feeding africians

[Lady G]

I was just wondering what is the "ideal" diet for african cichlids?

Thanks so much,

Gin

[~*LuvMyKribs*~]

Impossible question :P

Which type, better yet, which species are you talking about?

;)
-Diana

[liv2padl]

there are thousands of African cichlid species. many from Lake Malawi are specific vegetarians for which a diet focusing on spirulina would be appropriate. others, including most from Lake Tanganyika are insectivores. which ones are we talking about in your case? be specific ... telling us they're from lake malawi or lake tanganyika won't help much.

[Lady G]

I'm not sure what ones they are, I'll get some pics and post to see if anyone can tell me what they are, I was going to post pics a while back but my camera and computer were not compatible, but I can do it now...it will be later though, I just got home from work and have to get supper, and kids taken care of first.

Thanks, I'll be back some time tonight! :thm:

[Lady G]

Ok it took some time to get them but I got a couple pictures. Now I'm not the best at this aquarium picture taking so bare with me, please if you know what I have let me know!

Many thanks,

Gin

I can't get them to upload it keeps telling me it is too large, I try and fix it but now matter what I do it isn't uploading them....any suggestions? :duh:

[reptileguy2727]

load them onto photobucket.com, its free and automatically downsizes the pics. you will have to register with them, but its free and thats the one i use without complaints.

[losthere]

A good staple for many cichlids that i recommend is New Life Spectrum Chchlid Mix. And depending on what species you will need to supplement regularly with plant source algea,spirulina,seaweed and or protein source brine,plankton,etc. Side note: you guys should lighten up Newbies need help and souldnt be afraid to ask ?s for fear of being condemed.

[liv2padl]

you guys should lighten up Newbies need help and souldnt be afraid to ask ?s for fear of being condemed. what the hell are you talking about? nobody here condemned the original poster and everyone tried as best they could, to answer his question and/or ask additional questions which would help to narrow the scope of the answer. neither did the poster seem intimidated nor afraid to ask a question. you trying to stir the pot or just developing a lousy attitude?

[wesleydnunder]

losthere you're kidding, right? Like LMK and liv2padl pointed out, there are too many species with different dietary requirements to lump all African cichlids together. No one was condemning anyone. They were just trying to narrow the field so they could answer correctly for a certain species. Relax...deeeeeep breath.

Mark

[Lady G]

I was looking at my camera's user guide and I there is a way to change the picture size on the camera, I'm going to try that..it was set so I could print 4x6 pics, I'm going to change that from 5.4mp to .8mp take new pics and post again.

I went to my photo bucket and uploaded my images, but then I didn't know how to get them on here from there.

losthere: Thanks for sticking up for me, but really no one made me feel "condemed" and in no way offended me, I've been here before and that is why I keep coming back...people are very thourogh and helpful :D

Thanks to all, now I must get some pics and post before I go to work.

[Lady G]

Ok, it still say's image is to large, can anyone tell me what I do to add from my photobucket?

Thanks so much!

[IceH2O]

There are a couple of ways.

Easiest is under your pic at photobucket there are 3 urls. One is an actual url one is a tag and the other is an IMG.

You can copy paste the url or IMG to this post box.

If that doesn't work ( been a while since I've posted pics here ) you can click the postcard looking symbol in the toolbar of this posting box and put the IMG there or the chain link looking symbol to add the url.

[Lady G]

Ok I am going to try the copy and paste thing thanks!

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h320/gstoffer/100_0107-1.jpg
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h320/gstoffer/100_0137.jpg

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h320/gstoffer/100_0117-1.jpg
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h320/gstoffer/100_0122-1.jpg

I hope this works this way

YIPPY IT WORKED!!!!!!!!!!! There are my babies!!! Aren't they sooo cute :D

p.s. If you need more pics, I can post em.

