couple of questions

[Fishywishy]

55 gal tank, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 7nitrates (planted)

I have what I think are 3yellow labs (they came from this "assorted chichlid" tank) and 3 kenyai something (blue with black vertical stripes) (again from the same "assorted chichlid" tank). And, 6 tiger barbs. Have had them about a month, had to move them back and forth to paint wall. There's 3 extra fish, that should be moving out this weekend (neighbor's huge tank sprung a leak in the seam and we stuck the fish in my tank while he repaired it)

These are more curiousity questons:

1) When I got the chichlids all were the same size about an inch long (including tail). Now, all except one, which was a little smaller then the rest to begin with, are about 2 inches long. The littlest guy, is still the same size when I got him. Yes, he/she (haven't figured out how to lift the fin and check hehehe jk) is still the exact same size as when I got it. He's agressive enough to hold his own right now, but I'm worried if he doesn't start growing that I'm gonna have to move him. Anyway, is it possible, that I got a "runt" and it's just not going to grow and keep up with the other fish and eventually get bullied out? Or something wrong with the fish? (it's my favorite of the whole fish tank and the whole reason I chose chichild's to begin with)

2) Of the yellow labs, one i think might be a Kenyai, it looks like it has some blue to it's coloring like it's frosted and some faded striping, either way he's fun. The one I'm concerned about is again the littlest, not by much. Ever since we got him he swims funny. You know when the lab would be running away from another and it swims really fast and it's whole body wiggles back and forth? (hoping that made sense) This guy swims like that when he is sitting front and center just in one place looking at me. I notice that he always swims near the top and does this sideways swim along the top, almost like he's trying to get out. Sometimes, he goes between the where the filter outlet is and the side of the tank (he can't get out there..the filter hangs over the back) and is like trying to get up in there. One day, when I sat and watched him, he wasn't using one of his side fins (near his gills), when swimming around. He eats extremely well, he comes to the front of the tank whenever anyone comes near. Then a while later he was using it. So, do you think this is some sort of defect (like Nemo) or something happened to him in the fish store or ???? I really have trouble believing it's my water or Ph as I keep my PH the same as the fish stores around here. He sleeps/rests near some rocks at the bottom, so I know he can breathe ok. Any ideas on this fish's behavior, he's just really wierd (interesting) compared to the rest.

3)Feeding... I feed these darn things all the time (like 3 or 4 times a day), food just never hits the bottom, much less this few minutes rule. I do make sure everyone gets some (like a few chichlid pellets each at least or a couple of blood worms each)They act like they are hungry all the time. Whenever, someone comes into the room, they all swim to the top side where I usually put the food. They are confused if I open the other side of the tank, they stay right where I've always fed them. (The barbs included here) Do you think I should feed them more... worried about screwing up water conditions by the extra waste?? Their colors are beautiful, they look healthy, they aren't thin (in fact I think a couple of em look kinda fat), and compared to what they looked like when I got them, they are different fish. (there isn't a real decent fish store within an hour of my house, although there are 3 or 4 crappy fish stores within 5 minutes LOL)

4) My neighbor's fish.... he has this huge tank, like this thing has got be close on 300gals (i didn't ask) takes up a whole wall. He had 2 bala sharks (figured out why my son wanted bala sharks so badly when we first got the tank) and this other fish which he said was "fire mouth meeka". I can clearly see that it is a chichlid, but it's definetly not the "fire mouth" picture I was looking at. Which, I looked because I was trying to figure out why this fish was called a "fire mouth" when it didn't have any red, and I wanted to call it "frostbite", because it had purple lips. So, this fish right now is about 3 inches long, it's silver looking from a distance but it has some purplish/pinkish colors. It has this kinda stripe down it's side with 2 black dots. The best description I can give is it looks like someone tried to draw a line from it's gills to it's tail using a leaky ball point pen. It's lips are purple. I has fins exactly like the kenyai's and yellow labs in my tank and the mouth is much the same (really a pretty fish) Body type is like the yellow labs, but fatter (taller fat) rounder (not sure how to decribe here). Any clues what "fire mouth" this might be.......err what type of chichlid this might be.

