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In a 4ft tank with another pair of cichlids then I'd only add a pair. This should still leave some space for you other fish to get out of the way if both pairs of cichlid spawn at the same time. If you give fish enough room then they will just chase fish off - you only get serious injuries and...

3ft is a little small for Lake Malawi cichlids, you would be best with Tanganyikans in that size though you would only be able to keep a few as they need more space. If you really want Malawis then stick to the most peaceful mbuna - Labidochromis caeruleus Yellow and small, peaceful...

Kribs will sift substrate and disturb plants but they don't eat them and if you replant them they might well not remove them after. All cichlids do not damage, eat or dig up plants. Very few cichlids are herbivorous (but many are omnivorous and will nibble them) and all most cichlids are doing...

If the tank is empty of all other fish then you might be best to leave them in the tank and add newly hatched brine shrimp to the tank. The fry will soon find it and eat it and they will eat all the microorganisms in the tank too.

If you're looking for decent sized tetras then definitely look at Bleeding Heart Tetras and Diamond Tetras. Both look awful and washed out in shop tanks but give them 6 months to a year and they look stunning. Some of the barbs are a great choice too - Puntius nigrofasciatus is one of my...

Complete waste of time and money. If well fed for the rest of the year then fish can go for up to 3 weeks without food. If you really want to feed them then get an automatic feeder and set that up with food in - much better investment and you can control when and what is fed.

Discus are reported to live at high densities during the dry season when the flooded areas dry out but when the rivers flood they move out into the shallows and then spawn and defend a space to breed. With cichlids in captivity you can use high densities to reduce one-on-one aggression by...

Please bear in mind that Mikrogeophagus species are naturally pair forming, not haremic so you may end up with a spare female if you buy a trio. Sometimes in captivity harems will form but often not. With all cichlids that form bonds you are much better off buying a group of 6 or more fish...

They're all the same species so get two pairs and you might end up with two mixed pairs. I prefer the natural form and assuming a 200l tank is around 1m long I'd go for one happy pair; two at the very most.

what size tank is it? While these are deformed, line bred they are still cichlids and need a decent amount of space, around 2ft per pair plus room for spares if both pairs breed at the same time.

I would have said flow though the shrimp do come from cooler water. you don't need to go over 24 ime.

I take it they are new? If so call the store and find out what they were eating there. If they are new they will survive for a couple of weeks without food. If they don't eat in a couple more days get some live foos, such as Daphnia, as the movement will encourage eating response and it will...

Frozen food is fine but do bear in mind any uneaten food will rot down quickly and also you need to feed a lot compared to dried food for the same nutrional value as a lot of it is water!

Can you get a larger pic posted up please. Looks like some kind of damage then possibly infected. Catfish are pretty tough so it may recover nicely. What you might need to do is treat if there is any infection. Best way to do this is in a hospital tank so you don't add treatments to the main...

No that sounds fine. They are just cichlids and as such relatively intelligent fish and if they've got a spot where they found food once they will keep hunting for it there. I keep Mbuna from Lake Malawi in my main tank and they scour the areas around the rocks as it's where the food collects...

They're probably looking for food. Angelfish will clear an area to spawn but unless they're a mature pair this is unlikely and they don't eat plants for the sake of it. Some mesh over the area will stop them.

Almost all subdominant male cichlids Will colour down and adopt female / juvenile colouration giving the clear signal that they aren't competing for territory. In a species that pairs up like rams an odd fish, male or female, possible.ur down so that the pairs ignore it as much as possible. In...

In cardinals (and many other small tetras) in the wild they are effectively annuals living, growing and breeding in just one year before dying / getting eaten. Unless the rate of death is different for each sex or they maintain harems (like Anthias) which tetras don't then there isn't much...

In a 2ft tank a pair of West African cichlids would be perfect. Try rarer Pelvicachromis or tank bred Nanochromis. For South America you could go with Apistogramma but for something different that is absolutely stunning when settled and mature in a tank try Nannacara anomola - they will look...

