Yellow Lab Cichlid

[Denorios]

I have 29gal community tank with 2 Upside Down Catfish, 4 zebra danios, an African dwarf frog, and 2 or 3 Ghost Shrimp (rarely see them all at the same time, so it's hard to be sure how many). Anyway, I'm just starting to stock the tank, and I wanted to add something different. Someone suggested a dwarf cichlid, and in a previous thread one of you all mentioned these Yellow Lab Cichlids as a good choice. I've done some investigating and I'm not sure they would be a good fit for a community tank, but I'd love to add one, so I'm looking for some advice from those of you who know cichlids better than I do.

[Fishguy2727]

Yellow lab is an African rift lake cichlid form Lake Malawi. That means: highly aggressive, incompatible water parameters (pH, hardness, etc.), and a big no for your tank. They also are not even dwarf cichlids (they hit about 4-5"). If you are looking for a dwarf cichlid go with the ever popular and usually easily available rams.

[freshwaterfishlover]

I never had a Cichlid tank or a cichlid fish. I do know Cichlids are cold water fish like Goldfish. They would not work well with some of your tropical fish already in the tank since they need a temp of 70-80F. I think The 2 upside Catfish would be ok in the tank and I know the Shrimp will do ok in a Cichlid tank, Buy I know the 4 Zebra Danios and Frog will bad for the tank.

Thats why when people talk about getting Cichlids they never talk about any other fish.

[cocoa_pleco]

I do know Cichlids are cold water fish like Goldfish.



nope. Cichlids need PH about 8 and regular 75f-80f temps. Who told ya cichlids are coldwater?

[Drumachine09]

nope. Cichlids need PH about 8 and regular 75f-80f temps. Who told ya cichlids are coldwater?

I second that.

[cocoa_pleco]

if you put a cichlid in coldwater, chances are he'll get ich and other disease due to temp change, and they cant fight disease.

The only coldwater fish are goldies and koi, and i guess weather loaches

[cocoa_pleco]

also, if put in coldwater, their metabolism goes down and they move slow and become lethargic

[Drumachine09]

For every 5 degrees below 70, most fish's metabolism drops by 15 or more percent. I know this from fishing. Which brings up the question, "Why does ice fishing work?"

[cocoa_pleco]

i dunno how ice fishing works.

[Drumachine09]

During the freeze, food is scarce, so fish will usually take any chance they can get to put some meat on their bones.

[Chrona]

During the freeze, food is scarce, so fish will usually take any chance they can get to put some meat on their bones.

Sounds cheesy, like fish in a barrel :P

[jweintraub]

Like reptileguy said, go with a fish like rams, or even a pair of kribs. Yellow labs need a completely different setup besides the PH differences, they will need a rocky setup.

[cocoa_pleco]

kribs are really great fish