African cichlids

[gomezladdams]

Got these guys for free and was wondering how other people care for them.I hear they need a vegetarian diet what do people feed them?It looks like I have 1 male and 2 females should I look for a few more females?My water is ph 8.0 should I put some shells or coral in the tank?

 

[rweedon]

they live in all conditions they are really hardy and often times kill each other for no reason... whoever told you vegitarian diet should be slapped! no really go slap them before you read the rest of this... did you do it? good! now give them a good quality cichlid pellet like hikari gold or staple... and they will be just fine...

 

[SinisterKisses]

Excuse me? At least half of all mbuna species (which those guys clearly are), are herbivores. Feeding them Hikari Gold will give them bloat and kill them. Christ.

I feed all my African Mbuna spirulina flakes, exclusively. They love it, they're happy, healthy and gorgeous.

 

[catfish]

Excuse me? At least half of all mbuna species (which those guys clearly are), are herbivores. Feeding them Hikari Gold will give them bloat and kill them. Christ.

I feed all my African Mbuna spirulina flakes, exclusively. They love it, they're happy, healthy and gorgeous.

you have been misinformed
wheres pirhana45 to argue this

 

[Ash]

I would also agree, I have 3 mbuna's, 1 of them being a male and I feed all of them nl pellets and they absolutley love these things!! Not only are they healthy but they are some of the most vibrantly colored cichlids I have seen (other then what some of you have ^_^ ) If you feed you cichlids non-herbavore like pellets, flakes or floats they will not die, or otherwise mine sould have been dead 4 months ago. Yes they may eat herbivore like things but I see those things eat about anything from ghost shrimp to flakes and live fine. If you want to argue me fine, but then please explain to me as to why all of mine are alive - kicking and well. Also explain as to why they make cichlid pellets?? I would suggest any form of pellet's, hikari or new life are good. They are also very hardy your pH should be fine - I have extremely hard water and mine do just dandy =) Your fish are very nice looking btw!

p45 has been gone I havent seen him around for awhile... where did he dissapear to???

 

[Gooda]

Few animals of any species are strictly herbavors or carnivors. Cichlids also fall into this catagory along with about a million other fish, Even my pleco's LOVE shrimp.

But a fish with a ballanced well rounded diet is a happy fish.

 

[Ash]

Few animals of any species are strictly herbavors or carnivors. Cichlids also fall into this catagory along with about a million other fish, Even my pleco's LOVE shrimp.

But a fish with a ballanced well rounded diet is a happy fish.

=) Much agreed.

 

[Ornatapinnis]

THe fish in the picture appear to be a pseudotropheus species like ornatus or crabo perhaps. (the yellow and black one's, the other looks like a mutt).

Sinisterkiss is correct in saying that most mbuna are mostly herbivores. Many are primarly algae grazers in the wild. I would have thought that this would have been better known here. The so called "malawi bloat" is typically caused by to meaty of a diet. Pseudotropheus are not real bad about this like some of the other africans are, seems to be more of a problem with juvaniles than adults.

These fish should be fed a diet with more vegtable matter in thier diet than meat. I use a good full spectrum food like those offered by OSI or similar but I also feed alot of spirulina and Ocean nutrition's Formula Two. These fish clearly will survie off other diets but it is not what is best for them.

As per the original post, a good multicomplex diet that includes lots of vegtable matter is the correct diet for these fish. These guys will tolerate a broad range of conditions but a ph of 8.0 to 8.3 with very hard water is what they are supposed to be in. Your 8.0 is fine. Adding shells and such is not needed and most likley would not buffer the ph higher than it allready is anyway. Temp in the upper 70's to lower 80's is good.

I'm not sure how you have determined the sex on these. I can not tell in the picture what they are. For breeding (which I am not suggesting to do with these) you would want several female to one male. For a cominuty type enviroment, have lots of rocks and caves and buy additional fish that are very differant than the ones you allready have. THis will help with agressiveness amongst themselves but you most likley will still have some personality problems between them.

 

[gomezladdams]

No Im not looking to breed them,What kind of tankmates would you suggest?I detect some difference in opinion about diet.I gave them some spirolina flakes and they went nuts!!
Since they like hard alkaline water can I put some seashells in the tank?I got some cool ones including an abalone I found in north cali last year.

 

[gomezladdams]

got a better photo of the blue one while doing my waterchanges.I thought it looks like the male Melanochromis chipokae in ashs african cichlid post,any opinions?