Kenyis, Jewels & Blue Zebras

sicilianbutrfly

sicilianbutrfly

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Jun 24, 2006
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Okay, so here's the deal folks. I'm a newbie here (don't you hate them) and I know SQUAT about fish. The only fish I've ever had were some itty bitty minnows I caught from the lake that later died when my mom decided to change the water and basically fried them. So yeah. Well I figure I can only fit a 10-15 gal tank in my room. I love pink and blue, so when I was looking at fish pictures, pink jeweled cichlids, purple female kenyis and blue zebras caught my eye. I think they're really pretty but it seems from what I'm readin, that they require massive tanks. Is this a fact? Also need to find out if I can mix those particular cichlids together and what price range I'm lookin at. Any help is appreciated cause I could use it. Thank ya much. ;)

Jen
 
Hi there

Well, its great your looking at which fish catch your eye and actually researching them before you buy them (#1 newbie mistake is just to go ahead and do it!).

With a 10-15 gallon tank your limited as to which cichlids you keep.

Firstly:

The Kenyi (Maylandia lombardoi) and Blue Zebras (likely Maylandia callainos) are African Rift Lake cichlids from Lake Malawi. They are pretty aggressive, and would require a species-specific tank of 55 gallons or more, suited to thier habitat, with proper water chemistry and diet.

The jewel cichlids (Hemichromis bimaculatus) are actually African Riverine cichlids, and come from a different water chemistry as the others. But, they can be very aggressive as well, and are *sometimes* kept with rift lake cichlids (although I dont reccommend it). They IMO should have a tank of at least 30 gallons just for a pair.

So, if you are limited to a 10-15 gallon tank, then you will not be able to keep those fish you were interested it. But dont fret! There are many beautiful cichlids that you can keep in a 15 gallon tank (try for a 20 "tall", which is only slightly larger than a 15 gallon).

If you had soft-neutral pH water and wanted to keep plants then a SA/CA cichlid setup with German Blue rams or Bolivian rams, and some tetras would be nice. Or some Apistogramma cichlids.

You could also do a colony of Lake Tangyniakan shelldwellers if you had harder more high pH water, as they are extrememly neat little fish.


:)
-Diana
 
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