That is soft water so you have a wide range of fish that would love those parameters. Anything really from Amazonian waters (white, black and clear waters), South East Asia or West Africa. Avoid fish from Eastern Africa (especially the rift lakes), Central America and North Western South...

Cherry barbs are lovely if you get good stock.

Glad to hear that. Once most people get an idea there might be a problem they start chucking medications in left, right and centre. Unfortunately you never can tell how healthy stock really is until it's home which is why a simple quarantine tank is invaluable.

How would this mean they were free from infection? Infections are more likely to spread through a population that is overcrowded. Please don't treat them unless they actually become ill and you can diagnose it. Just adding treatments in case will stress them more and likely bring on an issue...

All killifish will jump - it's only a matter of time. They will also get through the smallest gaps in a cover too. You can't dose anything to soften water. You can add chemcials to lower the pH but they add to the TDS and raise the salinity / hardness. If you want soft water then you need...

I'd stick at 4. They are large fish once mature. BTW is the fish in your avatar one of your tetras? If so you have cardinals, not neons. Your temperature shouldn't be dropping that much really with the lights off. What lighting are you using? Being open topped your lights shouldn't be...

Agree with the above. If you keep domestically bred fish (preferably tougher varieties and reared in harder water (usually German or UK bred)) and don't want to breed them then they should be fine. I'd be wary of more inbred newer varieties and stick to older, less inbred forms and definitely...

And whatever you pick they will eat small shrimps so your population will reduce. But I wouldn't have a freshwater tank without at least 1 cichlid species in there.

Not really! Some very experienced keepers might be able to have a go at venting them but it won't be easy(if it's possible at all) with young fish. Another reason for buying a good sized group and let them pick their own mate. You also get a much more stable pair bond in cichlids if you let...

Get 6+ and watch the interactions. With plenty of cover they may be able to carve out territories and give each other enough room, but even if not it'll be interesting watching them grow and pair up.

Depends on the length of the tank. If it's a 2ft long 60l tank then yeah that'd work great. Female apistos tend to defend an area of 12-15" when breeding around their cave so your tank would have room for the male and other fish to get out of the way. Add a dozen unusual tetras and a group of...

Non-annual killifish would be an excellent choice, just have tight fitting lids. Choose the apistos wisely as some will be quite aggressive to partners in small tanks and may need separating after spawning.

As has been said, Pelvicachromis are good parents and if you leave the fry in the tank they will postpone laying the next batch for longer. You'll find you can leave them in about 10-12 weeks if you're lucky. You will need to grow them on more before they get to sellable size though to be able...

I've kept food for 2 years plus and have fish doing well and breeding being fed it today! I'm getting through a lot more food with 60 growing mbuna than ever before though and will be ordering some more soon. I'll order around 10 bags again i reckon. I seal the bags up in the fridge and then...

Google TA aquaculture. All my food comes from there. Look at the red granular feed for sinking food and any of the flakes offered. Well worth ordering a decent amount and then just store it in the fridge in an air tight bag and it will keep fresh for ages.

Re: Are there any Dwarf Cichlids suitable with Cherry shrimp To get back on track the only cichlids I could find that didn't decimate the Cherry shrimp population in my tank were Bioteocus sp. However they were very timid and delicate and I lost them all eventually. I put Apistogramma...

I agree with most of the posts above - get good quality stock from a breeder or some well conditioned wild fish and they will do well. Poor quality imports will often waste away. Once estalished and recovered from the trauma the best Rams I've ever seen were wild caught ones. They looked amazing.

One thing to improve the survival of any cichlid fry in any tank is to make sure you're feeding them enough and often enough. Often it's a combination of predation and lack of decent food that means the numbers get whittled down to nothing. They do also get better parents with time IME...

I've never been to any auctions as they always seem to clash with open weekends at my friends koi farm! At the moment I'm only keeping Malawi Cichlids at the moment and marines so nothing there that I want to buy unfortunately.

The GP stuff is great for fry, especially killies IMO, as they float in the water column. That means just a gentle air pipe bubbling away keep it moving and suspended so they eat it. All the others are good too though. Good luck with them.