Anyway, sorry for the novel, just curious about these fish. Thanks.

(btw, neighbor is as clueless at fish keeping as I am, he's been taking care of fish tanks for 20 years or so, but never knew about cycling and all that, and he doesn't really know tropical fish, the tank used to house some probably illegal fish, and then when the fish died, he just left it empty without water or anything for like 2 or 3 years, and has just recently decided on getting it going again, which he had to buy new filtertation, heaters and stuff....which is how I ended up 3 itty bitty fish (atm) for such a huge tank, when he realized one of the seams was leaking.)

 

[kay-bee19]

1. Some fish experience different growth rates for whatever reason. Among a group of store bought yellow labs I bought, one only put on about an inch at most since I've had him (nearly 2yrs now). Meanwhile I've had yellow labs born in my tank which have surpassed this small yellow lab in size, even thought they were born months after I had this particular lab. The runt should be fine as long as remains large enough not to be considered a snack.

2. Yellow labs and kenyi are very easy to differentiate, do you have a pic? Some labs display stress bars (which may explain the striping you're seeing; got a pic?) (also in general terms, yellow labs are among the least aggressive mbuna and kenyi are among the most aggressive). It's difficult for me to comment on the fish's swimming pattern without seeing it first hand (are you able to post a video?).

3. Healthy mbuna appear perpetually hungry. Nevertheless it's not good in the long term to overfeed. If the majority of them are at least 2" or more, you can reduce feeding to once a day instead of considering to feed them more often (this won't impact their health since they can go days without eating). They yellow labs can accept higher protein levels than a lot of other mbuna, but your kenyi (like most mbuna) are herbivorous and do best on low protein diets (protein content of the food 40% or less for mbuna which are not fry). Regularly consuming foods high in protein can result in contracting the malawi bloat which is a serious and often fatal intestinal ailment. I'd suggest discontinuing the blood worms (even though your mbuna appear to love them).

4. Not sure on what type of cichlid that is, although if you can get a picture of it, identifying should be fairly easy to someone on this forum.

 

[Fishywishy]

They only get bloodworms when I accidently thaw out too much for the ADF's and others in my other tanks, because I get distracted with other stuff before cutting off the portion I need. (I should have been more clear on what I was feeding them) Mostly they get the chichlid pellets(the ones with a picture of a Kenyai on the front), because I can pour a specific amount in the cap and then give it too my son to feed the fish. I assumed this was the right food, however after reading the reply and then the bottle of food, it does say 44% protien, will have a look tomorrow for better food for them.

sorry I'm not real good with pictures of moving fish and flashes but heres my best attempts:

the "half-breed", he's yellow, but notice the bluish fins and light colored stripes, when I got him he looked all yellow but a much paler yellow then the fish that is swimming above him. halfbreed pic 1

same fish, different angle, unfortunatly the flash caught the glass and reflected, but you can see his yellow coloring and the starts (near the top of his fins) of black stripes and the bluish tone to his fins. That bluish tone is across his whole body. You can catch it a little under his eye in this pic
halfbreed pic 2

the unknown fish, again sorry for the poor quality, but everytime i get near the fish tank they come looking for food and swimming all over trying to follow me, just sure my only purpose in life is to feed them! This is my neighbor's fish, not mine, you can't see his purple lips so well sorry...but they really are cool looking...trust me!
unknown fish to me

as far as video, you can try this, but i would not click this unless you have a super fast internet connection and a good 5 minutes to waste it's 14mb. I can't seem to get it to pull up using Explorer and Windows Media player, but I can with Mozilla and Quicktime....not sure why. But with 5mb dowload speeds it still took me 3 or 4 minutes and it really doesn't show this fish swimming up to the back and out, just swimming, but you can see he's not being chased or harrassed.
wierdo fish video

thanks for your help, really mostly curious about the unknow fish now what is it? LOL (very agressive btw)