new to cichlids

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swede;3126282; said:
what i am concerned about most with this guy is when i brought him home, i tested the ph of his new tank, and i also tested the ph of the water he came from. the lfs ph was 6.0! i checked mine and it was about 7.2 and comes out 7.6 at the tap. i'm affraid he is going through shock from ph change
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Wow why the heck is the lfs thinking keeping ph that low! Is he displaying any symptoms of ph shock? Usually african cihlids can acclimate well to varied ph but that is a big difference good thing yours isn't in the 8's!! Is he eating well?
 
i've only had him for about 24 hours, but he has eaten twice. he is laying on his dorsal fins at the bottom of the tank and not really doing much. kinda lethargic. i'm worried about him. i'm guessing that maybe the tanks at the lfs are overfed and under cared for maybe? the store specializes in reef and salt. maybe they just don't take care of the fresh as well
 
i'm affraid to do a WC but the tank needs one. the tap water that will replace the WC is ph 7.6 and i don't wanna stress him out further. Unless someone stops me within the next hour or so, i will do a WC and add some salt to the water
 
so i added some salt and did the WC. I also boiled a coconut shell and made a little hideout for him and he has pretty much established this as his territory. He mainly stays in there but when i go near the corner he is in or open the lid, he comes out to defend his home. He seems to be doing better and ate some bloodworms lastnight
 
i'm adding what i was hoping are females. they are orange in color and look a lot like the female johannis. since they are juvies, i understand it is harder to tell. but i'm going off of what the lfs guy told me. I know thats kind of not wise but I want to try to make this guy feel more comfortable. we will see how things go. i added some more fake plants, cuz i have heard they will eat everything i put in there and i rearranged the tank to eliminate aggression over territory. the lil male johanni had made this half coconut shell i put in there his territory and was starting to defend it even when i opened the lid to the tank. I really hope this all works out til I can get a bigger tank for them
 
At 2" you should be able to tell the sex by color with johannis, but I find it easy to vent and be sure than get a sub dominant male that looks like a female, and start turf wars in your tank!

Plus johannis are not good for a community tank, or so I am told so be prepared to have an all Melanochromis johannii tank but with those colors it will still look good.

Keep watching Craigslist you will find a larger tank.
I started with a 20 gallon tall and in about a month I had a 55 gallon just watching craigslist and my local Thrift stores.

You should hold off on getting anymore fish with a tank that small filtration can become a problem quickly, and its just too small for Malawi Cichlids.
 
my wife gave me a 4 foot wide space of wall in our bedroom i can put a tank in. I'd like to get a really big tank in there. maybe a 90 or above. but i dont know if they make those that would fit that wall without going custom
 
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