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African Cichlids Anyone?

Thanks Brad,

I added a pair of Giraffe Haps to the mix this afternoon...



I love the coloration on these guys. They're very active and have stirred up the pot enough to get the rest of the fish moving around a lot more.
 
Petco is running a "dollar a gallon" sale this month on all their tanks. So, I upgraded to a big 55. Set it up last weekend and transplanted the fish a few days ago. Here's the new set-up...




Here's a decent shot of all the cichlids including:

2x Yellow Labs
2x Electric Blue Johanni
2x Giraffe Hap
2x Kenyi



... and here's a shot of the Clown Loach I added to police up the tank bottom ...

 
Thank you Sir,

It's very relaxing. I find myself stopping in the middle of the living room and just standing there to watch them swim around and play in the sand. I still plan on adding a few more Malawi cichlids to the mix when the local specialty fish spot gets their next shipment...

2x Lavendar Mbuna "Rusty Cichlid"



2x Demasoni



2x Bumblebee



2x Snow White



... also going to add an African catfish, synodontis petricola. It's a pygmy catfish species (about 5" full grown) endemic to Lake Malawi and lives along side my cichlid species in the wild...

 
Picked up two jouvenile Rusties this evening. Demasoni should arrive tomorrow. After that, all that's left will be to order the pygmy African catfish and I'm done. The fish have already become used to me and will beg for food when I approach the tank. One of the Kenyi has turned out to be quite an architect. It's excavated a network of interconnected tunnels through the sand and gravel under the coral structure. I watched as it made trips in and out and unloaded sand and gravel by the mouthfull. These little guys are really cool...
 
Thats great! It is quite amazing how well they rearrange the tank.
 
LAZY EYED SNIPER said:
Picked up two jouvenile Rusties this evening. Demasoni should arrive tomorrow. After that, all that's left will be to order the pygmy African catfish and I'm done. The fish have already become used to me and will beg for food when I approach the tank. One of the Kenyi has turned out to be quite an architect. It's excavated a network of interconnected tunnels through the sand and gravel under the coral structure. I watched as it made trips in and out and unloaded sand and gravel by the mouthfull. These little guys are really cool...
Click to expand...

Yea...I read somewhere that they arrange their habitat...pretty cool for a fish !!
 
Demasoni arrived today and are adjusting well. Ordered the pygmy cat today and it should be here next weekend. Lookin forward to adding him and then I'll be done stocking the tank. Lookin forward to being able to just sit back and enjoy...
 
Interesting setup Lazy- going with the sand and a coral motif for a faux saltwater look? I personally hated my sand setup and switched back to gravel. As for the cichlids you asked about, I've had all of them. The yellow lab was brilliant and really added color to my tank, which is hard to do with a fresh-water setup. Eventually he was killed (or committed suicide) by the hands of my big Tiger Oscar. I woke up one morning to find him dead on the carpet, with the lid shut, so maybe he jumped out of the small hole where the filter fits into the hood? I have no idea. Definitely the most bizarre ways I seen a fish die.

My blue Johanni is still kicking but the Oscar keeps him in check. Its only a matter of time til he gets killed- that Oscar is ferocious!

Anyways, nice setup! I love my tank, its better than my flatscreen tv and has provided way more entertainment!
 
Thanks CO,

I went with the sand/gravel combo after reading up on a lot of cichlid forums. Most say the African cichlids like sand to dig and play in. So far, it's holding true. I agree these little boogers sure are fun to watch. Those tigers can be pretty rough. Sorry to hear about your yellow lab, the cause of death sounds a bit fishy to me! Haha, sorry I couldn't resist...
 
Finally got my catfish in last week.



Was a bit worried because they're very small at only about an inch long, but they've been doing very well and the cichlids seem to be alltogether ignoring them. I added three of them to be safe and they're taking full advantage of all the cover. Don't see much of them for now but they do venture out in dim light.
 
I added two Cherry Red Zebras to the mix as well...



I put these guys in just before I dropped in the little catfish. They add great color to the mix, but they served as a great distraction for the other cichlids. The group was too busy chasing the Cherry Reds to assert dominance that they didn't even notice the little cats.
 
On a morbid note, the clown loach didn't make it. Not sure what exactly happened, but after it went missing for about a week I started turning up ornaments and all I found was its head and its tail. Either the cichlids killed and ate it, or it just died and they had a snack. Who knows...
 
Thanks oli, so do I.

These synodontis petricola were hard to come by as they are rarely imported and there aren't many folks around that specialize in breeding them. Apart from being strikingly patterned, they're an interesting species. It's a type of cuckoo catfish, named for the cuckoo bird that invades a nest, kicks out the inhabitants eggs, and replaces them with its own. The nest owner unwittingly raises the cuckoo bird's chicks as its own. I the case of the catfish, it only breeds in tanks with cichlids. It waits for the cichlids to lay their eggs, swims in and eats them, and lays it own in their place. The female cichlid will then safely carry the catfish eggs in her mouth until they hatch. That's why these guys can be a bit difficult to come by. Pretty cool stuff though...
 
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