Well let me tell you, if you feed the fish everything their diet should consist of them suckers grow faster than weeds. I feed mine everything from brine shrimp, mysis, krill, algae, spirulina, bloodworms, flake, hikari pellets. Let me tell you what them suckers grow FAST when you feed them varying foods. I have had mine for about a month and they have grown 2x in size. I really noticed it when I started feeding them frozen spirulina in a emerald entree mix. I looked at the tank the next day and was like WTF?!?! My friends are even astonised at how fast they grew... anyways that wasn't what you were asking.
umm, that seems like a lot of fish. I would not recommend putting that many cichlids in there. Sounds like a 30 gallon or less tank and I have 8 in mine and seeing them full size at petstores scares me... I will be upgrading to a 55 or 75 gallon before shortly. Then i might toss a few more yellow labs in there. So my advice is not to put that many in there.
Is your tank fully cycled???
Overstocking cichlids will definately have a huge ammonia spike if your tank isn't well equiped in the biological bacteria and over filtration section.
Anyways, I would put about 10 topssss.. If your going for labs the females should have NO black marks on their dorsal and pectoral fins. Only get one male per 3-4 females. Kenyi females will be darker blue when they are very young. They are still very hard to sex though. make sure you have high lighting when examining them. And don't jump to conclusions and say "okay i guess that's right, I'll take that one." Take your time, the pet store workers don't mind and if they do screw them. They get paid by the hour so exhaust their resources. Also the more you shop at certain stores they will sometimes go outa their way for you. Like I had a woman pulling nuisance snails out of the stores plant tank for me for free.
Okay so my final answer is not 15 in your tank, more like 10 or less. Be sure to fully cycle your tank and have higher than normal filtration.
Help Needed for chiclid Family
13 posts • Page 2 of 2
-
dizzcat - Posts: 648
- Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:30 am
Every time I read your posts and read how many fish you have in each 10 gallon tank I just cringe! They must be living stacked on top of each other. 20 fish in a ten gallon is not good :-( Its waaaay too many! If I were you, if you really want to keep them all, my advice is to put them in the new tank you want to buy instead of filling it with cichlids.
With African cichlids, you need at least 2-4 females per male or else the male with harass a lone female to death. I agree that 10 is the max for a 30 gallon. They may seem small because they are kids, but they will grow up very fast and then 15 pairs will cause all kinds of problems as each pair tries to take over an area of the tank. Just remember, all fish you buy at the store are cute, little kids, but they will grow.
My advice is to hold off on buying new fish or even a new tank until you have really read up on maintaince, how many fish per gallon, what kinds get along, etc. I know its exciting when you first start, but a lot of reading will make a big difference in the long run!
With African cichlids, you need at least 2-4 females per male or else the male with harass a lone female to death. I agree that 10 is the max for a 30 gallon. They may seem small because they are kids, but they will grow up very fast and then 15 pairs will cause all kinds of problems as each pair tries to take over an area of the tank. Just remember, all fish you buy at the store are cute, little kids, but they will grow.
My advice is to hold off on buying new fish or even a new tank until you have really read up on maintaince, how many fish per gallon, what kinds get along, etc. I know its exciting when you first start, but a lot of reading will make a big difference in the long run!
-
Dinarian7002 - Posts: 12
- Joined: Mon Aug 18, 2008 7:25 am
ya thakns a lot guys now i ahve about three tanks with all d above mentioned fishes in various tanks!! i've just postponed my plan of setting up a cichlid tank, and i'm spending time in sorting out the fishes that i'm having!! now they are a lot better!! and i just bought a filter! and my tank is crystal clear!! and the fishes seem to enjoy a lot!! thanks a lot guys am having lots of fun!!
