African Cichlid Questions?????????

Hi!

I am new here. If you all could help me i'd really appreciate it. Here's my deal...I have a 55gallon tank which used to house various South Am Cichlids. I say various because , well you know how aggressive they are. I was constantly replacing them because they were always eating one another. I am REALLY tired of that whole vicious circle and the severe aggression. I decided to switch over to African Chiclids. After adjusting the alkalinity I added some fish. I basically eneded up with the same situation as with the SA Cichilds. I have one fish left. I am not even really sure what it is. I do know that it is a African Cichlid, it is albino with very yellow fins and faint tiger stripes on the body and it has red eyes. Very cool little fish and I really don't want to get rid of him. Does anyone have any ideas as to what kind of fish I have and what I can put with it in order to cut out my cycle of killing? I like active fish but prefer more harmony.

Thanks to all in advance! :y_the_best:

 

Actually, pound for pound, africans are more aggressive than most SA cichlids. They most likely won't eat eachother, but they will do a lot of chasing & nipping which can cause a fish to die from stress. However, if you give them lots of caves to hide out in and make the tank a little overstocked (within reason and assuming you have enough filtration) that will help reduce the aggression some.

Does this look like your fish?


For stocking, you could probably get about 12 africans in a 55 gallon tank. The ones you want to avoid like the plague are the Melanochromis species because they're the Rambos of the african cichlid world. I would stick with zebras, peacocks, and labs

-Chelle

 

That's My Fish!!

Wow!! I must have described it pretty well because that is my fish! Thank you now I can research him a little.

I have TONS of caves rocks and hiding places and have still have killing.

One main thing with the SA's is that I would overstock them a little and then they would grow so HUGE I would have to turn them in to the LFS.

Are there any African's that will stay small?

Thanks :y_the_best:

 

The overstocking doesn't work with SA cichlids.

And yes, most africans only get around 4" or 5".

-Chelle

 

do u buy all your fish at the same time?

 

did u overstocked ur aquarium? cichlids defend their own territory.. thats why they're aggressive.. put more caves and rocks for them to hide if possible. Good Luck

 

I bought the majority of them at the same time.

Yes, my tank is a bit overcrowded. I have 12 africans in a 55 gallon tank which works out to about 5 1/2 gallons each. At the moment I have too many plecos in there but as soon as I get rid of two of them, I'll probably add one more african.

One thing you have to be careful about when overstocking is your water parameters. You have to have enough filtration to handle the ammonia and you have to keep up with your water changes to get rid of the nitrAtes. Lately I've been experimenting with pothos in my tanks. It's a really common vine-like houseplant that can grow in water w/o soil. I have it in the backs of my tanks with the bottom of the stem in the water and the rest of the plant draped over the back of the tank. So far it's helped a lot with my oscar tank. I can go 2 weeks between water changes and my nitrAtes will still be less than 20. I haven't noticed as much of a difference in my 55, but I don't have as much pothos in it yet.

-Chelle