Former Newbie's African Cichlid Experience

Brief history of how I got into keeping African: 17 year old me was observing the fish in the dreaded Walmart when I looked into the "Assorted Cichlids" tank and saw a lovely 2 inch white and black fish and a slightly smaller dark blue one. I knew what Africans were and all I had in my 20gal at home was 1 paradise gourami, 1 bristle nose pelco, and a couple corydoras. So I decided to get the two smallest fish in that tank and took them to their new home. Long story short, I now have a 55 gal with one of the original cichlids and a dozen others
(also the gourami and cory cats are in diff tanks)
 
Just for fun, here's a pic of that one original (Livingstonii) cichlid then and now:
 
Then   
 
Now   
 
At this time, I have 14 cichlids, six of which are from my first (and so far only) batch of fry. There are also 2 bottom feeders. Here in the list of species:
2 male yellow labs
1 female livingstonii
1 female blue zebra
1 male bumble bee
1 male something elongatus 
1 female peacock
1 female dragon's blood peacock
2 male yellow lab/peacock hybrids
4 female yellow lab/peacock hybrids
1 male albino bristle nose pleco
1 lace catfish 
 
I know its probably overstocked BUT IN MY DEFENSE, I plan on selling the 2 yellow labs and maybe the blue zebra
 
MORE HISTORY TIME!!!! 
When I switched from the 20gal to the 55gal I had 4 cichlids and an albino Bristle nose pleco. After a while of having the 55 I bought a blue zebra and a female peacock. The male yellow lab ended up spawning with the peacock and I got 10 little fry. I had no idea what the fry would end up looking like and when I searched the web for clues I learned next to nothing. So for the sake of anyone out there who wants to know what a yellow lab/peacock hybrid looks like, here you go.
Male:

 
Female:

 
 
Note that these fish are only around 8 months old at 3ish inches and the two males are showing breeding colors (blue face) and one of the females is holding her first batch of eggs. I suspect the baby daddy is one of her brothers but I'm okay with that. 
 
The next post will be about how these hybrids came to be and there will be pics of what they looked like then and how they slowly matured  
 
 

When I saw my male yellow lab taking and interest to the female peacock, I watched them like a hawk and got to see the actual spawning process. I waited 10 or so days after they spawned before taking the female out and putting her in a long 20gal tank.  A couple weeks later she spit 10 fry and I let her take care of them for another week before I put her back in the main tank. I fed the fry micro worms and then crushed flakes and algae wafers. For the longest time they were completely yellow with no markings.
 
2.5 months @ 1 inch:
As they grew older and started to become aggressive, one of the fry started showing black stripes on all its fins, much like a yellow lab's. This same fry also had one lone egg spot on its anal fin. The dominant fry was a richer yellow and all the fry showed gray bars (like a female peacock) when they were "sleeping" at night.
 
4 months @ 1.25-1.5 inches:
Unfortunately I made the mistake of putting them in the main tank a bit early and 4 of the fry were torn to bits by the 4" Livingstonii 
I took her out and out her in a hospital tank.
 
5 months @ 2-2.5 inches:
Some were beginning to show egg spots and more of them appeared to have the black stripe but only partially down their dorsal fin
At this point I felt safe to add that Livingstonii.

 
 
7 months @ 2.5-2.75 inches
Two fry started showing blue coloration on their gill and throat area. One of these fry is the first fry to show the black stripes on all fins and the first to get an egg spot (that egg spot has since faded)
 
 
8 months @ 2.5-3 inches
The two males are now showing breeding colors and behaviors. One of the females has spawned and 2 others are looking rather plump and ready to spawn.  
This is a bad pic of the holding female

While I was doing a water change in the cichlid tank, I decided to strip the hybrid female rather than risking something going wrong (because it's her first spawn). After I netted and put her in a bucket she made things easy by spitting out the eggs on her own. To my disappointment the mere 6 eggs were discolored, some being completely clear and others a dark orange. Seems to me they were not fertilized   But oh well, there's always next time. 

The yellow lab/peacock hybrid looks awesome, beautiful fish.

Stormm said:

The yellow lab/peacock hybrid looks awesome, beautiful fish.