Thanks everyone! :thm:

[liv2padl]

there you go .. good job. well, you've got an Aulonocara (pic 1), a couple of Labidochromis caeruleus (pic 2) and two others (one Mbuna and another Aulonocara) which i'm not certain enough about to put a name to.

therefor, a diet which focuses on spirulina flakes would be a good start, graduating to small spirluna based pellets when they get larger. i also like to use freeze dried Krill, perhaps twice a week) since it contains both excellent nutrition and color enhancing xanthataxins. add some small cichlid pellets from quality manufacturers such as Hikari, OSI, New Life Spectrum and you'll have a well rounded, nutritious diet ... your fish will be happy.

what you want to avoid with Mbuna species is too much protein ... so avoid 'meat' in the form of worms etc. it would be a good idea too, to cultivate a nice algae crop on the rocks and back wall of the tank. Mbuna like to 'scrape' at the algae and it will supplement their diet. i'd avoid algae eaters in this tank for that very reason.

enjoy.

[Lady G]

Thank you sooo much, so far I had just bought them some cichlid flake and mini granules since I wasn't sure what was what with them. I had quite a bit of algae on the rocks and felt so bad I did get a algae eater but I will just take him/her out and put it in one of my other tanks.

Now my next question is, are these guys ok together? So far I've had no problems with any of them (beside the occasional chase), but I do have lots of rock with lots of hidding places, and I will be upgrading there tank as soon as I can (which will be a while like a couple months) :( .

Thanks for all the help, when I first took them from my cousin I tried looking them up but there were soooo many diferent cichlids and many looked alike, I had guessed at what I had but wasn't sure.

Thanks again for all the help!

Gin

[liv2padl]

they'll be ok while still juveniles (which your are), but as they become sexually mature you'll begin to see the territorial aggression for which African cichlids are noted. you'll have definite problems if you try to add more Africans since newcomers to an established tank will be picked on constantly.

these fish do best in groups of 5 .. one male and four females of the same species. not only will they exhibit normal behaviour in such groups, but it will minimize the spawning aggression of males toward the females. these are polygamous mouth brooders, which means the male will try to spawn with any female in the tank. a single female or even two, will thus get harrassed to death. with 3-4 females to dilute the males attentions, the group will be fine.

enjoy.

[DeRo316]

They should be OK together, mine just hang out in the rocks with the occassional chase. I feed them spectrum pellets, flakes, and they eat some leftover cucumber from my pleco.

The last pic looks like an Aulonocara jacobfreibergi, perhaps "eureka" or "otter point"

[Lady G]

How do I tell female from male? If they are more male than female I should get more females then? And if I do that will it be a problem because of the territory thing? :huh:

I am going to add a different pic of the last one.


http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h320/gstoffer/100_0122.jpg

Thanks again,

Gin

[Lady G]

Ok, I went to cichlid-forum "species profiles" and I do believe the last one is a otter pt. mine looks identical to the female pic there right down to the orange on the top of it's fin! I looked at the Eurekas also and they look very similar..but when I saw that pic of the female otter I was like "hey theres my fish"!! Now I don't know how much the juvie female and males look alike there wasn't a juvie pic of the otter but I am assuming I must have a female.

The Mbuna, would that be the orange one? Because I thought the blue one looked alot like the otter/Eureka but then when I looked at the Mbuna that I found it did kinda look like that too, but the orange didn't really look like any of the pics I found?
Heres more pics of my blue"ish" one:

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h320/gstoffer/100_0107.jpg

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h320/gstoffer/100_0118-1.jpg
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h320/gstoffer/100_0144.jpg
And heres a few of my orange:http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h320/gstoffer/100_0152.jpg
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h320/gstoffer/100_0117-1.jpg
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h320/gstoffer/100_0088.jpg
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h320/gstoffer/100_0106.jpg

Hope these help :D

[liv2padl]

How do I tell female from male? there's a good question. with certain species, it's easy ... with others it's not easy. without knowing the specific species it's really not possible to explain. looking at pics as you're already doing is the best way.


If they are more male than female I should get more females you definitely need the 1M:3-4F ratio or you'll have dead fish. so ... if you end up with more males, you've got to get rid of the extra males and get some females. i'd not try to keep more than a single male of any one species in the same tank unless that tank is at least 100 gallons.

i used to maintain a 250 gallon tank of African Mbuna but haven't done so in about 5 years (i've focused on Central and South American species) and you'd get better help with identification from those who keep Africans right now. hopefully they'll chime in soon. how about the place where you bought them?

