a more peaceful cichlid setup

i've had cichlids in my fishtank at home now for about 2 months and have learnt a lot. with the little experience i have had with cichlids and what i had read, i thought i could easily change my fishtank from a semi-aggressive community setup to one with similar inhabitants but also with the addition of a couple of species of cichlid. well i was a bit wrong...

my initial interest with american cichlids was not only that they were bigger, more colourful and seemingly much more intelligent. it was their behaviour during breeding that interested me along with the parental care of their young. i really want to witness a breeding pair of cichlids looking after their own fry.

the first thing i did about 3 weeks ago was to take the now obviously smaller ( harassed ) male blue acara back to the pet shop in timperly. the shop still had most of the rainbow cichlids from my previous visit. so i sat in front of their fishtank for about a good 10/15 minutes watching them and trying to discern which were female. the reason for me spending such a long time was because it was almost impossible! they all seemed to look so similar, but i had read that it was particularly tricky to tell the sexes apart with these fish. i picked 2 and took them home.

during the next week i watched the fish quite closely whenever i was able to. it didn't take long for it to dawn on me that this setup was wrong. i had 6 yo-yo loaches and 12 barbs zipping all over the fishtank, creating havoc at feeding time and generally not being conducive to the central american setup i now intended to keep.

i took all 12 barbs and 6 yo-yo loaches back to my still all time favourite shopoasis aquarium in salford and part exchanged them for 8 captive bredcorydoras sterbai. oasis gave me 2/3 of their sale price for the returned fish and i ended up paying £62 (corys) - £38 (barbs+yo-yos) = £24.

3 weeks later and all is well. i am still not certain if any of the rainbow cichlids are female but they never do each other any harm, they just occasionally chase each other out of the way. the remaining acara seems happy enough and never chases the rainbows, if anything the rainbow with red eyes seems to be the owner of the fishtank now. the acara generally swims all over the fishtank pleasing himself. and finally, the corys are fantastic. having 8 of them and watching them form small groups or one big group, especially at feeding time is great as they busily rummage around looking for food and adventure!. :-)

as you can see, the cichlids like the camera. :-)

two rainbow cichlids arrive

i have just finished acclimatizing two rainbow cichlids i bought this morning from a new found pet hop i visited yesterday. i'd heard there was an aquarium shop in timperly up the road from my house and yesterday, while i still had access to a car, i decided to try and find it. and find it i did. :-)

initial impressions of the shop are good with some species of fish i'd never seen in any of the usual shops i visit. and you guessed it, i fell for the charms of the rainbow cichlids. after having introduced two blue acara cichlids into the tank about a month or so ago (see previous post), i have been researching what would be another suitable cichlid species to add to the tank. not having read about or seen this species before, i decided to go home and read up on their habits and requirements like a good sensible fish keeper :-)

i was going to take back one of the acaras as one is definitely being picked on by the other. one is now in perfect condition and the other still has his fins torn and i have seen him bullied by the other. nothing too alarming but it is obvious that it is not ideal for the less dominant male. however, due to circumstance, i did not manage to take one back and thought i would at a later date.

sitting here watching the 4 cichlids and writing this blog it looks to me like the cichlids are all behaving extremely well towards each other. i know they are 2 male acaras and a male and female rainbow. both the acaras have come and had a nosy at the rainbows as if to say "jolly nice day isn't it?" and then happily moved on and both the acaras seem happier about each other at the moment. as to whether or not the two rainbow cichlids decide to pair up then only time will tell.