Adult Altolamprolgus calvus rescued from a rock filled bucket. Photo by the author.
As part of my regular maintenance, I remove all rocks and caves in each half of every tank once every month. I do this to all of my tanks. I change water and vacuum my sand weekly. I remove the rocks and caves so I can get any detritus that accumulates underneath them…and believe me, it does.
As part of this maintenance routine, I place all the components that I remove into a bucket. Because I have some rectangular, ceramic tubes with one end closed, I have to remove them open side down inside the tank so the water drains out. I also have to check them because my fish will seek refuge in them, especially when I’m cleaning.
I must confess that I have always been intrigued by discus. They are stunningly beautiful fish. In my opinion, the two biggest knocks against them are 1) they’re notoriously difficult to keep and 2) they aren’t very active like most other cichlids. Both might be true, to some extent, but they are cichlids nonetheless and they appeal to a lot of cichlidophiles.
Because I’ve have no experience with them, I can’t really offer anything substantive about them. However, I can offer a resource that both sells them and provides lots of information about them. I don’t know anything about the site’s owner, so I can’t speak to his reputation or his fishes’ quality. The site is called Discus Guy. In an effort to find out more about the business, I reached out to the site in hopes of doing an interview with the owner. Unfortunately, I received no response. As a consolation, I will offer up an article from Practical Fishkeeping to give you something to whet your inquisitive appetite about these fish.
If you know of an expert who breeds and sells discus, drop my a line with their information and I’ll try to get an interview. I would certainly like to find out more about these fish and would love to share that with you.
Frequent water changes are widely hailed as a key variable in the well being of aquarium fish, especially cichlids. However, for at least one species of angelfish, fewer water changes may actually be beneficial, especially if your angelfish population is somewhat dense.
According to an article published in the January 2018 issue of Applied Animal Behavior Science, frequent or large water changes in aquariums housing Pterophyllum scalare may actually increase con-specific aggression in this species. The authors posit that water changes modify cortisol and other chemical levels that these angelfish use to establish social status. Frequent and/or large water changes dilute these chemicals, which effectively disturbs the baselines that set the statuses thus requiring that the angelfish re-establish them.
Citation:
Less water renewal reduces effects on social aggression of the cichlid Pterophyllum scalare. Gauy, Ana Carolina dos Santos et al. Applied Animal Behaviour Science (2018). Volume 198, pp. 121 – 126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2017.10.003.
The Buntbarsche Bulletin(BB) is the journal of the American Cichlid Association (ACA). First published in 1966, the BB is, in my opinion, a must have for any cichlidophile. Each issue contains several articles profiling cichlids, often species that are not frequently seen in the hobby. Being a member of the ACA gets you four issues per year. You can also order individual back issues.
Just this year, however, the ACA released all issues up to May 2018 on a single USB flash drive. The best part….it’s only $24.95 US (shipping included if in the US). So if you don’t want to join the ACA, you can still get past issues of the Bulletin at an unbelievable price.
As cichlid keepers, we’re all aware of aggression and the typical behavioral scenarios that promote it. Breeding, offspring defense, territory defense, and food competition are the main ones. And though we naturally associate these behaviors with adult or adolescent fish, fry exhibit aggression too.
A recent study published in the latest issue of Hydrobiologia shows aggression can begin very early in a cichlid’s life. In an experiment involving fry of Neolamprologus furcifer from Lake Tanganyika, it was discovered that early-stage fry (as young as ~2 weeks old) demonstrate sibling aggression. The study focused on the fry as they fed on small atyid shrimp. Most (frequency) aggression was observed among the fry between the ages of 4 and 6 weeks. While the severity of the aggression was not specifically tested, it was noted that the sibling aggression was non-lethal.
The study was performed in situ (meaning in Lake Tanganyika itself rather than in a laboratory) using several N. furcifer nests. The details of the study are pretty fascinating, if you’re interested. See the citation below for a link to the paper. It is a scholarly paper, so it may not be easily accessible.
Citation:
Dynamics of sibling aggression of a cichlid fish in Lake Tanganyika. Satoh, S., Ota, K., Awata, S. et al. Hydrobiologia (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-018-3768-8.
Two and half years ago, I posted about shell varieties for shell dwelling cichlids. I revisited that post today because many new cichlid keepers are unaware of what shells to use.
In addition to the shells pictured in that previous post, there is another shell that I’ve had good experience with – Muffin land snail (pictured below). Compared to other shell options, these are quite large and dense (notice the thickness of the lip).
I have had both N. ocellatus and L. signatus select these shells when several other options were available.
Muffin land snail shell (Ryssota ovum). Photo by the author.
Back in 2016, I posted about a nice review of external canister filters that I came across on Facebook. The author of that review has updated his article and sent me the new link. The link to the old article no longer works, so I updated the url in the original post, which now points to the new review.
I had a little spare time the other day and realized I hadn’t taken any photos of my fish in a while. So I dragged out the camera and decided to get a few shots of one of the 75g Tang tanks. The two photos below show one of my three A. calvus and one of my breeding pair of J. marlieri. The Julie is my adult male (note the slight nuchal hump). The calvus is one of two males (the dominant one). Yes, that is an adult Neolamprologus tretocephalus (five bar cichlid for those wanting the common name) in the background of the calvus photo. That’s the female of my pair.
No matter what type(s) of cichlids you keep, you do so for a reason. In fact, whether you’ve given it much thought or not, you probably have an objective for the decisions you make with respect to your fishes’ environment. From the fish you keep, to the equipment you use, to the water parameters you try to maintain, it all points to an objective on your part.
Perhaps you’ve asked yourself that question with respect to whether you have a female cichlid that is gravid, guarding eggs, or guarding fry. You don’t have to worry about her being gravid or having any fry if she’s in a tank by herself. She’ll need a male to fertilize any eggs she’s about to unload. Otherwise, the eggs will never develop.
If she shares a tank with a male of the same species (I’m not going to consider hybrids here), just watch her and see if she stays close to any objects in the tank, e.g., rocks, plants, ornaments. So what if your tank is heavily decorated and she’s simply disappeared? That usually either means she’s hiding from aggression, she’s sick, or she is in fact guarding eggs or fry.
