🐡 FOTM VOTE NOW - June 2024 Fish of the Month Contest (Cichlids)

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We have 7 awesome Cichlids entered into June 2024 Fish of the Month Contest. View all the entries and descriptions below and then go to the top of page - click on your choice for FOTM and then click the "cast" button.

Please DO NOT post any comments about any specific entry in this thread...such posts will promptly be deleted.
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Please note:
Any attempt to influence competition results, other than by casting your allocated vote, is not permitted and may result in your entry being removed and / or further action being taken. You are not allowed to have friends or family join TFF for the main purpose of voting for you. This is a public poll so source of votes can be viewed.

The winner is awarded a neat banner in his profile area and will be featured in a Winner Thread for all to see and to comment. The winner also will be added to our FOTM Wall of Fame .

Poll will close on June 29th at 4:11 PM ET (US).

Good luck to our entrants in the Fish of the Month contest. We at fishforums.net thank you for your participation.

Ok… this is Lil blue… my smallest Cichid, an electric blue ram ( center of the picture ) this is the fish I'm entering into the contest... it’s about an inch an a half long… the bigger ( dominant ) electric blue, is in the lower left corner, and my prettiest zebra lace angel, to the left of lil blue, and an assortment of tetras, on the right side of the picture… these fish are in my TOM tank from last month… I’ve had both blue rams, for 9 months to a year… I’ll get a placard picture up, before the contest starts

This is my angelfish. I've had him for about 1 year and 2 months. Currently in a 20 gallon by himself.
Feed him fish flakes once per day and frozen brine shrimp once per week. Every once in a while a small peice of fish pellets.

Some background:

This is a m/f l. dorsigera courting. The FEMALE is expressing her opinion of the male. She is marked by the yellow arrow and is my entry. They are in a 500 gallon aquarium that is 8 foot long and 4 foot wide. They were sold as domestic l. curviceps @ wetspot. Of the three species of laetacara i own these are my favorite; they are standoffish but friendly. This is a bit different than l. araguaiae who will accidently eat your fingers grabbing food and l. thayeri which is much larger and overbearing. These have a delicate elegant to them; though the difference between them and araguaiae's behavior is more subtle than thayeri which is a completely different beast. I keep the thayeri with larger fishes where a more assertive monster is required.

The 500 gallon has quite a few interesting fishes including:
~50 rummynose
~8 g. sp. Alto Sinu (the largest male has started to develop strong colours)
~7 g. dicrozoster (they were sold as winemilleri by someone who imported them for me)
~3 g. abalios (same as above)
~7 blue rams (not to be confused with german blue rams)
a couple of wonderful species of whiptails including Lamontichthys llanero (very nice) and Rineloricaria eigenmanni (not as nice)
~14 Dianema urostriatum (another interesting fish)
4 vampire pleco (L172a) - don't let them bite you
and 4 absolutely fab. Pseudohemiodon sp. affn. apithanos (they were happier without the geo) (another whiptail)
probably a few other this and that.
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I consider the tank fully stocked and intend to remove the g. abalios, and some of the g. sp alto sinu this fall. It is possible I'll add another lamontichtys llanero (I highly recommend these)
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required date picture - which is kind of tricky when the geo crowd out everything in the foreground:

In the spirit of uncommon fish - here is a young female Enigmatochromis lucanusii, a dwarf Cichlid from Guinea. She is just starting into her spawning colours, and was working on her nest when I took the shot.
The male is in the TFF picture. In this species, like with many African Cichlids (not Rift Lake Cichlids), the female gets the colours.
I re-acquired the species a few months ago, and they are wild caught. I'm attached to the species because I was fortunate to have been there when they were discovered for the hobby, as accidental catches in with a shipment of Wallaceochromis, many years ago.

I have one pair, in a 150 ltr/40 gallon tank that is 1.3 metres across the front (4 feet). It is at 26.5 degrees, as a breeding tank. All my tanks are planted, but I confess I'm not a big aquatic plant person. Mostly, it has Vallisneria americana.

Tankmates are working fish - two Moenkhausia, (a bonita tetra and a related fish left over from a larger group that has timed out), and two Glossolepis wanamensis. I wanted larger "dithers" (distraction fish) as danger to fry bonds a Cichlid pair, but these fish are are old and tough, and won't get hurt in a tank that size. Enigmas can be a little overbeqaring as parents, and really defend the young I hope to have in a few weeks. In time, I would like to have fish from their region in with them, but I don't have any now, so the tankmates are short term improv.

The fish has now been on the fringes of the hobby for years, and isn't a rare import. My success breeding them isn't a given, even if I bred the species a few times in my old house. Now that I'm retired and no longer in a city where it's easy to get uncommon fish, I have a list of species I hope to breed enough to enjoy for several generations. These guy are on the list.

Strawberry Peacock

Mixed African cichlid tank.

Been running approximately 3 years.

Filtration- 2 no. Fluval 307 canister filters.

Diet
NLS grow
NLS cichlid formula
Vitalis cichlid herbivore pellets
Hikari cichlid gold

Approximate size around 1.5”

Water temperature 25/26 degrees Celsius.

Ph 8

Approximately 100 gallons. 4ftx2ftx2ft

Fish has been in my possession for around 2 years.

My Kelberi Peacock Bass.
Quite new to me had him about 2 months now but he is stunning. About 17" which is more that most of the internet says they grow. He is always as bright as this as well and just stands out in the tank
A favourite of mine for sure

Fleury (hockey, anyone?), the 2 yo OB Peacock. He's a bit camera shy, so we had to wait till feeding time to get some pics. He's been growing out in a 28 gal with a bristlenose and some Moenkhausia red-eye tetras, and will hopefully be transferred to our 75 gal with other Malawi cichlids. Seems to prefer the artificial barrel decoration over all other "natural" alternatives given—to each their own, I guess. He's currently sharing the space with some Vallisneria and Anubias barteri and nana, as well as some Amazon Swords. Filtration includes sponge filter on one end and an oversized HOB powerfilter on the other. Fleury has been raised one Omega One sinking pellets and Tetra flake foods as staples, with live, frozen, and freeze-dried foods as supplement.

End of Entries:
Scroll up slowly as you review the 7 awesome Cichlids. Then in the poll at the top of this thread click on your choice for Fish of the Month. Finally, click the "cast" button to register your vote.

Thanks for participating in our Fish of the Month contest.

At the end of this month, we will be starting the Tank of the Month contest which will feature 17 to 30 gallon tanks. If you have that size tank in your household, we hope you enter it in the contest.