My All Male Peacock Revue

[Jannika]

No, it's not a male stripper troop. Are you curious about cichlids but confused by too much information? Would you like brilliant color in your tank without a bloodbath? Tempted to buy fish by Fed-Ex, but worried about their safety? Me too. It's almost 4:30 pm and they haven't arrived yet. It's a warm day too.

1 Sunshine Yellow Peacock
1 Jacobfreibergi "Eureka Red Jake"
1 Orange Blossom Peacock
1 German Red Peacock
1 Maylandi "Sulfur Head"
1 Placidochromis Electra Hap
1 Blue Dolphin Hap
and just for kicks
1 Petricola "Cuckoo" Catfish from Lake Tanganyika

I probably made a mistake or two in that group but being my first foray into cichlids it will be a learning experience. Most are only 1.75" - 2.25" right now but here's approximately what they should look like as adults.

Here's my 55 setup:

There you see the famous 'Rift Lake Birch', but since most plants don't do well under these conditions I'm not even going to try real ones. My 3 giant danios have been keeping the cycle going, but I think they'll probably have to be rehomed, even though they're bigger and faster. Will they be okay for a few days, or should I move them back to the 20G before the new residents arrive?

It's black gravel substrate but I could make a sandy area for them if necessary. My water is very hard, 300 ppm with a pH of 8.3, so crushed coral isn't needed.

I'll keep updating and posting pics to this thread as it goes, and probably need help identifying the little guys, who hopefully won't be too stressed from their flight.

 

[Jannika]

They arrived alive! Some are a little ticked off, I think, but now they're chillin and being slowly acclimated.

The first thing I did was test the pH of the water they're in, and it's a lot lower than my 8.3! I assume this means a VERY slow acclimation, correct?

 

[Pittbull]

Yes def go slow and hopefully by now they are doing fine and swimming around nicely, with their small size i would remove the Danio's as they can be a little bit boisterous by nature..

Good luck..

 

[efors]

I know how nervous you were; it happened to me almost 2 years ago. And my fishes did a long trip from Kentucky to Puerto Rico in the Caribbean. Enjoy them and don't forget to show us pics of those fishies in the tank.

 

[londonloco]

Sigh, I went thru a cichlid stint years ago, ended up with 16 tanks! Got into salt water, now back to freshwater planted. All these cichlid posts are killing me. Have a 120g w/a sump, thinking I could turn it back into a cichlid tank. Thinking...next year...well, maybe sooner? Taggin along, please update us! Often!

 

[myswtsins]

I hope everyone acclimated well. I would remove the giant danios as soon as possible. For one thing removing them gives you an opening of beneficial bacteria that some of the new comers bioload can fill. So it would be more like you're only adding 4-5 new fish instead of 8 because those other other 3-4 already have the bacteria from the danios. Make sense? I don't know how to explain it! :nilly:

Beautiful fish though!!

 

[efors]

Sigh, I went thru a cichlid stint years ago, ended up with 16 tanks! Got into salt water, now back to freshwater planted. All these cichlid posts are killing me. Have a 120g w/a sump, thinking I could turn it back into a cichlid tank. Thinking...next year...well, maybe sooner? Taggin along, please update us! Often!

Hmmm...I think you have a foot back into the Dark Side of the African Rift Lakes cichlid world, londonloco! :grinyes:

 

[DrgRcr]

I know it's a little late, but before starting acclimation, a good habit to get into would be to also test for any ammonia in the bag water. It's possible there is none, but if there is, you can take appropriate action. As pH rises, ammonia becomes more toxic. So while you are acclimating them to your parameters and raising the pH, you could be doing them unintentional harm. A good way to combat this would be a few drops of one of the good water conditioners that lock or remove ammonia, such as Prime or Amquel, and then proceeding as normal. This way you can eliminate the possiblity of hurting/stressing them, especially after being shipped. Good luck, be sure to post some pics when they're settled in!

 

[Jannika]

I know it's a little late, but before starting acclimation, a good habit to get into would be to also test for any ammonia in the bag water. It's possible there is none, but if there is, you can take appropriate action. As pH rises, ammonia becomes more toxic. So while you are acclimating them to your parameters and raising the pH, you could be doing them unintentional harm. A good way to combat this would be a few drops of one of the good water conditioners that lock or remove ammonia, such as Prime or Amquel, and then proceeding as normal. This way you can eliminate the possiblity of hurting/stressing them, especially after being shipped. Good luck, be sure to post some pics when they're settled in!

That's very good advice. I did have a fatality afterall. They were all alive when first checked them, although some larger ones were in very small baggies for their size. After cutting the bags open, I added about 5 ml of my tank water to each, then waited 20-30 minutes. In that time, the Benga Yellow expired.

After this, I got a little freaked out. To me they looked so miserable in their baggies that I rushed the acclimation and got them all into the tank within the next 30 minutes.

Most were not shy, they seemed to enjoy exploring their new home. I kept the lights off and didn't feed until today. Even the one remaining danio that escaped my net yesterday is doing well.

Some are much larger than I expected.

They threw in a free German. I believe these two above are both German Red. I just hope they get along and don't screw up my "no two alike - no problem" plan.

The catfish is way tiny, though! They're supposed to get along well, but he's bite size and I'm worried. He immediately claimed a cave, but needs a better hiding spot than that, I think.

Thanks for all your comments. I'll post more and (hopefully) better pictures of them and their activities.

 

[DrgRcr]

They look real nice! Sorry about the loss, but next time you can do the things I mentioned. It's not to say that's what happened, but it's one variable you can eliminate. As far as the syno cats, they do better in groups, probably 6 minimum. Petricola stay smaller at about 3". How big is your tank, I didn't see it mentioned? Can I ask where you got them also?