I've raised A.(Chromaphyosemion) species before, including bivitattum, but not the Lagos location (I had Funge). Sounds like a perfect environment for them. Newly raised brine shrimp is a cracking staple food for them and also I'd get some dry food in for them as soon as they are big enough to...

What about dwarf cories or other species that spend a lot of time mid-water swimming like elegans.

Apistogramma are generally smaller than the bolivian rams and some of the others. Nannacara are a similar size to the larger apistos but interesting fish. The males are also amazing when settled. They form pairs rather than harems and are well worth keeping. AS I said earlier though if...

I think you want to look a bit smaller than that - maybe Aequidens, Laetacara, Nannacara anomala or Mikrogeophagus altispinosa (Bolivian Ram). Out of all of those the Bolivian Ram might be best - it's quite chunky and acara-like but stays small enough to live with small fish.

Raise the temperature as suggested above and use protozin, malachite green and formalin or use salt. Personally I've used all three at different times in conjunction with raising the temperature and it is much more effective.

Some of my previous fish over the years, (Not the greatest photos sorry) Apistogramma eremnopyge Nanochromis sabinae, Biotecus sp. Enantiopus melanogenys 'Utinta' Cyprichromis microlepidotus 'Bulu point' And a video of some current fish, Cynotilapia zebroides 'Jalo Reef'...

As has been said by others a number of fish species change sex during their lives. Clowns start life as males and the largest of the pair or group becomes a female. In Anthias and other basslets and wrasse they all start life as females and the largest most dominant fish become territory...

Think it looks a lot better but could you get one or two larger, chunkier pieces of rock to break it upo a bit more? Think at the moment the pieces are too similar in size to get the random look you see in the lake vids.

If you google Lake Malawi underwater then you'll see some videos of the lake itself to give you an idea of a natural scape. Here are a few, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqZQriiD ... re=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlH4oDCl ... re=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC1huTOv...

My spotted blue eyes (Pseudomugil gertrudae) used to play in the flow constantly in my old set up. I don't know whether lamp eyes would like the flow too?

All the species will dig but multifasciatus is the worst! They will rearrange the whole tank substrate in a few days! As they're also colonial I feel you get the best out of them if you keep a group in a larger tank, 2ft plus, but they can do well in a much smaller tank - you just don't get to...

At this size it's hard to be totally sure. I'd bet male, but could be wrong. Your best bet to get stable pair is to chat to the guy at the fish store and explain you have one fish already and want a bonded pair and take 5 fish home with you tomorrow. Give them time to pair up naturally and...

Definitely a marine angel and by now it will almost certainly be a dead marine angel. I'd never buy anything from someone who knows this little about the fish he sells.

Something like this? http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=h ... 29,r:1,s:0

Sorry but that's not what your first post said. Different species of fish can tolerate different levels of chemicals so some being fine while others aren't does not necessarily mean your water quality is 'correct'. Mollies (though not always the toughest species themselves) and other...

Haven't bothered with any ferts or special substrate in mine - there's just a tiny bit of old aquasoil bits mixed in with the old sand to give it a more natural patchwork look. I don't think it does much for plant growth! The rest of the substrate is just sand and aragonite sand to buffer the...

I don't think you need the air stone but until you have a means of measuring the CO2 level (a drop checker filled with 4dKH solution) you won't be able to tell for sure that CO2 wasn't the problem. If you are worried about the oxygen and CO2 levels then I'd remove both the DIY CO2 and the air...

If it was CO2 I'd expect more deaths and high CO2 does not mean low O2. Have you tested your water and are you using a drop checker to check the level of CO2? I would have thought that raised ammonia and/or nitrite levels might have been the problem as you have added a lot of fish in a short...

It's looking a lot better as the plants and algae grow in. What species are in there at the moment? I can tell the Labidochromis caeruleus 'Lion's Cove' but what are the others? Have the mbuna showed any interest in the real plants? Not tempted to try some other ones? Think if you planted...

Maybe it is but doesn't mean it's not worth doing!

