New Cichlid Owner

[Apogee]

Hello all. New cichlid owner here. I just inherited a nice 75 gallon tank and several, six to be exact, african cichlids. There are two Jack Dempseys in there, along with a rainbow shark, but there are three cichlids that I hope someone could help me identify. These are all approximately 5 inches across.

http://216.185.135.49/images/20.jpg

http://216.185.135.49/images/14.jpg

http://216.185.135.49/images/16.jpg

[jonah]

The yellow one is an electric yellow (Labidochromis caeruleus) the other one in the first two pictures is a Nimbochromis venustus. The third picture looks like a cobalt blue zebra (Maylandia caillanos?). All are from Lake Malawi and should be kept at a pH of about 8.3 which is much higher than what the South American Jack Dempsys or the rainbow shark would want.

I might have misunderstood your post. Did you think the rainbow shark and the Dempsys were African cichlids? The shark (Labeo erythrurus, pH around 7.5) is a cyprinidae species like a danio or a barb and they're from Asia. The Jacks (Cichlasoma octofasciatum, pH around 7.0) are cichlids, but from South America.

The pH doesn't always make much difference, but there's an excellent chance of turmoil between the Jacks and the Africans.

[jonah]

BTW, the venustus and the Jacks will get pretty big.

[Apogee]

Thanks for the reply. These fish have been together for 6 or 8 months before I aquired them. So far the only problems I've seen have been between the Jack Dempseys. I've caught them several times in some sort of a lip lock. The smaller of the two has a bit of fin damage though I've never seen anything cause it, but then again I've only had them since last tuesday.

[Apogee]

Oh, and I did realize that the shark wasn't a cichlid. I did not however realize that the dempseys were not African. Their previous owner may not have known either since he told me they were assorted african cichlids! There is also one other fairly colorless cichlid with very faint vertical black stripes. I'll try to post a pic of him in the near future.

Lots to learn

[jonah]

OK, good. I thought when you mentioned six cichlids and then the six fish, you were including the shark.:D

The lip lock thing seems to be pretty common in cichlids no matter where they're from. It's an attempt to establish dominance, no big deal in the wild, but in a tank the loser sometimes gets killed. Then again, if they're different sexes, they might be starting some sort of breeding display. If they end up mating, the other fish might have problems. I think (not certain) jacks form a pair bond, unlike most Africans, and they'll defend their territory together as a team.

They might have gotten together well for the past 6-8 months because they hadn't reached sexual maturity yet. Those hormones can really change the fishes attitude towards each other.