Newbie

[Arron yeates]

Hi all i hope your all well.

My names Arron just started up a african cichlid aquarium. So far ive now from today got 12 fish. Today i bought an additional 6... i thought what i bought was a maison reef as it was colourful but now looks totally different in my tank. Not sure how to put pics up but its colour seem loads duller now. Not sure if this is due to more dominant members or is it a female? Its a light blue with vertical stripes and yellow/ orange egg spots however the from fins arnt black like photos ive seen. Could the colours get alot brighter over time?

Look forward to hearing from you..

P.s i hope you dont mind me adding all this to my newbie pist haha

[Yanks15]

Welcome to ACH Arron    First off, what species of fish are you referring to? Maison Reef is just the location in the lake. Are they Metriaclime sp.zebra chilumba? If so, I've seen them with all white dorsal fins, vertical stripped dorsal fins (continued from the body) and black horizontal stripping from head to tail. I suppose it depends on breeding. As for how they show, if you just added them, they will tend to color down to stay out the way of the existing fish. Are they juvies? And for posting pics, I used Photobucket when I did it. Others have downloaded Tapatalk for our site and say that it's easier to post pics on that platform. Never tried it but you can probably scan the forum for threads about how to do it. Check the Tech help section   And there could be other photo hosting sites that others know of.

[Arron yeates]

Hi Yanks15,  thanks for the warm welcome. Ill be honest im not sure what it is when it was in the community show tank at LFS it looked like a Metriaclima fainzilberi "Maison Reef however now its in my tank it looks loads duller and the vertical bars are ever so faint. Not sure why this is. Ive got a picture but struggling to upload it

[Kingston1]

Welcome to the HUB.  The new fish could be just stressed, or maybe you are right--Not dominate yet.
How big is your tank, and how large are the fishes?

[Arron yeates]

Hi kingston1 its a 200L tank. I have 3 yellow labs avout 2 inches, 3 demasoni about 1.5inches, 2 x tangerine peacocks about 2 inches and 1 mpagna about 2.5inch and 2 im not sure about the mpagna is fully colourd up and so are the demasoni however the demasoni were in here first with yellow labs. Also have a cukoo cat fish F1 about 2 inchs.

I purchased the mpagna. The peacocks cukoo and the 2 im not sure about from the same lfs all from the comunity show tank so not new to each other but new suroundings

[Arron yeates]

The fish in me profile picture is the fish in question lol thata the best upload i can do haha

[Kingston1]

Cannot really tell from the small pics.   Maybe wait a little longer.

[Arron yeates]

Ah thats a shame. Ill get them into a feeding routine and see if things change over time. What should the synodontis petricola catfish be fed? The fish shop said it will eat the food left over from the cichlods "new life spectrum" food... however tbey eat is as soon as it hits the water.

Any surgestions

Thanks
Arron

[free swimmer]

Ah thats a shame. Ill get them into a feeding routine and see if things change over time. What should the synodontis petricola catfish be fed? The fish shop said it will eat the food left over from the cichlods "new life spectrum" food... however tbey eat is as soon as it hits the water.

Any surgestions

Thanks
Arron

Algae wafers always seem to give the bottom dwellers a meal..

[Kingston1]

I have about 8 Syno cats in my tank.  I have a "Turkey Baster" that I use to shoot food to them.  and even then the cichlids still get many of the pellets.  What I do now is feed the cichlids on one side of the tank, and "Shoot" the pellets into the bottom of the other side. 

[Arron yeates]

Ill give that a try i fed the cichlids last night and the cukoo came out and started grazzing from the sand bed. Would like a bristlenose in there as well but herd so many mixed stories. I want a clean up crew type fish

[Kingston1]

You do not need any "Clean-up" fishes.  The cichlids will do this job just fine.  You will need to feed the Synos and BN pleco.  If you like and want them=OK.  But not for cleaning purpose.

[jcarson702]

Hi all i hope your all well.

My names Arron just started up a african cichlid aquarium. So far ive now from today got 12 fish. Today i bought an additional 6... i thought what i bought was a maison reef as it was colourful but now looks totally different in my tank. Not sure how to put pics up but its colour seem loads duller now. Not sure if this is due to more dominant members or is it a female? Its a light blue with vertical stripes and yellow/ orange egg spots however the from fins arnt black like photos ive seen. Could the colours get alot brighter over time?

Look forward to hearing from you..

P.s i hope you dont mind me adding all this to my newbie pist haha

Welcome Arron!
You are going to have so much fun with your new tank.