BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Fish Cichlid Journal

We left the tank as it was for quite a while, just the little orange guy with blue spot, and two huge plecos. Last weekend, DH finally put back all the other toys -- silk flowers, sea glass, cave, etc. Then yesterday, he came home with 2 medium sized and 2 teeny cichlids. I told him he bought the bigger fish a snack, but he disagreed. So far, so good. Now there are 6 cichlids, so we'll see how they do. He thought with all the hidey holes that they would all get along.
Nan

I am thinking about putting flower pots in my tank instead of rocks. I personally do not like holey rock, and lava rock is cool, but I wanna do something a little different. I am going to get all different sized flower pots and cut them so they make little caves.

Be careful how many cichlids you put in that tank. They need plenty of space, especially those african cichlids. They are very aggressive and will do a number on each other if they don't have enough room to spread out and claim some territory of thier own.

So far my ram babies are still doing fine. The mom and the other females I bought from the same batch have nematodes though...(blah)...so I am treating them with interneal parasite meds. They're those ugly red worms that hang out from thier vents..dang, I hate parasites..lol.. Hopefully the other fish in the tank won't be affected as these ugly things need a crustacean in order to complete thier cycle and I don't have any in any of my tanks. They are all being treated though because I can't feed those affected with anything but the treated food for 3 days straight...4 weeks in a row. Hope they go away quickly. The male I bought from another batch doesn't seem to be affected, which is good, but he's still being treated along with the gouramis.

I had put my breeding female ram in one of those little plastic quarenteen things that hang inside the tank...she went and layed eggs in it..silly girl ! Of course they aren't fertile because daddy was outside looking in. Hope they don't start to get all fungusy on me..I can't get them out..lol..she glued them in !

LOL EMG! Sometimes fish are so weird.

I have settled on a few definite fish going in my tank:

venestus
chipoke
socolofi
sunshine yellow

I do not know the rest that I am going to put in. I am going to end up with 6-7 fish though, plus either 2 syno-cats or plecos. I have not decided which yet.

Emg,

I got home last night to see the bigger blue striped guy with the verticle striped little guy in his mouth, with only a bit of the tail protruding. Sigh. I tried feeding them to tempt him to eat something else. He gulped the rest of the little guy, and then went and ate flakes.

The other little one is fine, they are all letting him be. So, I guess having 6 cichlids is one too many.
Nan

aww! sometimes fish can be real buggers, can't they? The people I work for have a 75 gallon and their shark chases all the fish at times, just messin with them.

Cichlids are certainly very aggressive..the african ones anyway. I guess you do know if you have too many when they start eating each other up.

Well, thought I would post something on here about my rams...since they're a cichlid and all..lol..

The baby rams I am raising are doing very well so far. They are almost 5 weeks old now. I don't know how long it takes them to grow large enough to sell...hope not too long. I'd like to keep a few of these for myself, but we'll see if I have a tank to put them in or not..lol..I seem to have put that 20L on hold for awhile...just too many tanks to take care of right now, I'd be a total nut to add another !

I had an episode of cammallanus nematodes in the female rams I had first brought home. Lost one but the other two seem to be coming around. I have been feeding them "Jungle anti-parasite medicated food" It's taken about 3 weeks so far and it looks as though one of the females has gotten rid of hers...but I still see one hanging from the other one.

These are intestinal parasites that you can see hanging from thier vents. Ugly red critters..blah..but so far I see no signs of any of my other fish coming down with them. I have been reading that they need a crustacean to complete thier cycle...and I don't have any, not even a snail..so I'm hoping the rest are spared this nuisance. We'll see.