New friends

[chester82006]

Although I recently had a rough time with my Oscar, and his HITH... things have turned around. My LFS agreed to take care of him for me since everything I've tried for my beloved O the past 4 months has not helped. I do still have my 8 inch pleco in there.

I got my 75 gallon set up for more cichlids, and I'm more than ready to start brand new. Today I added 2 of what I believe to be Acei, 1 yellow lab... and 1 light peachy blotched colored cichlid. I'm not sure what that one is :\ Does that sound familiar to anyone? They're all about an inch in length. I have my pH at about 8.4 and harder water now for these new guys, with countless hiding spots.

How many of these fish will I be able to keep in my tank? I do want to add more labs, and just have a brightly colored community.

Thank you!:11:

[rangur1]

welcome to african cichlids, the orange blotch could be any of several species
i can not stress strongly enough that you read up on these cichlids because their territorial nature will lead to stocking challenges and/or deaths.
these fish are beautiful, but a bit demanding.

[Sharon]

Ditto!!!! Better do some research...:ssmile:

[Dixie]

I agree with the others and can't stress "do the research before the purchase" enough. If you just buy one of these and two of those, maybe three of another, because you like their colors you could end up with a real mess on your hands. They can inbreed leaving you with lots of hybrid fry that you won't be able to sell or that could be real monsters if you decide to keep. Or the fish you buy might not be compatible and kill each other. I think you should decide exactly what you want from, or for, the tank then try to find the fish and put it together.

In a 75g. tank there are several possibilities. Since you posted in the malawi section and already purchased what you believe to be an acei and a yellow lab (mbuna) I think mbuna or maybe peacocks is probably what you want. The important thing to note is, these are not pairing fish. For breeding they should be kept in species groups of 1 male per 3-4 females. Kept as such, you could keep 4 species in your tank. It's still important to do your homework on the 4 species to minimize the risk of inbreeding or killing each other. This is the recommendation for mbuna not peacocks. I won't get into peacocks because I've never kept them. Some people go for all male tanks because they want alot of different species without inbreeding and males are usually more colorful than females. This can be difficult to do but some have had success with it. Alot of peacock tanks are all male. Let us know what direction you want to go with your tank and I'm sure we can help you put together something you'll be very happy with.

[chester82006]

I do believe I made a mistake :\ thanks for the info guys... I'll have to sort things out in this tank.

[Dixie]

Why do you think you made a mistake?
Many of us started out buying fish we liked the looks of without knowing much about them.

I hope you didn't get to much info. at once and get overwhelmed. You're on the right track by asking questions and I hope you continue to go forward and not give up. The acei and yellow lab will be fine together so no biggie there. If you can take a pic of the other fish maybe someone here can tell you what it is too. Chances are it may go well with the other two and all you'll need to do is get more of what you already have.

Let us know what you're thinking. We'll try to help.

[bocrayfish]

sigh i remember the days to dixie we all have to start some where

[Dixie]

Yep, when I started I didn't know much about african cichlids at all..only that they liked hard water and my water was hard.

chester82006, You said you have your pH at is 8.4 now... how did you get it to that number and what is it naturally? Altering the pH can be tricky and hard to keep it consistant. It's better to have it a little below ideal than to have it always changing, trying to keep it perfect.

I know it's sounding harder and harder to keep these fish but really they are a pretty hardy fish and well worth a little studying in the beginning to get a nice tank going. I hope you're not giving up.

[chester82006]

I'm using a buffer called Seachem to keep the pH stable after water changes instead o It was recommended to me by my LFS employees. I understand that is it important to have a constant pH, and I believe I'm getting the hang of it. Also... I do hear it's better to naturally keep the pH up, so I kind of regret using the buffer now.

As they get older I'll be needing to sort the fish out since I don't know the sexes.

[Dixie]

As fish get use to the tank and start claiming territory, it can get hard to add more fish to them. It's best to add [B]at least[B] 3-4 or more at a time, adding the mildest aggression wise first. I would work on getting more yellow labs (maybe 6-8 total) then a couple weeks later add a group (6-8) of another species. I would do that every two weeks until I had 4 species stocked. Then as they matured remove extra males. Good luck & happy fish keeping.