Wierd behavior

[NYYankee30]

Anyone got any advice?
40 gallon
I've got 2 Electric Yellow
1 Electric Blue
1 Convict
and 1 LG Asst. African Cichlid

The Lg Asst. African Cichild was just sitting on the bottom of the tank. Now I can see to find him, I figure he must hidding inside the big tree trunk. He's also is the only one who doesn't show for feeding time. However, the electric blue seems to govern that area and the entire tank.

At one time the African Cichlid was in charge of the tank.

Does anyone have any experiance with this type of cichlid? Do these fish require different foods?

I'm thinking of reaching inside and shaking up the trunk to see if he's still alive.

 

[leck85]

well... africans require a different PH than convicts...

 

[NYYankee30]

no, convicts and africans are compatable. Mine have been doing great with each other.

I was looking for advice for the LG Asst. African Cichlid.

 

[Orion]

LG Asst. African Cichlid does not tell us anything about the fish except that he is somewhere from africa. Most likley from Lake Malawi, as these are commonly seen for sale as Asst. Cichlids.

Its not uncommon for male cichlids to terrorize the whole tank, especialy in one as small as yours. There are several ways to lower the aggresion. Simplest is to add more rocks to provide more teritories. Many people also overstock with malawian cichlids as this also helps to calm aggresion. However I do not advise you to add more cichlids untill you are able to get a positive identity on the fish you currently have, as many things can go wrong in a small tank quickly and you could very well end up with all your fish dead. Do some research on it, and decide what is best for your situation. And then research some more.

Saying that convicts and africans are compatable is a vauge statement. While some may be, this is not true for all species or lakes.

 

[NYYankee30]

thanks for your insight.

I can see this is going in circles.

my statement on convicts and african is not vauge, it's been done by many other cichlid keepers. Even store professionals have these two types of fish together. What you said is true about other species, not all are compatable, I'm just saying that I have had much success putting these two species together.


As far as the Asst. Cichlid, he seems to be coming around, he finally showed up last night for some dinner.

 

[Managuense]

most of the mbuna are obligate algae-eaters (with a LITTLE inverts to supplement), scraping algae off of the boulders found in lake Malawi.

convicts are much more of an omnivorous fish, basically consuming almost anything placed in front of them.

assuming your "assorted" african cichlid is probably a hybrid of some type of mbuna, its dietary requirements are much different than a convict.....save the fact that they are from opposite ends of the world.

that being said, both convicts and most mbuna have been captive raised for so many generations now that they are fairly tolerant of water conditions, dietary needs, etc. and can probably be mixed in a tank with enough space.....depending on the mbuna species as always.

in your tank, i would see much more of a problem with your convict maturing and knocking off your much more peaceful yellow labs.....just something you might keep an eye on.

HTH
M

 

[NYYankee30]

that's a good point. I will have to keep an eye on the convict as he gets bigger.

I want to add some clown loaches, I was wondering if they would get along with the guys I have in the tank right now. If not, they I would look for some peacocks.

any other suggestions on which type of fish to add?
I'm not planning on adding too much more.

 

[Desi]

i dont suppose you could get a picture of your unidentified cichlid. Stop calling it LG asst. african cichlid; lol; thats just a description that your LFS uses for the bottom of the barrel fish that they want to liquidate (and from IRL experience; they are the most sick, most contaminated, most weak) as quickly as possible regarldess of the overall poor health of these assorted fish.

I made the same mistake as you once; bought a whole bunch of mbuna's and other lake malawi cichlids from a mixed tank; lost over half of them to various infections.

I also believe in over-stocking african cichlid tanks. It significantly redistributes the aggression within the tank; and only the weakest of your fish will die; wont have to worry about two healthy fish slowly beating the crapp out of each other.

 

[wayne]

As far as water chemistry goes convicts and rift valley cichlids are pretty compatible - hard and alkaline. That is the least of the problems, and there are good reasons why most people have found them NOT to be very compatible at all, and why people keep them separate.

Diet - cons are omnivores. Most mbuna are NOT obligate herbivores, however they do eat a lot of algae by mistake as they browse and nibble the algae try to get their primary taret, small algae dwelling crustaceans generally described with the german phrase 'aufwuchs'. There are plenty of mbuna that have a diet heavily weightd towards aufwuchs (example -yellow labs), and also some obligate herbivores. So feed plenty of veggies anyway, and some fresh shrimp.

Behaviour - the big problem. Convicts become very territorial over specific fixed markers i.e. a cave, a rock. They tend not to move, rather they defend.
Mbuna like your other cichlids are not very respecting of this. They are very territorial, but the territory is centred on them, and they aren't so attached to fixed markers. Also they tend to go for consistent niggling violence , while the con won't do much till you impinge on it's territory, when it will attack, possibly once, and fatally. A nasty con will regard most of the 40 as it's territory. Assume a diameter of 8 to 10 times body lengh.
So your mbuna will be continually attacking each other, wearing down the weakest link (what you're seeing now), until oneday the p////ed of convict is big enough to do something and kills a few others.

My advice. Gt the con out, and learn about controlled overcrowding. Else you'll probably end up with a tank with the con, and the electric blue, and anything else that goes in will be killed. If you go for controlled overcrowding your con will go nuts, and be very violent. Some people get away with keeping cons in there, but for most people trying is a waste of time and effort