Former Newbie's African Cichlid Experience

[SorryEh]

@Demeter32 It's not very similar but yours has the same face and stripes so I thought maybe yours is part what mine is or something like that

 

[thrujenseyes]

Your fish are stunning. I always wished to keep Africans.

I know this probably isn't proper forum etiquette but this poor girl in this thread:http://www.fishforums.net/threads/cichlid-hiding.448404/ (not sure if that link will work...it's "cichlid hiding") could really use you're help.

She's got herself into quite a mess and she's getting lots of info thrown at her.

Sorry to call to you on your own topic but you can't "tag" someone in another thread...which kind of stinks.

I don't know enough about Africans to help her the way that she needs.

Thank you! and again ...sorry

 

[Demeter32]

@SorryEh your pretty male is definitely a peacock. Most cases if the fish isn't labeled at the store it is of no specific breed/species. Yours if probably considered a "mixed peacock".

@thrujenseyes tis fine. I like meeting other African keepers on here. No one I know in person (besides an old teacher) keeps Africans. It's nice to discuss cichlid things with people who actually keep them

 

[SorryEh]

Interesting, it was the only one that looked like it, I was pretty sure it was a peacock, very peaceful actually and it has fit in with the others well.

 

[thrujenseyes]

[QUOTE="@thrujenseyes tis fine. I like meeting other African keepers on here. No one I know in person (besides an old teacher) keeps Africans. It's nice to discuss cichlid things with people who actually keep them [/QUOTE]

Oh good! Thank you! I did actually keep them many years ago but unfortunately I had no clue what I was doing.
I walked into a pet store with tons of money to burn and excitement all over my young face and was lead to the biggest and most beautiful tank and my eyeballs lead me to Africans because they're the prettiest (in my opinion) and the man loaded my cart with tons of **** I didn't need and a bunch of directions and 6 zebra danios to "cycle my tank" ugh! The horror!! I still cringe when I think back.

This go round I did everything right and it's a much different experience (for me and my aquatic friends)

 

[Demeter32]

Big changes, I traded in all my fry (except the newest batch of OBP) along with the ice blue zebra, white tail acei, female hybrid, and scruffy male peacock. Add the plants and fish together and I recieve 63$ in store credit. I was only expecting 30 at the most I picked up another OB peacock along with a Ruby Red that looks amazing atm but will likely fade in color. I'm guessing it is "juiced" or fed hormones to increase color.

So, now that I've opened up the 29gal the fry were in, I decided to set it up for shell dwelling Africans Will be creating another thread here shortly for them.

 

[Demeter32]

It's been a good 5 months since the last update and a lot has changed. Both the new additions from the last post died. That's what I get for not quarantining... Then the larger of the two Red empresses died, she showed major signs of stress but looked perfectly fine otherwise. I did a big water change soon as I saw it having issues but it was dead by morning. I dissected it and found it to be a female but nothing else. My male mutt fry from the one eyed female peacock and blue ahli was killed off by someone. Shortly after all this my evil bot beautiful dominant male (profile pic) was being a terror. His girl had just released her last spawn and she suddenly came down with dropsy. Bloated, pine coned scales, lethargic. I thought she was a goner. I threw her in a 5gal bucket with a heater and air stone. Treated her with epsom salt, Meth. blue and kanaplex. After 5 days and a few water changes she was good to go. It looks like she will spawn in a week or so. It was a rough last few months for the cichlid tank.

I traded in the frontosa, 2 male peacocks, the youngest male hybrid (yellow lab X peacock), and the OB mbuna. A few pictures of fish I traded in. The frontosa was 5in

The less pretty male OB.

Then the slightly disappointing dragons blood male. He doesn't have the brightest color but I'm quite sure he's a boy. I did not trade this one in.

I then added a young male(?) rock kribensis and a male (?) rusty cichlid. It wasn't planned at all but here we are! They were quarantined for 2 weeks and have been in the 55gal for 1 week now. The krib got his tail bitten but both seem fine otherwise and have become more confident. No pics of them but both are about 2in right now, very tiny compared to the others.

I moved my big blue male OB to a 20gal temporarily. I want my orange/pink OB male to have his way with the ladies and get some new blood in my OB strain. All the females are looking plump, one is very plump and I worry about her. This will be her first spawn but I don't know if it will go well. Fingers crossed.

As for the last batch of OB fry, they're doing great. I've been culling the fry with no/poor OB pattern (basically any "normal" peacock fry) and now there's a few that are looking like keepers. I'm working on getting OBs with less marbled pattern than their parents. The main reason I want the orange male to spawn.