Labidochromis Caeruleus Is "flashing" Like It Has Ich - But

[starsatnight]

hi there - i have two labidochromis caeruleus one is about 2.5 inches long and the other is about 1.75 inches long. they were an unexpected gift to my community tank of gouramis, loaches and tetras so i'm not an experienced cichlid keeper.

the larger yellow lab has been occasionally acting as though it may have ich, but no spots are present on it or any of the other fish. it's also the only one doing this and it's been doing it off and on for about 2 months now. is there some sort of cichlid specific behaviour or disease that i should be aware of here?

any suggestions or comments would be helpful and welcome.

thank you!

 

[typhoon]

duno but gouramis and cichlids shouldnt be kept together i dont think different water requirements...

 

[jackel931]

yeah man if you want the labs to have a long and happy life you should get them into an african specific tank. They need minerals and salts in their water plus ALOT HIGHER PH

 

[dthoffsett]

yeah man if you want the labs to have a long and happy life you should get them into an african specific tank. They need minerals and salts in their water plus ALOT HIGHER PH

Not necessarily true. Cichlids don't need any salt in their water, and unless they are wild-caught, are perfectly capable of adapting to a PH of 7.0 or more.



The flashing you are seeing is common behavior among mbuna (rock-dwelling cichlids), of which your yellow labs (labidochromis caeruleus) are a part of. It is a sign of either attempted breeding behavior, or a dominance "dance". While some people have had luck mixing mbuna with "standard" community fish, I don't generally recommend it. Make sure you offer plenty of vegetable matter to your fish, labs are insectivores, but still need some roughage in their diet. The other thing you need to keep a close eye on is aggression, especially onces they are over 2" and starting to become sexually mature. While labs are considered peaceful by mbuna standards, they are often too aggressive for most community fish.

 

[starsatnight]

thank you for the advice dthoffsett. i was actually wondering if it was a dominance thing - as he most often flashes on several large pieces of slate at the centre of the tank. i will offer vegetable matter - i'm currently not doing that (feeding flakes and bloodworms only). everytime i tried adding peas or cucumber or spinach for the gouramis they'd ignore it.

and i will keep an eye out for any nasty aggression. there was quite the turmoil in the tank when i first introduced the cichlids - the dominant blue gourami got more aggressive and he and the larger cichlid faced off quite a bit but the behaviours gradually tapered off to where no one is aggressive to each other now. it's strange! lol

thanks again,
jodi

 

[marcusbacus]

They are flashing because of wrong water parameters. African cichlids from the lakes when kept in non ideal water conditions are likely to flash and try to scratch like that. Mine occasionaly flash when the pH gets a little lower than it should be or when the KH or GH is a little different than what it should be, and I fix that by adding the proper salts to the water. In a matter of hours, the flashing and itching is gone. As your africans are probably in a tank with a much lower pH than their natural environment along with a softer water (lower KH and/or GH), they are doing this.

African Cichlids do need salts in their water - but not salt as in marine salt (sodium chloride). Your Labidochromis will probably tolerate and "adapt" themselves to this condition for a few weeks or months, but don't expect them to live that much.

 

[jackel931]

They are flashing because of wrong water parameters. African cichlids from the lakes when kept in non ideal water conditions are likely to flash and try to scratch like that. Mine occasionaly flash when the pH gets a little lower than it should be or when the KH or GH is a little different than what it should be, and I fix that by adding the proper salts to the water. In a matter of hours, the flashing and itching is gone. As your africans are probably in a tank with a much lower pH than their natural environment along with a softer water (lower KH and/or GH), they are doing this.

African Cichlids do need salts in their water - but not salt as in marine salt (sodium chloride). Your Labidochromis will probably tolerate and "adapt" themselves to this condition for a few weeks or months, but don't expect them to live that much.

thanks for backing me up.... to live the longest, healthiest and happiest life they can, their natural enviroment should be as closely simulated as possible

 

[jackel931]

If you have a spare tank you can go to your lfs and get african cichild salt. It should have all the essential minerals and salts they need. You can also get african cichlid buffer to raise the ph. The lfs I went to had malawi and tangenikan (spelling?) specific buffers to make everything easier.

