Double check my id on this one?

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Z

Zum14

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 4, 2009
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Canada
So I picked up this from what i can tell im pretty sure that the lfs has it right at a red zebra, now i am totally a newb to cichlids and if im seeing this right and researched it right i would guess its a male by the blue in it, sorry the pics are a little jittery its a very busy fish. So he was pretty aggressive in the lfs so i was kinda wondering what good tankmates would be, also i know for sure that they did not have him in proper water conditions, (ph, hardness and such) and so i put him in my standard tank i had running empty (already cycled) to reduce a large shock. Would it be wise to just slowly raise ph and other levels to the malawi water specs extremely slow or better to just leave them where they are? my ph is 7.6 and i will get the hardness tests soon as i test the waters tonight. Now ive also read all these articles about using "cichlid" salts to raise the levels, also some say to use crushed coral shells, now i like a darker looking tank, think it makes the colors pop, so my plan was to use crushed coral shells in nylon in the filter, but am concerned that if putting a large bag of crushed shells in the filter is going to make levels spike...?? if that makes sense. Is it a buffer in that it will raise it to a certain ph and then stop rising? Like to say the crushed shells have a constant ph and no matter how much you have in there it will not keep raising the ph. Sorry if its a dumb question, i have always been iffy with cichlids for this reason, i just cant seem to find any solid advise on this method as others like to use the items as substrates and such.

Red Zebra Cichlid1.jpg

Red Zebra Cichlid2.jpg

Red Zebra Cichlid3.jpg
 
That is one sweet fish, although I cannot confirm his ID. Sounds right though.
Your ph is ok and yes you can raise it a little. Truth be told, you are not far off now and there is really no need for a really gradual change. The crushed coral is a buffer and it will not raise the ph beyond what the mbuna can handle for sure.
 
NICE LOOKING FISH! im leaning towards red zebra but i think its a little more yellow then what ive usually seen. ;)
 
absolutely beautiful fish! im not sure what it is-id have to dig through some books to see what it looks like..
 
awsome. thanks, less work for me. now just to figure out some tankmates as hes kinda a bully a bit.
 
overstocking the tank with lots of mbuna seems to work well!! He's in a 46 gallon right so mabye you can do about 12-18 mbunas... They usually get mean over dominance if there are females in the tank the agression will be worse but I've heard people say all male mbuana tanks dont work that well so you might want to get like 3 females per male and get about 3-4 types of mbunas that have very different colorations, my red zebras do fine with haps and peacocks as well though, just as long as they all have there own territory and hiding spots they should be happy....
 
Thanks for that, will definitly look for some that stay small, the 750 im going to build is for other fishys that prob wont get along too well. Was actually kind of thinking of not getting too many fish but have heard too little fish is actually as bad as too many as the aggression is not spread out, true? original plan was to get a couple of females, and mabye one or two other species with the same ratio, so mabye 10 fish total? think this would be ok? Planning on having numerous caves and tunnels and such for them of course, no wood tho as im looking to keep ph where it is.
 
i would try 10 and if there is major aggression then get some more. Sometimes the fish end up not being all that aggressive, and other times they are extremly aggressive. I have put 6 1.5inch dwaft mbunas in my african tank that had about 25 mostly adult peacocks and they tore the peacocks apart! I would definitly keep dwaft mbunas in with themselves only

But you definitly dont need to change your PH. Everyone talks about changing the PH and I always wonder why. A fish can pretty much adapt to anyones PH and if there in your local pet store's water, they are probably already adapted. My PH is around 8 and my water is hard and I have had discus shipped in and raised in my tap water with absolutly no problems, even though everyone says they need soft water and a PH around 6. I ordered 30 discus and not one fish died for the 6 months i had them before i sold them all, and these were juvi discus some as small as nickles.
 
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