Any advise is appreciated

[bryanisag]

Hi all, I'm getting into African cichlids for the first time. My coworker is getting out of it and is giving me his fish and 75 gallon aquarium. Any clue what species this is? How can I tell if it's a hybrid. He says they breed like rabbits. I have one bucket full of fish already with more on the way. They seem very healthy.

Also I'm not new to fish keeping, just new to African cichlids. They are currently living in a 100 gallon sink in my garage with a cycled sponge filter and random rocks for decoration. The biggest fish is around 4 inches but most are 2 to 3 inches. All fins look good.

I bought hikari cichlid gold mini pellets for food.

All advise and insight is welcomed

[TJ _isme]

Try to feed them a diverse diet, you can feed fish flakes or pellets, but I really like frozen foods, the frozen foods are often full of the nutrients they need, I feed my cichlids frozen foods and flakes or pellets. By feeding a diverse diet it helps prevent a nutrient deficiency because all foods have different nutrients. examples of foods for them are…

• Pellets or flakes
• Spirulina. Plant-based food, which replaces algae, which would be their natural source of vegetables 
• Homemade food. Lettuce, broccoli, peas, cucumber etc
• Frozen foods as a treat, brine shrimp and blood worms
• freaze dried foods, krill, shrimp, and tubifex worms all work great(use caution with these as they have very high protein, they use protein to grow but to much is not good)

another tip I have is to give lots of hiding places, cichlids can be aggressive (some more than others) so with a lot of hiding places they can claim their territory, and the smaller ones can hide from the bigger ones, plants can do a really good job of giving hiding places but alto of cichlids don’t like plants so they rip them up, so I like to use lots of rock structures because the6 can’t rip them up and they can hide in them and claim them as territory.

my third tip is to feed on more than one spot, if you put food on one side of the tank the more aggressive eaters and bigger ones can hog all of it then the others will starve, so I usually put food on the right side and the left side and maybe a little bit in a cave.

[AtomicSunfish]

On 4/19/2024 at 7:55 AM, bryanisag said:

Hi all, I'm getting into African cichlids for the first time. My coworker is getting out of it and is giving me his fish and 75 gallon aquarium. Any clue what species this is? How can I tell if it's a hybrid. He says they breed like rabbits. I have one bucket full of fish already with more on the way. They seem very healthy.

Also I'm not new to fish keeping, just new to African cichlids. They are currently living in a 100 gallon sink in my garage with a cycled sponge filter and random rocks for decoration. The biggest fish is around 4 inches but most are 2 to 3 inches. All fins look good.

I bought hikari cichlid gold mini pellets for food.

All advise and insight is welcomed

Okay, so that's not an African cichlid. It's a Central American cichlid, specifically the convict (Amotitlania nigrofasciata). As a general rule, it's better to keep African lake cichlids with other African lake cichlids, African river cichlids with other African river cichlids, Central American cichlids with others of that region, and South American cichlids with others of that region. People do mix them up sometimes, and it can work. However, here's why it's generally advised not to:

1) Water chemistry - The East African Great Lakes have very hard, alkaline water with a pH around 8.0 - 8.5. Central American waters have lower levels of hardness, with a pH a bit lower (like 7.0 - 7.8). Finally, the rivers of Africa and South America have the softest, most acidic waters, sometimes closer to 6.0.

2) Behavior - Although the cichlid family has a certain repertoire of body language, there are some differences between how Old World and New World cichlids communicate. One reason to avoid mixing them is to avoid misunderstandings and unnecessary fighting.

3) Aggression - Many African cichlids from Lake Malawi and the African rivers are very aggressive; those from Lake Tanganyika less so. Most Central American cichlids (like the convict) are generally also quite aggressive, but most South American cichlids are the least aggressive of the family.

If you really want to keep your convict with African cichlids, it could be done. However, it's usually better to keep convicts with other Central American cichlids, and perhaps with certain South American cichlids. From a water chemistry standpoint, you might mix them with African riverine cichlids, although in my experience the fighting can be hard to control. But from both a chemistry and behavioral standpoint, I would advise against keeping your convict with African Great Lake cichlids, such as mbuna or haps from Lake Malawi, or the various rock cichlids of Lake Tanganyika.

