African Cichlid Id and behavior (Newbie alert)
Beeb
powerheads.
Right now I have 3 Zebras, the largest of which (about 2 inches) is colored
quite nicely and is very dominant - he has staked out the whole middle of
the tank and has been shoveling gravel out of the cave there. He chases and
displays a lot to the other two zebras (who may be female, or juvenile- both
are brownish, and the larger of the two has some iridescent blue markings on
it and the egg spots). My question is: what is the coloration on a mature
female Zebra? Do they have some blue on them, or do I have two sub males? I
have been searching for pictures on the Web without much luck. Does anybody
know where I can find a good set of Zebra photos on the Web? If I knew for
sure I had two sub-males, then I would try to find the big guy a girlfriend.
I also have 3 orange-yellow ones (none of these over 2 inches)- one with
very faint barring on the sides which i think may be a Lab, although it's
dorsal hasn't colored up yet, and two other solid orange yellow ones that
may be Johanni - they do have at least one tiny egg spot on each of them,
and the dorsal on one is almost a whitish color along the very edge. These
were bought out of the dreaded "miscellaneous African" tank I have seen
references to on other recent posts, and no one at the shop was sure of what
they were either. Any references to pictures on the web on these guys would
be a great help too - since they are young, and are adjusting to new water,
I think it will take some time before they get their real color anyway.
One of the suspected Johanni has been flashing on the gravel (I have read
the posts on that also)- I really hope that is behavior and not parasites -
I really don't want to introduce medication until the tank has cycled. I do
have freeze dried tubifex worms I have given them, which they love - do the
freeze dried worms carry viable parasites also, or just the live ones?
Should that be given to them once in a while, not at all, or the bulk of the
food be more of vegetable origin?
This tank is new, but had been set up and running for almost a month before
I added any fish - no starter fish to get the under gravel filter primed
although I put in the "bacteria in a bottle" prior to the fish. I have been
monitoring water, and the ammonia level was up a bit yesterday so I made my
first partial water change. This caused the water to go cloudy - is that
normal? It seems to be clearing now, but with the bad PR I have seen on
undergravel filters I am wondering if i should just go with a different
filtration system - but I am also on a budget and this tank is a luxury item
I can't spend a whole lot more money on at this time.
Any advice or suggested websites would be greatly appreciated - I have been
getting a load of info from this newsgroup - I'm glad its here, and have
been bookmarking websites like crazy since the books that are carried at the
local store are general at best.
TIA
Beeb
tuk...@gci.net