was mentioned, they are messy eaters.

Dispite these drawbacks, many people think that african cichlids are great fish. If they are properly housed with compatible species, they can be quite entertaining. I have three and I love them. One is very aggressive, but the others have learned to stay away from him. He is only four inches and he'll get to about six before he stops growing. He is very graceful and fun to watch. He doesn't just mindlessly swim back and forth, he always looks as though he's 'hunting' his next meal.

There are other good aspects of these fish, but I've already taken enough space. I'll let someone else tell you what they like about these amazing fish.

 

[reberly]

African cichlids are especially cool, but Zic is right, you pretty much have to commit a tank exclusively to them because they will kill anything else. Except maybe a similar sized pleco or catfish. Af. cichlids have some of the brightest colors short of saltwater fish and are very fun to watch. Ours are quiet in the morning and get more active in the evening. Ours are always watching outside the tank, they can see you move around the room if you're outside of a couple feet. The most fun part though, is definitely watching them eat. We like to turn the room lights out so they are not distracted by us when we put the food in. As soon as food hits the water's surface, they begin darting around the tank. Ours will shoot from the bottom of the tank and nab a piece of food before heading back down to the bottom. They are VERY aggressive eaters.

Another thing, they LOVE to dig. Our red Zebra has a cave that he has been excavating. He's almost made it down to the bottom of the tank. The blue zebra has been digging out his own cave underneath of our Roman column ruins, I'm kind of worried he's going to dig out all the gravel and it'll fall on him. In any case, these fish are fascinating.

Ryan

 

[lashilia]

They do dig! I have an orangish one I named 'daddy' when he raised a blue baby. He still digs nests and builds caves. They are such great parents, too, as they will care for their babies, often until adulthood.

Mine sleep on the bottom at night. They all fade to grey and tuck up their fins. They like to sleep late and get mad when I turn on the light and the sun hasn't risen through the window yet. They also sometimes 'kiss' (like gouramis) and bite each other. They have little teeth, so I'm sure it hurts.

You can tell gender of some varieties by how many 'egg spots' they have on their anal fins. The more spots, the more likelyhood it is of being a boy. I heard it was because the female will pick at the spots, thinking they are eggs, when she is laying and cleaning her own eggs. (Is this true, does anyone know?) Doesn't work with all types though.

 

[Zic]

I haven't witnessed this (I only have three cichlids), but my red zebra has spots and I read this is how they reproduce.

I never thought about the cichlids hurting each other when they 'kiss', but that was a hilarious statement, lashilia

reberly, did you get your columns at Petsmart? That's where I got mine. I decided that the cichlids needed more spaces to crawl in and out of, so I piled all my columns on top of each other. It looks like Rome got hit my an earthquake! My cichlids began digging under them almost immediately! They made their own tunnels.

rvijay07, go to your LFS and look at some of the colors of cichlids they have. I recommend the african ones, but see what you like and post again when you have a better idea of what you want, k?

 

[Zic]

And K is short for OK. Not Kelvin, k?

 

[reberly]

Yea Zic, I got my roman columns at petsmart, we just have the one long piece with 4 full columns and a couple broken ones. You've got me thinking about breaking them apart and rearranging them. My blue cichlid gets mad when I vacuum the gravel and destroy his tunnels. He just stares at them and then looks at me like "hey jack@ss!, thanks a lot!". These guys are SO entertaining.

Ryan

 

[nugrad2005]

The best part about cichlids is feeding them feeder fish. The thrill of the hunt...its very primal. We literally just through them in until they are stuffed! In a given night after going to petco for feeders we'll have usually gone through about half. Its pretty rediculous, but the most fun thing to watch. Its gotten to be a contest to see which fish can fit the most amount of feeders in its mouth at once(the mono always wins).

-Dan

 

[reberly]

nugrad how big are your cichlids and what kind do you have? I noticed in one of your pics you have af. and south american cichlids in the same tank. How are they doing? Africans prefer high alkalinity, high pH and south americans like a more neutral pH. How are you working past that?