Click to expand...

 
Yeah I'm pretty happy with how they turned out
This is the only pic I could find on the web of what they might of ended up looking like. Btw second pic is my hybrid.
        
 
UPDATE TIME:
The two female peacocks and the Livingstonii laid eggs (alone) and I stripped the eggs from one of the peacocks and the Livingstonii. The dragon's blood female didn't bother to hold her eggs so I didn't have to strip her. 
Livingstonii had a whopping 105ish eggs
Peacock had 53ish eggs
After counting them I just dumped the eggs back into the tank and everyone had a little snack
One of the hybrid females is probably going to lay eggs within a couple days but who knows if they will be fertilized 
 
I'm debating on if I should buy a male peacock because this is not the first time that the females have spawned alone. I was hoping that the dominant male (yellow lab) would take an interest in them but he only has eyes for the blue zebra. She spawned once before, not long after the hybrids came to be, but she ended up swallowing them. I have no idea why she hasn't spawned since then. Also, this yellow lab is the father of the hybrids so I would think he would spawn with the peacocks since he has done it before. 
Blue zebra

Dragon's Blood 

As expected, two of the hybrid females are holding right now. The first one spawned on the 20th and the second one spawned on the 25th. I was able to witness the tail end of the second one's spawning. She did the deed with BOTH her brothers and the smaller male yellow lab tried to get in on the action but failed. If all goes well I will be moving the two females into a separate tank in about a week. I am feeling hopeful about the second female holding fertile eggs. Time will tell.
 
Unfortunately these photos aren't the greatest but for the sake of keeping track, they will do. 
The brighter yellow female was the first one to spawned
 
   

After a small fish rodeo, I now have both the holding females in a ten gallon with a divider between them. They've been in there for a couple days now and both are miraculously still holding and doing well. The first of the two to spawn has been holding for 12 days now so I think it's safe to say that the eggs are indeed fertilized  I've been trying to take a peek inside her mouth but she is being uncooperative. 
 
The difficult one                                       
              
 
The cooperative one
               

Any day now the first fish to spawn will be releasing her fry. The second fish didn't seem to be holding anymore so i took her out and checked for fry and stripped only 1 fry that still has a big yoke sack. The single fry is in a DIY egg tumbler and is doing well. 
 
On a different note, I may have done something bad. I was at Walmart on Saturday and decided to check out the fish. They must have just gotten a new shipment in because every thing was alive. I was checking out the assorted Africans tank and found something I've never seen before. 
 

 
Of course I had to get him, so I did, for a little over 6$ There was also a little OB zebra that I was sorely tempted to get but I resisted the urge. 
I'm guessing he is some sort of Victorian but I don't really know which species. A quick search in Google left me more confused than when I started. Many of the Victorians look similar, especially as juveniles. He's only around 2 inches but is showing great color. Any guesses as to what kind he(?) is?. 

THE DAY HAS COME!!! My baby cichlids are here and they are not exactly what I expected, which is a good thing. Brief blast from the past, my hybrid babies were yellow, like yellow lab fry, when they were released. These new fry are not yellow, even though they are still yellow lab/peacock hybrids. They look like normal peacock fry to me. It will be interesting to see what they look like as they mature As far as I can tell there is more than ten but I can't get a good count because the mamma sucks them back up when I get close to the tank. She's doing well for her first time.

 
As a side note, I figured out what species my new fish is. He's a Rock Kribensis and should only get to 4 inches long. I think I will be placing him in a 29 gallon with a handful of my smaller cichlids. At the moment though my sister's 9" common pleco is in there until I can find him a new home. The pet store I had in mind doesn't take in fish
 
P.S. Be prepared for more fry photos  

The unoffical count of fry is 15, plus the single fry from the other female, so 16. I just took the single fry out from the egg tumbler and I'm hoping the mamma of the 15 takes care of him/her too. She is eating just fine right now but still gathers the fry in her mouth at night. When she stops holding them I will take her out  
 

I fear I am about to be overrun with cichlid fry The blue zebra finally spawned for the second time, but I don't know who/if she actually spawned with a male. So the ball is up in the air with her. Another one of the yellow lab/peacock females is holding. She's the biggest of the four and it looks like 20+ fry are coming my way Fairly sure her eggs are viable because I saw her doing the deed with her brother I might have to get the 20gal long out of storage soon.,,,
After re-homing the common pleco, I finally moved he momma of the 16 fry into a 29gal with her 2 sisters and the little rock kribensis (this is only a temporary home). He was trying to act tough at first but the ladies quickly put him in his place. 
 
