New To The Site And Cichlids

[Demm]

whats up all. just registered on the site. i jsut recently got a tank and got some juvenile cichlids (kenyis, yellow labs, blotches). couple questions:

some of hte fish always are going up and down the sides of the tanks, looks like maybe they are chasing their reflections? if that what they are doing? is that natural? or would this be a bad thing and what would i do to counteract this?

also i have a bubblewand on the back of the tank and the fish seem to love to swim from one side of the tank to the other over the wand and they "float" and "drift" over the bubbles, is that bad for them? should they be doing that?

here's a couple pics of my tank. it's a starter tank, i probably did all sorts of things wrong cause i dont know to much about the sets or anythign yet. i'm going out this weekend to get bigger rocks to stack, but this is what i got for now.

sry for the small pictures, only have a cell phone camera.

some pictures of the fish (big pics so i didnt wanna use the image tag):

http/www.gmofsa.com/fish/CIMG4091.JPG
http/www.gmofsa.com/fish/CIMG4092.JPG
http/www.gmofsa.com/fish/CIMG4093.JPG
http/www.gmofsa.com/fish/CIMG4100.JPG
http/www.gmofsa.com/fish/CIMG4089.JPG

any opinions, good or bad are welcome on my tank setup. i could use all the advice i can get.

 

[Gatorbait]

Welcome to the site.

Everything sounds normal.

I rarely use a bubblewand but when I do they love playing in it. It's not harmful.

New fish, and sometimes established fish, will often go up and down the glass. They are probably just checking out their new home and seeing where all they can/can't go. Some fish do it when stressed but being new fish, I'd say their just checking things out.

 

[Ferris]

The fact that you fish are swimming up and down the glass is actually a very good thing - this is always a sign of happy, healthy Mbuna.