Good stuff. Got a pic of the tank now you've put real plants in?

Are you in the states Mike? If so then I think it might be a Lucania goodei. Here are some pics, http://www.google.co.uk/images?q=Lucani ... 59&bih=683

I would say it's a cyprinid of some sort but it's tricky to tell from a corpse. Any pics of it swimming?

If these are hybrids I think that's a real worry. I can easily see a hybrid being touted for sale as a brand new species and duping a lot of people. I hope that's not what this breeder has in mind...

Both sexes have pointed fins but males tend to get longer with small extensions as they mature. They're not easy to sex so you may not have a male and female. As with most cichlids the best way to get a stable pair is to buy half a dozen and let them sort it out themselves - you see the most...

I've kept killies with shrimp and they do hunt them down, but small killies in a densely planted tank and they should be able to escape. I've had adult Fundulopanchax kill and eat adult cherry shrimp!

I've tried many dwarf cichlids with shrimp. The only ones that didn't eat too many were Biotoecus but they are hard to get and very delicate. Amazing fish though. You might find small Taenicara or Dicrossus might be worth a try too. They will eat any shrimp that can fit in their mouths but...

For a 20l tank you can't have too much stock. Would a larger shoal of WCMMs not be colourful enough? I think a whole load of them would look ace and reckon you could easily add 6 more. The other option for more colour might be some endlers livebearers, guppies or platies (other livebearers...

The crypts and anubias certainly are, the chain swords slightly less so but far less maintenance than HC or Glosso. As to the CO2 it would be good to have a pressurised set up. I have tried DIY CO2 myself and found it was labour intensive and only worked well when supplemented with liquid CO2...

You really need to look away from traditional carpet plants IMHO. I've tried moss carpets in a nano and they just attracted all the detritus in the tank and needed to be taken out, washed and trimmed regularly. I've grown Glosso and HC and they need not only decent light but good flow and CO2...

No problem for the advice, glad to be of help. You'll need a pretty big tank for the silver sharks though I'm afraid. They are wonderful fish (one of my favourite larger fish) but they are active shaoling fish that really need to be kept in groups in a big tank. I have never kept them as I...

Maybe not yet but you will soon be way overstocked I'm afraid. Clown loaches can get over 10" long and silver sharks and common plecs about the same. Also I'm sorry to say that two RTBS in a tank this size is likely to end in one being killed as they can get very territorial. Your LFS really...

Let's see some pics then!!!!

Think a larger shoal would be good. I kept pearls and tigers together a long time ago and don't remember any aggro but a bigger shoal of tigers would look nice. I'd probably go to 10 at first and see how that goes before adding another 5.

How about a shoal of different barbs or a pair of gouramis, maybe pearls?

:lol: You sound like one of my class!!!!

I'd look at this stuff, http://www.ta-aquaculture.co.uk/GP_Diets.htm from TA Aquaculture. It's neutrally bouyant and hangs in the water column meaning it's available for most fry for longer. I've used it with killies and they did much better with this than sinking powdered food. I didn't use...

Keep us posted. What species exactly have you got in the tank that could be possible parents?

I've tied java ferns onto pieces of rock and dropped them amongst rockwork, but I wouldn't use slate unless you have nothing else as the ferns and anubias can't get their roots to attach to it. Try some rock with a rougher surface if you can. If you have to use slate then tie them on with...

As said above some cories do change pattern dramatically as they develop. If you don't have any other cory species in the tank then I'd assume they are what they're meant to be and wait and see. If you're concerned that they may be hybrids then please do not pass them onto anyone until you can...

Actually you can keep real plants with Malawis - especially labs as they have mouths designed to pick insects and other items out of the Aufwuchs on the rocks. You just need to start with tougher plants and then you can introduce softer ones then - java ferns and anubias will be ideal to start...

If your pair of cacs breed you will find that a 10g tank is not healthy place for 6 catfish to share with a protective female cac. The male probably won't be very welcome either. A good rule of thumb is that a male cichlid will defend a territory 10x his body length. Females a bit less but...

