Eating sand?

[TDoern]

I know this may sound like a stupid question....

I just got back from being gone for six weeks, hubby was left in charge of the fish tank. We set it all up, got the ph holding where it needs to be, bought some feeder goldfish to cycle the tank with, when we go to buy the cichlids, the goldfish will be given away to friends or donated to a pet store.

My question is while I was gone we had 4 or 5 goldfish die while the tank cycled, however we aren't even sure if the cycling is what killed them... my hubby says that two that somehow he found out what was in thier tummy were full of sand. We have a "cichlid" sand on the bottom of the tank, really fine stuff... my concern now is if the cichlids will eat that too and die from it? The goldfish are hungry little beggers and eat tons, but I'd never known a fish to die from ingesting sand, and this is a real concern... we were planning on doing our fishing (purchasing) within the next week or so...

thanks for any imput

[Axeman]

cichlids love to pick sand up with their mouths and sift it through their gills. they do not actually injest it as far as i know. my auloncara, c moori and most of my mabuna spend a beter part of the day doing just that. i am useing play sand, it is pretty fine grained and so far no problems! i wouldnt worry! happy shopping!!!

[aharris]

Yeah, all mine dig, but none eat it. As much as they put in their mouths, I'd notice a drop in substrate level if they actually ate it.

[DogWalker]

They do funny things with it sometimes. One of mine likes swimming up to the top of the tank and releasing a mouthful. A couple of times I've spotted him doing it at feeding time - the rest of the fish chase after the fine gravel thinking it's food, leaving the spitter a clear run at the real food. (gotta be coincidence - they can't be THAT clever... or can they? who knows...)

[Axeman]

i swear they are smarter then their brain size should allow. my red jewel and my german red always come and interact with me when i sit and watch them. my red jewel will even let me touch her with no reaction from her at all.

[TDoern]

I used to have a yellow lab cichlid that wanted to be petted. he seemed to enjoy rubbing agianst my finger.

anyways thank you all for the reassurrance. we are going probably next weekend to pick out the fish. we think we know what we want based on the breeder saying that "Haplochromis, Peacocks (Aulonocara) and Dwarf Mbuna" go well together if bought at the same size. they have an online "in stock" list that hubby and I have been watching.

[Axeman]

that is what i have. i wasnt able to get them all at once, it would have been better im sure. last month i picked up a really nice sunshine. he is stunning but he is a real mean sucker. i might have made a mistake, i will leave things go and see how everyone settles in. what kind of haps are you looking at?

[TDoern]

right now we are looking at Nimbochromis livingstonii, Cynotilapia afra blue reef, and Aulonocara sp. "ruby red Arizona"

based on what the breeder himself thinks when we head over there and how they look. we are looking at buying them between 1.25 and 2.0 inches in size also

our tank is fully cycled we are planning on moving the goldfish who are cycling the tank we have to a 29 gallon we are going to put a community tank in.

[aharris]

Those livingstonii are going to get really big and they eat smaller fish. The Cynos are primarily vegetarian feeders. How do youplan to reconcile the difference in dietary requirements? You might consider swapping out to a different mbuna that is more omnivorous than C. afras. Or you could get a large Hap that tends to be a little less piscovorous like Fossochromis rostratus or C. moori.

[TDoern]

aharris- I honeslty didn't know that stuff, I'm doing my best to look them up on the web, but the information on the fish varies sooo much. A big reason why we plan on talking alot with the breeder when we go get the fish. My last tank about 3 years ago did amazing just by buying whatever "looked pretty" just this round we want to do it right and are putting alot more work into it. thanks for the heads up...

if we were to keep the cynos would putting veggies in there make up for the difference? I've put dark green frozen lettuce in with my cichlids before and they loved it, along with cucumber and zucchini....

right now even with our gold fish we keep cucumber in there, and the pleco loves it.

[jonah]

Goldfish tend to eat anything that fits in their mouths. Swallowing rocks and pebbles isn't uncommon. I'm sure sand would be even more common.

[aharris]

It isn't so much that the Cynos would nutritionally be left out for eating protein, it's that mbuna have longer guts and have a harder time digesting foods without enough roughage in them. They can get a condition called bloat which is really bacterial constipation. It kills them pretty quickly though and can be hard to clear out once you get it.

Some mbuna are more omnivorous than others. Cynos tend to eat plankton which tends to be mainly algae in the lake. They are amazingly pretty fish, and the livingstonnii are too. It would just be hard to keep both at optimum in the same tank I think given their respective diets. I think one species would always lose out just a tad. The peacock sort sits squarely in the middle.