I have noticed something hanging from the vent area of one of the fry. It's pale grey/white, almost looks like a big chunk of poo but probably isn't I think it's been there since the female released them. Not sure what it is but it doesn't seem to be causing any problems. Might be a birth defect that will lead to issues later on though. Time will tell. For now they are all happily eating micro worms but in a couple more weeks will be given crushed flakes/pellets. I will try to do two 50% water changes a week. Hoping to see good growth rates because of it  

Lesson learned, trying to tumble stripped cichlid fry in a tank with 2 week old fry is just asking for trouble. The 2 week olds nipped at the yolk sacs of the little ones through the mess. It took them less than 24 hours to dispatch their cousins So I will not be letting that happen again. The blue zebra's eggs were not fertile so those were pitched. 
 
The fry are a little over a month old now and are around half an inch. I just moved them from the ten gallon to the 20 today and they seem to of taken it well. Turns out there is 17 in all, and the one that has something protruding from its vent is still alive but really small compared to the others. I've been feeding them crushed cichlid flakes with the occasional algae wafer. I'm starting to get excited about how they will show their genetic background Around 4-6 of them are yellow like their parents were as fry while another 4 or so are completely dark with no stripes. The rest look like normal peacock fry (grey with vertical stripes). They've been fighting a little and the yellow ones show black on their fins when they're mad. 
(note that these pics were taken while they were still in the 10gal)

 
I have recently moved the prettier of the two male yellow lab/peacock hybrids into the 29 gallon with the 4 females and rock kribensis. I've also put sand and rock work in too. This male is very docile compared to his brother and hasn't been harassing the girls very much. I want to get a couple more batches of fry from them so I can get a clear idea as to what kind of hybrid I am working on. (genetics are pretty interesting )  Eventually, I'm hoping that the peacock I have right now will spawn with the male hybrid but she's a pain in the bum and doesn't want to spawn with anyone. 
(looks crowded but its pretty peaceful and will only be temporary) 

 
As a side note, here a pic of my lace catfish. He's probably quadrupled in size since I got him. Too bad the cichlids keep nipping at his fins. On a good note, he's stopped hiding and is starting to beg for food with the cichlids now. 

 

I moved the fry to the 20 gallon last week and everthing is going fine for now. The official count of fry is 17. The runt with the birth defect around the vent area is still swimming but hasn't grown at all. It's about 1/3 the size of the others. Now that the fry are in a lighter tank, their coloration is a lot paler. I have my eye on 2 of the fry though. One is a darker fella and one of the biggest ones. The other is a yellow/pale one that is being aggressive and has black on its fins. 
I don't have a light or hood for the 20gal so the pictures are going to be pretty blurred. 
 
 
 
   
 
 
As a side note, I bought a new 29 gallon tank for 15$. As it turns out, I realized that the tank with the 5 hybrids is actually a 20 gallon tall.  I plan on using the old HOB filter that was on the 55 and putting the hybrids (parents of the fry) into the new tank. For now, the 5 hybrids are going to have to deal with the 20 gallon. As far as I see, there are no frayed fins and not a whole lot of aggresion (other than the male flirting with his ladies ) 

Update time
My lovely yellow lab/peacock hybrid male was spawning with his girls and I managed to get some pictures of his nice breeding colors.
     
 
I also recently re-scaped the 55 gallon 
    
 
 
 
I'm going on vacations for 2 weeks in a few days but my sisters are going to stay behind for a week. So that means that my fish will be in their care for a week, and then left alone for another week. I probably won't bother worrying about feeding some of the fish for that one week. I have 2 electric feeders, one will go on the fry tank and the other will go on the betta tank. Speaking of the cichlid fry, the deformed runt seems to of died since I have't seen it in a few days.