Tank cleaning day...

[cchardwick]

My African Cichlids don't really fight anymore, I finally got the right mix of fish. I used to keep Pseudotropheus demasoni in there, a black and blue banded Mbuna that was discovered in 1994. They look like this:



I actually bought 50 of them to start. Then they kept killing off each other so I set up several smaller tanks and for years I would fish out the females with babies in their mouths and let them raise their babies in small tanks, then put them all back in the big tank. It was a real hassle so I decided to let them do their own thing in the big tank. After a few months I was down to one big mean male that finally died. Real mean fish, and they would only attack and kill their own kind.

I replaced them with Maingano (Pseudotropheus cyaneorhabdos). Similar colors but they don't fight as much. They used to fight like crazy when I first got them, now I have two big males, one on each side of the tank and a couple females that go back and forth and every now and then I have new babies that pop up. They look like this:



I also have a few 'Red Zebra' (Metriaclima Estherae). I bought six large Red Zebra years ago and one big male killed the rest, I thought I only had one left but now I see several in my tank, apparently there was a small female baby in there somewhere that grew up and bred back. Now I think I have four or five of them. They are really bright orange. Some strains are not that bright. They look like this:



And of course most of my fish are 'Yellow Labs' (Labidochromis caeruleus). These are the most gentle African Cichlids (Mbuna) and they won't fight with anyone.



Also, if you put together African Cichlids of very different colors they won't interbreed, or so they say. I do have a few 'muts' in the tank that look like greyed out yellow labs, I'm guessing it's a cross between my Acei.

Speaking of Acei, ( Pseudotropheus acei) I have just one big male. I had several in there that were all killed years ago except one big male that has made it through. I'm guessing he may have interbred since he doesn't have a mate. Probably the most peaceful fish in the tank, he looks like this: