Tropical Fish Keeping banner

Electric Yellow Cichlids (Yellow labs)

9K views 22 replies 3 participants last post by  willow 
#1 ·
Hey everyone, New to the site, but not to maintaining my 55 Gallon Aquarium. Ive only had a Pleco and Catdory for the last 4 years (as well as some tetras, mollies etc, but currently only have a large Pleco and small Catdory) and decided I need more fish (because everyone who sees my tank says its so empty). I purchased 3 small Yellow Labs and hope to add similiar types of Cichlids in the future. Can anyone give me some advice when keeping these Cichlids, from feeding, food type, their tendencies, Lighting, habitat etc. etc etc. All advice is welcomed. Thanks in advance!!!

--Chris
 
#2 ·
Sandy bottom substrate, no need for any special lighting, they do well in almost anything.

Rocks and plenty of them in the aquarium and hardy live plants such as anubias and java fern if you want to go with plants. Fake plants are just as good and also wont be eaten.

The fish do well on high quality cichlid flakes supplemented with spirulina (if not already present in the flakes), supplement as well with fresh veggies (peas - deshelled), zucchini, carrots and lettuce (all boiled to soften them up).

Temperament wise they are amongst the easiest cichlids to care for but are not a good idea for an aquarium with anything other than other cichlids except BN plecos or synodontis catfish. Other fish they do have a bit of attitude to and can cause harm or death to anything smaller than them. Cichlids are aggressive compared to mollies etc but by cichlid standards these fish are teddybears.

In a 55g tank, I would add no more than 12-15 fish spread across a 1 male to several ratio. Having a single male and female or multiple males with single females is a bad idea with cichlids. Males once in breeding mode will actively persue a female to get her to spawn, if she is not ready to spawn the male can stress her to death. It is best ot have a single male to several females so that this aggression is spread across a group of females and not one.

Filtration look at, at least 10-15 times the tank volume an hour as they are messy fish and need higher than normal filtration.
 
#3 ·
Unfortuantely, I have small gravel as a substrate, wasn't aware they preferred sand. Also I have floating pellets. Whats strange is they seem hungry when I feed them and the dominant one will usually feed right away, but the other two are more skiddish and swim up like they are going to grab a pellet, but not always, I know they see it, but its as if they arent interested, but they seem hungry. I see alot of mimicking behaviorr between the fish in the swim/darting patterns too. Its like they play a game of copycat.
 
#4 ·
Cichlids will always appear hungry which is why we have to be careful not to overfeed them and give them bloat, bloat in cichlids is nearly always fatal.

The dominant fish will always try and eat first followed by the others, as long as the others are eating then it is fine.

No worries on the gravel substrate, gives them something to do as they have to work slightly harder to rearrange the tank to their liking :)
 
#5 ·
I only put in 5-6 pellets each feeding, enough for them to have 2 each. My fish are juveiniles, only about 2" long, they chew on the pellets while holding it in their mouth breaking it down before they can consume it. Should I wait till they get a little bigger or go ahead and introduce other types of food as well now?
 
#6 ·
Two inches is more than enough for them to be on full adult food. Flakes, lettuce, anything I mentioned in my earlier post they can be fed on now.
 
#8 ·
Alternate feedings with pellets and flakes. Feeding the veggies should be done at least once a week.

Remember though feeding too much will lead to a decrease in water conditions. Only feed as much as the fish will eat in 1-2 minutes. Cichlids will always appear hungry and it should be noted again not to feed when they come to the front of the tank. Feed twice a day in the morning and evening before lights out.

If you have fry in the main tank, then you can slightly overfeed as the fry should be fed up to where practical 3-4 times a day. If they are in a separate tank then this should be their normal feeding schedule but do not feed veggies until they are at least 1"
 
#9 ·
hi
can i just add my two cents worth please :)
rocks need to be placed firmly on the bottom of the tank,as these fish do like
to dig and they can/will make a rockfall which in a tank made of glass
is not a good thing.
 
#10 ·
Tax, thanks!

I haven't yet included any rocks, I have arificial drift wood and arifical lava rock that is opretty tall and 4-5 holes in it they like to hide in. I also stacked in a pyrmid style 5 3-inch wide terracotta plant holders as temporary caves for them to hide in, until I find the rocks i want to build a rockscape. I havent yet seen the fish "digging" but the substrate is gravel not sand and maybe two big for them to move (I would think) Whats the best way to post a pic of my tank on here? I'd like to share it with you guys.
 
#11 ·
You can upload pictures directly to your aquarium log (It hasnt been working the past few days and am not sure if it is fixed or not at the time of writing this - I dont use it).

If not then you can upload them to a free hosting site such as flickr, photobucket. Click "Go Advanced" in the message box and you will see a globe with a chain on it under the smiley face, you can link to the image there, OR you click the paperclip and upload them directly to the message.

Try if you can to replace the artificial driftwood with a piece of real driftwood, artificial and it will give nothing for the fish to munch on. It would absolutely be required if you have any bottom feeders such as BN pleco or synodontis catfish as they will eat on it overnight and clean all the algae off it.

Rocks, look for Texas holey rock or you can order rocks from marcorocks.com, they are slightly pricey but the quality of the rock is superb.
 
#12 ·
Bad News....My girlfriend noticed today that one of the chiclids is dead, and the small corydora....and the one chiclid is hiding and the othe ris swimming eratic...i noticed the fish swimming a little eratic almost like they try and brush the side of a rock or the gravel with their side. Nothing to be reall concerned about. only thing I can think of, in having the fish for two weeks, after I purchased them and had them for about 5 days, I added small terracota pots (8 of them 3" in diameter" as caves for them to hide in, as a temp means to rocks. boiled the pots, removed the sticker and glue residue and did research and seemed to think the pots (not glazed or painted) would be ok in an aqarium. Im depressed now to learn two fish have died. my water testing last week and as of two days ago seemed unchanged and reads as follows

Water Temp 76-78 degrees
General hardness ppm (mg/L) 170-180
KH (Carbonate harndess) 40-50 might be closer to 30 though when last tested 2 days ago
pH 7.0-7.5
Nitrate 0
Nitrate 20 ppm mg/L

Any clue as to what could of caused this?

The one fish I did notice acting strange the past 5-6 days was the small corydora..he would swim up and down up and down in the stream of water that flows into the tank from the hang on the back filter return flow. I thought he was just socializing with the Chiclids, but this is the only strange behavior i've noticed.
 
#13 ·
hi
cory cats will often do this in an aquarium,not unusual behaviour,so
i wouldn't worry about that .
whats the Ammonia reading ?
 
#14 ·
I think the Nitrate = ammonia on the test strip?

the levels were

Nitrate 0
Nitrate 20 ppm mg/L

I usually do a 35% water change 1 time a month....which was fine when I only had 2 fish in the 55 Gal tank. figured I would do it every 3 weeks since adding the 3 new cichlids I was planning to do a water change this upcoming weekend.
 
#15 ·
i don't use test stripes so i can't advise what is on them,
nitrate could do with being lower,and more water changes will help.
live plants help as well if you can add them.
 
#16 ·
i will add a few live plants once I can figure out the problem....havent lost a fish in over a year...not sure what the issue could be. My test strips dont test for ammonia specifically just the nitrite and nitrate which seem to be in acceptable ranges. My water is at the very high end for General Hardness and at the low end for Carbonate hardness. PH seems stable. Im going to do a test as soon as I get home and have all ready instructed my girlfriend who is home now to remove the dead fish and also to bag up a sample of the water to be tested at the petsmart store.
 
#19 · (Edited)
Lost all three cichlids and my cory....Tested the water and everything was fine. looks like a bacteria infection though because now pleco now showing signs of tailrot so I am treating the tank after a 50% water change with Pimafix and Metafix....carbon has been removed, hoping every other day water changes of 40% and the meds will save him....

Should I increase the water temp at all or add aquarium salt? these are some other remedies I read about on line.
 
#20 ·
the remaining fish, the Pleco which i had for 4 years and was 11" long, subcomed to death last night. Poor guy. Ive drained the tank nd will clean it throughly this weekend, along with the gravel. the plastic plants and decor has all ready been boiled and sanitized.

Its been years since I had to start over and cycle a tank. Anyone want to refresh my memory on the best way to do this, and when is it safe to start adding a few fish to the tank?

Thanks
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top