get a gravel cleaner. It's like an open cyclinder with a tube from an end. You siphon the water out and it sucks out all the crap without bringing the gravel with it.
the only thing is to meet the conditions of the fish and wait, it's all you can do :) A couple of my hongi bred and there was only 1M and 1F in the tank with a PH of 7.6! Somtimes it's just crazy luck :)
gotta be more patient, otherwise you might start having casualties :sad: . Slowly stock your tanks and don't add fish with high nitrite/nitrate levels!
Sounds like your cycle hasn't finished yet or you have some kind of mini cycle happening :crazy:. Water changes are probably the best you can do at this stage, your bacteria are still developing. Eventually the nitrite will have to be broken down to nitrate.
Can I ask, have you added more...
It might have jumped out maybe? check down near the back of the tank, I found one of mine there once, it was all dried up :-( Always have the tops on my tank now.
I came home with my new anubia rock and half an hour later my Hongi, that I got a couple of days ago started breeding! :hyper:
My first time :lol:
Now she's holding them, I've to think where I'm going to put the fry :S
yeah the last time I went to the LFS I went to get rocks but they had none in and ended up getting the hongi instead :S. Think I might try another LFS tomorrow.
I'm new here too and relatively new to the hobby. I've kept african cichlids for nearly a year now but just starting to knuckle down and learn more. I posted my tank over on the photo forum if you want to look ;)
http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=58836
36"x14"x18"
2 x Labidochromis caeruleus
2 x Labidochromis sp. 'Hongi'
2 x Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos
4 x Pseudotropheus crabro
2 x Sciaenochromis fryeri