Sorry, I thought you were asking for help on how to get them to breed! Got the wrong end of the stick there!

I'm no expert with centrals at all but if you're trying to breed them then they may need a bit more privacy! In the wild they'd have a territory about 10 times their body length with hardly any other fish straying into it or they'd get chased off. This pair has a male dempsey in their...

Any fish a with a mouth that's big enough will eat baby shrimp unless they are strict vegetarians like Otos. The best you can do is get tiny fish with correspondingly tiny mouths so the shrimp stand a better chance. That rules out any cichlid really and most tetras; you might want to consider...

Rams will eat young/small shrimp but large Amanos should be fine and, as they won't breed, the rams won't polish off any babies. However rams vary hugely in quality and you can end up with some rubbish ones that will simply waste away. For a 6' tank I'd get more than 4 (at least 6 and probably...

They're Vietnamese White Cloud minnows. Very nice species, like the standard white clouds. Hope they do well for you.

There's a small rasbora that goes under the common name of Sundan cardinal I think. It's latin name is Sundadanio axelrodi, a quick google should give you some info and pics.

I've got some guentheri eggs and have also kept N.korthausae Red. Cracking fish but to raise them and get great fish you need to give them lots of live food, starting with baby brine shrimp and do daily water changes. Don't crowd them to get the best growth. I added some salt as they were...

Talk to Monty at Trimar. He ships fish but while they're not the cheapest they are very good quality and you generally get what you pay for - cheap fish are often end up costing you more when you have to replace the dead ones! As he's in Cornwall surely you'd be able to go and pay him a visit...

A pair of kribs or any other group 1 Pelvicachromis will be fine in a tank that size with small tetras. You could also go with any of the easier Apistogrammas (though I find them harder work than Pelvicachromis as they don't live as long and aren't as tough IME), Rams (good quality ones...

How big's your tank? Kribs are not aggressive, they just need a big enough tank so that the other fish can get out of the way when they breed. Any cichlid will seem aggressive in too small a tank when they breed.

The idea of just keeping one sex can reduce aggression as they don't breed but it certainly doesn't eleminate. The fish don't know they are in a sealed glass box where they will never meet the opposite sex and will try and stake out a territory just in case a nice boy/girl fish happens along...

I'm not breeding them any more unfortunately. I passed some on to a breeder called Steve1200 who bred and sold them for a while. I got my original stock from Trimar in Cornwall. They send fish through the post extremely well packed in a large polystyrene box and I've ordered from them loads...

They will adapt fine, but a nice group of Matadi would look even better IMHO! And having multiple pairs you'd see a lot more colour as they'd be displaying and bickering with each other more! Have a look here, http://www.amtra.de/images/pelviaffsubo ... 02_425.jpg

I agree with Darrel's opinion of Dicrossus - definitely not a good general fish but better for someone who's ahd a bit of experience with a range of dwarfs IMHO. Don't forget West African cichlids - they are often hardier and just as colourful (if not more so) than South Americans. Some will...

I have the same tank and I think they might be too big and too energetic for a tank that size. If you have them already then you may as well try them first and then exchange them if they don't do well but if you haven't then I wouldn't buy them for a tank that size.

It's an algae eater, often called a chinese algae eater, whose latin name is Gyrinocheilus aymonieri. It has a sucker mouth whereas Siamese Algae Eaters (Crossocheilus siamensis) has a small mouth with barbels. Actually it may be that even 'true' SAEs aren't actually C.siamensis but other...

Neon Tetra disease can't affect cichlids. You may have had some rams of poorer quality that have succumbed to a general bacterial disease but without seeing the fish it's impossible to say. NTD is a very specfic disease of characins.

Genetics is a bit more complex than that for organisms such as fish. Bear in mind these fish live in small waterways with high mortality which can lead to a reduced gene-pool even in the wild. Species such as this tend to have a very high resistance to inbreeding depression as can be seen in...

They will shoal fine at first, but once they mature the males stake out breeding areas. I think this is a good thing as they then spar and spread their fins at each other and look great - stick with them!