Ryan

 

[nugrad2005]

We've got all sorts of guys in the tank. I think they're mostly african save the puffers and mono(or is that the other way around). I really don't know their names, we bought them from petco and i think we all know how accurate LFS listings are. They have been in that tank since octoboer and have all grown at least 2 inches in length and are as think as two or three fingers(guys fingers) at least. The "queen" of the tank, Julie, is gigantic. She is about 5 inches long and just huge, when she comes at you head on she looks like she is going to eat you. We also have a convict who is the biggest thing in the world. There is only one work to describe him and its thick. When food gets in the tank(especially injured feeders) he grabs them and drags them to the bottom to his little home behind one of the fake corals.

As far as water parameters we are real middle of the road to accomodate everyone. The pH is on the high side since there are more africans, but its at the low end of high.

We haven't had any deaths in that tank in a really long time (knock on wood). Right now we have little puffers (we call them dwarf puffers, but don't think thats a real thing). We tried to get a big puffer, but he only last a couple months and then the second one lasted an even shorter amount of time.

We've been surprised at how long these fish have lived. Most of them survived the "great salt incident of 2002" and have flourished since. During the great salt incident of 2002, according to BAD BAD BAD advice from our LFS we added some rediculous amount of instant ocean(somewhere near 2 or 3 bags for a 45g). A couple fish died: a few cichlids, the pictus, one of the monos, an eel, and i think someone else. But after a 150% water change(that would be a complete water change then emptying the new water out and replacing it just to be sure) the rest of the fish made full recoveries and we went out and bought them some friends to play with.

I've said this before and i'll say it again, cichilids are the best investment you can make, they're hardy fish who'll take just about anything you dish them out and they love to eat. That combination makes these fish worth it.

-Dan

 

[lashilia]

Once I had a shovelnose and he would eat like, seven feeders at once. His stomach would expand like a balloon. Those he could not fit in him, he mauled to death. It was really gross. He got too mean and I couldn't change his tank, because he would always stab me and it went straight to the bone. No plastic bag or net would hold him, so I would fill up the bathtub and let him swim in there. I don't recommend shovelnose to anyone...

 

[fishstixs05]

Many people in this column are giving very broad ideas of chichlids. Not all african cichlids get large, and many are very different. Discus are known as the kings of the cichlids, and are almost always followed by a high price tag. Agels are more common, and are more aggresive, often ridding your tank of those peskey neons . There are also fish beyond them who do well in communities.

New World dwarf cichlids range from the docile ram to the keyhole cichlid. Most of these enjoy soft water, and grow around 3 in. long.

There are also the New World LARGE cichlids. Reknown as being the killers of the aquarim world, theser are fish such are red devils, firemouths, oscars, eartheaters, midas cichlids, servums, and many others. This is basically the only cichlid group that eats feeders.

And now into the african cichlids. The two major lakes in Africa that contribute to the aquarium population and Lake Tanganyika and Lake Malawi.

Lake Tanganyika's king in the Frontosa is a formidible site, with its large hump and and deep blue and white stripes. However, this is one of the largest from that lake is the trade, and most of the fish from that lake are much smaller. Julidochromis are very interesting Tang. fish. They have long slender bodies and they range in many colors and sives, from 3 to 6 inches in most species. The Neolamprologus contains many shells dwellers, such as the Multifasciatus. These tiny fish give hours of entertainment, as you watch them fight over shells and dump mouthfuls of sand onto other's homes. These are only a few of the Tang. fish.

In Lake Malawi aquarium trade, these are the fish you commonly see under the name of assorted african cichlids. They tand to have the same body shape, which most have seen, and range in colors of yellow, blue, reds, and browns. Some of the more common of these species are the electric yellow and blue, zebra, mbuna's, and peacocks. Most range from 4 to 10 in.

Last are the cichlids of the African rivers. This covers many types that have no relation to each other. The egyptian mouthbrooder is an interesting fish to watch during breeding, as they keep the eggs and protect the young in their mouths. . Kribensis are also in this group. another community cichlid. Others are the jewel cichlid, blockhead, and others of the rivers, Lake Victoria, and madagascar.

I hop that in this post someone learned the important fact that saying cichlids are big golfish-eating fish is not being very correct. Sorry for the long drawn out post !

 

[rvijay07]

Thanks for all the responses. They help understand Cichlids better.