If you really want to keep African cichlids, you should consider trading in your convict for African species.

If you do decide to keep your convict, here are some suggestions for good tank mates (in no particular order).

 

Central American cichlids:

- Firemouth

- Jack Dempsey

- Nicaraguan cichlid

 

South American cichlids:

- Oscar (make sure the size difference is not so great that the oscar could eat the convict)

 

Catfishes:

- Plecos

- Pictus catfish

 

Characins:

- Silver dollars

 

Let us know what you end up doing, and good luck!

[AtomicSunfish]

BTW - Yes, it's true that convicts are easy to breed! They are a monogamous substrate spawner, and tend to pair off quite young (well before they reach their full size of around 4 inches for males, less for females). Convicts are an aggressive fish anyway, but when they are defending their brood, they become even more fierce. So, make sure they either have lots of space, or else transfer them to a breeder tank to rear their offspring.

[bryanisag]

Wow this forum is coming in really helpful. Well I guess I now have convict cichlids...

Funny because every time I hear about them in a Livestream I think to myself "there's a fish I never want to keep" 

Coming soon in the buy/sell/trade thread:

WTS: convict cichlids just pay shipping lol

There is one fish in with them that looks a bit different. I will get a picture of it tonight or tomorrow. 

Thanks for all the help.

After I get all of the fish from my coworker I will try to figure what all I have. He clearly doesn't really know his fish lol

On 4/19/2024 at 11:10 AM, AtomicSunfish said:

BTW - Yes, it's true that convicts are easy to breed! They are a monogamous substrate spawner, and tend to pair off quite young (well before they reach their full size of around 4 inches for males, less for females). Convicts are an aggressive fish anyway, but when they are defending their brood, they become even more fierce. So, make sure they either have lots of space, or else transfer them to a breeder tank to rear their offspring.

And is there any way to stop them from breeding? I definitely don't want to get over run with them

[mynameisnobody]

@bryanisag I would think more along the lines of giving them away to a good home. If you try selling it, you’ll most likely just end up with a pet convict. 

[anewbie]

One nice smaller central american fish is the rainbow cichild; another very attractive fish is the elliot. There are a lot of nice fishes in central america (not all cichild); they just don't get any press. 

I'd start by testing the hardness of your tap water and then pick what is appropriate; it is a pia to constantly change tap water chemistry though people do it all the time. Also you might have some personal interest so you might have a natural love for a specific type or species of fish.

Also just be aware that from time to time aquariums to spring a leak so try to put your new aquarium in a location where a leak won't cause $20,000 of damage.

 

[bryanisag]

On 4/19/2024 at 11:48 AM, anewbie said:

One nice smaller central american fish is the rainbow cichild; another very attractive fish is the elliot. There are a lot of nice fishes in central america (not all cichild); they just don't get any press. 

I'd start by testing the hardness of your tap water and then pick what is appropriate; it is a pia to constantly change tap water chemistry though people do it all the time. Also you might have some personal interest so you might have a natural love for a specific type or species of fish.

Also just be aware that from time to time aquariums to spring a leak so try to put your new aquarium in a location where a leak won't cause $20,000 of damage.

 

Definitely a perk of having my fish room in the garage!! 🙂

[jwcarlson]

On 4/19/2024 at 1:15 PM, bryanisag said:

And is there any way to stop them from breeding? I definitely don't want to get over run with them

Ask your co-worker how he got them to quit breeding.  🤣

Edited April 19 by jwcarlson

[AtomicSunfish]

On 4/19/2024 at 1:15 PM, bryanisag said:

And is there any way to stop them from breeding? I definitely don't want to get over run with them

When it comes to fish that breed readily (like convicts), you really just have to keep them in a community tank, with no other members of their own species. If they have enough space, members of the same sex might not fight, but they usually do. And if you have opposite sex, they’re going to either pair off and breed, or else fight (again, unless they have lots of space). If you don’t want that convict to reproduce (he’s a male), just keep him as the only convict in that tank.