[Lady G]

Well, I didn't buy them...I took them from my cousin, she didn't want them and was going to flush them and I couldn't let her do that!! I about died when she told me what she was about to do (knew there was a reason I felt like stopping at her house that day). But anyway they came from wal-mart, I've had them for a couple months now, I just didn't have anyway to post pics at the time to get the help I needed to identify them.

[DeputyChiefJR]

The Orange one is an Orange Blotch "OB" Zebra in my opinion...

[Lady G]

The Orange one is an Orange Blotch "OB" Zebra in my opinion...

Thanks, I'll look that one up now!

[Lady G]

Thanks, I'll look that one up now!

By golly I think we got it :thm: After looking at the pics I could find, I really think that is what it is a "OB"!
So now I have 3 down, 1 still in question THANK YOU SOOO MUCH everyone..youv'e been a great help to me!

[DeRo316]

you definitely need the 1M:3-4F ratio or you'll have dead fish.

Thats the general rule and a good one to follow. My LFS owner(& cichlid specialist) suggested I try an all male african tank, it has worked out excelent so far with no nipping fins or casualties.

[Lady G]

DeRo316: How long have you had your tank?

As I am reading more about these guy's I keep coming upon statement's that they should be slightly overstocked is this true? Also if I end up getting more (female or whichever) wont it cause a problem in my tank? What if I rearrange the rocks and plants and make it seem like a different place would that help then they would have to establish "new" territories right? Or would that make it worse :confused:
I know I need to focus on finding out what sexes I have so I am going to try and find out how to tell which is what...I'm pretty sure I know my yellow is a male since it has the black strip down it's top fin (right?) So I now am also pretty sure I have a "Otter point" and a "OB" the forth I think I know the species but not sure of "Specific" species. :huh:
So it's off to research I go!!

[Lady G]

Why do I feel even more confused after looking things up my head is spinning :thud: and I still have know idea what to thing :sad:

Now I am not sure about the Lab, I thought I read the female is duller in color and didn't have the black strip..now I read that they look the same but the male "may" have more black EERRRR!!!!!!!!
Am I at least right in believing the Aulonocara male has bright color and female is generally brown/gray? If so I do believe I have a male (blue/black), and a female (brown) anyone agree with that? The problem is so many look the same to me (body, fins, stripes) I'm not sure I have the same "type", but should I buy a couple more brownish ones so that would hopefully be 1m-3fm?

I haven't even made it to the OB yet :help: Why can't there just be a magical fish fairly to come down and give me all the answers :thud:

[DeRo316]

I really wouldnt be stressing that much about sexing them. If one starts to get picked on just take it out and trade or move it. The sexes will get more obvious as they get older which is when most of the aggression comes out anyway.

I have had this tank going for about 5 months now, but most of the fish were moved from my previous 55 which is now my parents community tank. I have had some of the fish for years and some for 2/3 months.

From online research and what my LFS owner tells me overcrowding mbuna or peacocks is a good way to avoid aggression issues. The idea is that if there is a lot of action in the tank its hard for a fish to concentrate aggression on another since there will be so many. Hiding places help as well. I dont know if moving the rocks around would help in the long run. It would eliminate territories for now but the same fish would most likely claim areas once you put the rocks back.

I think 12 to 15 in a 55 is a good number if you plan to have this type of tank. Just make sure you have a good filtration system, keep an eye on the nitrates and watch out for any aggression issues that may arise. All my fish get along great!

[Lady G]

Ok, well thank you everyone..I guess my original reason for posting got lost in all this, anyway I got some flakes, spirulina (Spelling), and mini krill ordered for now they should be here soon.

I am just happy to know what I have in my tank FINALLY :clap: and am just going to enjoy my fish and quit worrying about the sex's and everything else for now, when the time comes to moving them all around I'll worry more about sexes and such!!

Thanks again to everyone!!