How common are Keyholes in stores?

[vanpudin]

Are Keyholes a common cichlid to find were fish are sold? My local petsmart does not sell them. I went to next closest petsmart, and an employee told me that they are kind of seasonal. Once in a while they get them in the employee said. that doesnt make any sense to me.
I'm thinking of getting 1 or 2 more small cichlids that i can mix with my other small semi aggressive fish. I alreay have 1 firemouth, but do not want to get anymore fish that get over about 5''.
I know i do not have many options sense even most smaller cichlids that are 4-4.5'' are just to agressive for the typical 3-4'' semiagressive fish i have. I have had a few suggestions in another forum, but still considering. Not many of the cichlids max out at 4''.
I do have a Krib Cichlid. It stays mostly on bottom not bothering anybody.

[severum mama]

Chain pet stores do not generally sell keyholes. A mom and pop joint is a better bet, or if you are willing to pay shipping, then Aquabid is a good choice. I would not recommend keeping keyholes with a firemouth, as they are very passive and are likely to be stressed by the FM.

[Rbishop]

Rare from my experience.

[Weezer]

Never have seen them around here, but i'll have to ask our store if they have ever had them.......:)

[MbunaFishKeeper]

my LFS has them in quiet alot, maybe you could ring around some FS that is what i do if looking for specific species.

[jm1212]

looks at singly owned or small chain stores. even if they dont have them, they will probably by happy to order two of them for you.

[Ruben Tolon]

They are normally hard to come by, and when I've worked at pet stores they usually aren't on the order form from the wholesaler.

[vanpudin]

Well if Firemouth becomes a problem when an adult with my smaller semiagressive fish, I can find a home for it. I'll only be out 3$. Maybe by then if i want to keep the firemouth, then i may have larger tank. I've heard though that Firemouths grow slower than the average cichlid.
Well, not big on getting fish shipped.. I dont need it that bad. May need to go to a fish only store and see what they got.
Is there any common cichlid that would work in this situation? Like a Krib cichlid for example. I already have one though.
Looking for one that gets up to maybe 4.5'' but not super agressive for its size. Not many fall in this class, beacause they are cichlids and generally agressive.
I have a bolivian ram in my community tank but know it wont work out in this semiagressive tank.
Thanks for everybodys help and opinions.

[mudskippers]

i see keyholes all the time at my lfs... heck, ive even seen them at petsmart/petco.

but i do agree, keyholes are very passive, i wouldn't look too much into the fact that they are called cichild, there very much so a community fish.

[vanpudin]

Its doing well, Fits right in. Some kind of reflection under it. Nothing wrong with fish. I'm thinking it is a male.

[steve p]

Its doing well, Fits right in. Some kind of reflection under it. Nothing wrong with fish. I'm thinking it is a male.

Nice looking krib and yep its a male:) .

Steve.

[Phil22]

I just picked up 3 from my LFS. Don't know if they have them all the time, just happened to be in there and wanted a few. The others are right, they are very passive, great community fish.

[vanpudin]

We'll if i come across one, it may go in my community tank.

[beefsteak]

My local petsmart does not sell them. I went to next closest petsmart, and an employee told me that they are kind of seasonal. Once in a while they get them in the employee said. that doesnt make any sense to me.


What part doesn't make sense? It'd be impossible for PetSmart and other LFSs to stock every freshwater fish in the trade at one time. Not enough room. That's why a good number of species are only available at certain times of the year for a specific amount of time. Keyhole cichlids have been carried by PetSmart in the past and may well be carried by us again. It all depends entirely upon our supplier and we usually only know a few weeks ahead of time when they'll be coming in. Since we recently got our updated fish list, I can safely say if we are going to carry Keyholes this year, it won't be anytime soon. Kribs are our "new" cichlid right now.

Good luck with your search. :)

[vanpudin]

That's good then. I get most of my fish at petsmart. I actually just bought my male Krib from their. Ill pass by the local petsmart store once in a while and take a look. And your right, there is a lot of different stocks freshwater fish out their. It would be nearly impossible to stock everything.

[Aphotic Phoenix]

I got mine from Petco roughly 2-3 weeks ago

[x0x0x0]

it depends where you live too. somehow only one of the lfs around here carries them normally. i have 5 of them myself. then again they do carry all the other fish that no one else seems to.

[vanpudin]

thanks for the input

[lovejonesx]

To ME the frequency in which you find certain fish kind of goes in & out like a fads b/c I remember back in the 90's when even though you couldn't find Keyhole Cichlids in most stores,....the COOLEST LFS's (usually the smaller ones ) use to have them more frequently for awhile & THEN (after a year or so ) I've not seen them with any regularity in the 9 years or so.


TO BE TOTALLY HONEST, I DON'T SEE AS MANY & VARYING CICHLIDS AS I USE TO !!

LJx

[KnaveTO]

Guess I am lucky... we have a LFS that specializes in cichlids. 90% of his store is just that. He carries some other fish just to be able to pay the bills but even then more people go to his store for the cichlids now.

[lovejonesx]

Guess I am lucky... we have a LFS that specializes in cichlids. 90% of his store is just that. He carries some other fish just to be able to pay the bills but even then more people go to his store for the cichlids now.


I would say that YOU ARE lucky!

Use to have that close to me as well, but they couldn't stay afloat & now I have to travel a bit.

[vanpudin]

I may go call a few shops this time before i go looking around everywere. After seeing it i may or may not want it. will see how much color it has. I have been interested in finding a few cichlids like that one that are not too agressive.

[mee-mee]

Yeah, we haven't seen any at all...not even the one we go to in Forest Lake has them..but ya got lucky and he looks good...