 

[marcusbacus]

I'd try to return them to the store and get something else instead that is more suitable to your current water parameters, or set up a small tank for the Labidochromis, you can be lucky and they can be a couple. As it was a gift, explain to the person who gave them to you that if you keep them in your current settings they will likely die faster than they should.

If you try to adapt the current water for the Labidochromis adding cichlid salts (Seachem does a nice job) or try to buffer the water but keeping the tetras and loaches, it will also be a disaster, but this time for the tetras.

 

[starsatnight]

thanks for the advice everyone.....

i got the labidochromis from a friend's uncle who has been breeding them for 10 years. he brought them over, sort of out of the blue and they told me he felt that the cichlids would adapt well in the tank and that the 'family' has never been on the aggressive side. the two i have are from the last two 'hatchings' from their breeding pair - one of which has just passed away. they are gorgous and very vividly yellow with strong dark black stripes on their fins.

If you try to adapt the current water for the Labidochromis adding cichlid salts (Seachem does a nice job) or try to buffer the water but keeping the tetras and loaches, it will also be a disaster, but this time for the tetras.

as you can see - i've grown quite attached to them! i am planning on purchasing another tank in december and i will make that one an african cichlid tank. do you think that this makes sense - or will the cichlids suffer/expire before then. that is - if i don't add the salts (for fear of what might happen to the tetras, gouramis and loaches).

i honestly don't want to make a wrong decision and have the fish suffer.....

thanks in advance.

 

[marcusbacus]

I know how you feel, Labidos are one of my favourites too.

Try to make some water tests first before taking actions. If the parameters aren't too far from what's desired (ex. pH below 6.5), they might adapt and get used to this new water until you get your new tank, but don't be fooled and think this is the right place for them if they "adapt", they need the different parameters. There are stories of people for example keeping discus in alkaline water etc. etc. but I wouldn't take them as like "if they can do it I can do it too". Once in an *emergency* I had to move a pleco to my cichlid tank, and he was "happy" there for some time until I could fix the problems in his original home.

Adding salts definitely will cause trouble for the other ones. You could try to raise the hardness of the water (poor tetras...) using for example baking soda but this will raise the pH as well, although until a certain point, and the raise might be harmful for the tetras. Every change in parameters should be done (if needed) very slowly as well. I'd keep an eye in the NH3 just to be sure, there's a possibility that the flashing is due to ammonia too.

 

[fry_lover]

They are flashing because of wrong water parameters. African cichlids from the lakes when kept in non ideal water conditions are likely to flash and try to scratch like that. Mine occasionaly flash when the pH gets a little lower than it should be or when the KH or GH is a little different than what it should be, and I fix that by adding the proper salts to the water. In a matter of hours, the flashing and itching is gone. As your africans are probably in a tank with a much lower pH than their natural environment along with a softer water (lower KH and/or GH), they are doing this.

African Cichlids do need salts in their water - but not salt as in marine salt (sodium chloride). Your Labidochromis will probably tolerate and "adapt" themselves to this condition for a few weeks or months, but don't expect them to live that much.

I am very interested in knowing how you came to the conclusion they are "flashing because of wrong water parameters" when the original poster hasn't disclosed the water parameters and you haven't even asked

 

[marcusbacus]

I am very interested in knowing how you came to the conclusion they are "flashing because of wrong water parameters" when the original poster hasn't disclosed the water parameters and you haven't even asked

Simple: because of previous experiences with similar situations. Place a cichlid to a tank with wrong parameters (like a tank with tetras!) and you'll see what happens. Or it's ammonia/chlorine burn (I'm excluding these at first because there seems to be nothing wrong with the other fish) or else wrong water parameters. If a tank has (healthy I suppose?) tetras and loaches I am assuming that they are in a very different environment than african cichlids, it's not a matter of decimal points of pH levels - they are probably very far from what they should be.

 

[Ferris]

Everyone appears to be missing the obvious - flashing is typical Mbuna behaviour.

Perfectly normal and usually attributed to territorial activity, part of a mating ritual or simply showing off.

 

[fry_lover]

well dthoftsett mentioned it, and my yellow labs are constantly rubbing on the sand in front of each other, Before i learnt about Mbuna behaviour and become more experiencedi thought it was parasite's too.