91Stang

I don't remember having a Kenyi before in the past but mine doesn't stray too far from the upper corner of the tank unless it's feeding time then he doesnt take a back seat to the blue guy. I know the blue fish has been in the tank longer but i thought maybe the Kenyi would defend himself atleast. Whenever the Kenyi swims over to where the blue fish hangs out he is chased back to his corner. Do you think adding another fish might be a good idea? Both current fish are 4 inches long and are in a 30 gallon tank.

cichlidsmad

how long have you had your kenyi it looks like its just starting to turn yellow as males should turn at breeding age
that blue fish is a scolofi another agressive type of cichlids looks like he might be the dominant fish in your tank you could get a very hardy fish that can take the agression from your scolofi to share the agression out so your kenyi isnt getting harrased so much maybe get some female scoclofis and your kenyi should be fine.

your socolofi will start concentrating on the females but theres a very high chance they will breed.

you could add a few more hiding spots

hope this helps

Angela_96

They need a bigger tank. Plus rocks to hide in.
I am going to say the kenyi is a female being 4 inches long already.
The last socolfi I had was a victim to the kenyis violence. You wouldn't see them fighting, but I found my soccofi dead after a while. That was the 2nd sococfi I had that got killed by kenyis.

R u keeping the pH up? They need a high ph, hard water. That might be the reason for the kenyi's faded color.

91Stang

Yeah, I want to move them into a 55 gallon tank but haven't got around to it yet. I thought previously someone mentioned that the Kenyi was male because of the colors? I have been using the jungle brand test strips that test nitrate, nitrite, hardness,chlorine,alkalinity and ph. the nitrate is testing high ( 80 PPM) which says unsafe on the chart even though i don't feed them much and change some water every week. Nitrite reads as safe, Hardness reads as very hard, chlorine reads as safe, alkalinity reads as 40 which says is low and ph reads in the 7.2 range.

Angela_96

It looks like you need to vaccum out the tank really good, step up the waterchanges, and change your filter media (big nitrate factories). For the ph/alkalinity you can put some limestone (you can get those at landscaaping places and boil them and scrub them to treat them for your tank) it will raise the alkalinity and ph. Also, some agronite or crushed coral substrate will raise the ph/alkalinity. I keep both in my mbuna tanks.

91Stang

I just did a simultaneous test of my tap water and the aquarium water and the tank water reads harder than the tap, however that happened. The alkalinity from the tap reads between 120-180 ppm where the tank reads between 40-80. I'm going to change the media on the filters also. There is 2 penguin 150's and 1 penguin 100 on the 30 gallon tank, can't have too much filtration i guess..Does anyone use any of the spirulina flake foods for there africans? I was going to pick some up today.

Angela_96

I use spirulina and reg cichlid flakes (alternating), and fresh veggies. right now in their clips for the day: romaine lettuce.
They like romaine lettuce, peas (hulled), zuchini.

It sounds like your tanks alkialinity isn't stable. Which will cause a ph crash. The high nitrates would be the cause. The filters def will have to be changed, along with the gravel vaccumed. I would up the waterchanges to daily until the nitrates are back down (I have a goal of less than 20ppm in my FW and less than 10ppm in my SW reef).
Adding crushed coral, agronite, and or limestone will stablize the alkalinity.

91Stang

I gave them some romaine lettuce and the socolofi ate a small piece but the second time he went for it he spit it out and the Kenyi spit it out the first time. They do seem to like the spirulina flakes .

cichlidsmad

i also feed my africans spirilina flakes with some veges like left over cucumber and brocolei (cant spell it) for the plec but they also eat it and they can also eat it when ever they want it so they dont have feeding times i useally replace them every 48 hrs

91Stang

Of all the foods they have eaten so far it looks like the floating cichlid pellets are the favorite. I have some frozen food that hasn't been given to them yet. The label says brine shrimp, mysis shrimp and bloodworms. As far as the Kenyi goes maybe i got a shy one or something from all the aggressive stories that I've read.

Angela_96

I would avoid giving them the frozen foods. They don't digest it well and it can cause them to get bloat.
That was the first mistake I made when I started with cichlids.
Very rarely do they get a blood worm treat.

These fish are herbivores on the most part, but will eat larvae in the wild if they have to.

91Stang

Looking at some of the pics that i took the first day the Kenyi was in the tank i notice he lost alot of his yellowish gold color.

Here's a vid from today, you can see the socolofi doing its shakes and pestering the Kenyi.

Angela_96

Thats def a female kenyi, even the egg spot is not bright white enough to be a male.
They def have aggression issues between the two of them. I would prob get a ton of rocks in there for them to hide or eventually one will kill the other.

91Stang

The way you saw the Kenyi in the video is about how it acts all the time, like its afraid to do anything. I think i'm going to remove the alligator skull, which i don't want to do lol but the poor fish needs some kind of shelter from the blue bully. Eventually switching them to a 55 gallon is the plan .

Angela_96

Yea, a 55 would be nice for them, then you could finish off the stocking and give the scolofi a couple mates, and the kenyi some mates. Maybe ad some other species like afra or labs. The more the merrir with mbuna they will settle down then.

91Stang

Yeah, and if the socolofi is a male maybe i can find him some girlfriends to calm him down. When i bought the Kenyi i almost picked one of the orange tangerine looking africans instead of the Kenyi because it looked to be one of the chasers in a tank of about 20 of them. If i still had my 10 inch managuense, poor guy, although he was a mean sucker, he would straighten the socolofi right out lol. Being both fish are 4 inches I was thinking 6 fish total for the 55 gallon.

Angela_96

When you stock african mbuna inches per gallon don't apply. For that sized tank 12-15 fish is what needs to be stocked to keep the aggression down. Cichlid-forum has a great cookie cutter that helps pick species.
I have about 14-16 in each of my tanks. You just have to double filter them, and keep up with the water changes.

91Stang

I'm hoping i'll be able to find that many fish that big. Most of the pet stores i go to have africans in the 2 inch range.

Angela_96

The 2 inches would be fine. I have all different sizes in my main tank, as long as you have plenty hiding spots it will be okay.

91Stang

I don't know if it's a mating or aggression thing but the Kenyi and the socolofi are having lip lock matches. I have one on video that I'll post as soon as i can figure how to get the file size smaller so i can host it.

Angela_96

Its aggression when they mouth fight.

91Stang

I didn't get the video that i wanted to post where they are really locked up for a while cause of the file size but here is one a few minutes after the other battle. It was the first time last night that i saw the Kenyi stand it's ground and even initiate a fight. But all in all it seems like the socolofi gets the final say.

Shawnie

awww good looking fish but I agree...they need a bigger tank soon and it doesnt look like mating to me either...

Angela_96

Mating with mbuna is a "friendly shoal" they will swim in circles and not lock mouths. The male does a little "dance" that you can't miss.

91Stang

These fish are something else. Last night and this morning there was a new king of the tank...the Kenyi!..It had the socolofi running for it's life and trying to hide behind the filter tube. When i get home from work today it's business as usual, the Kenyi on one side of the tank with a distressed look and the socolofi roaming around like normal..maybe in the next hour things will change, i wouldn't put it past these two. I lowered the temp on the heater 2 degrees to maybe help with the aggression but the thermometer still reads about the same , at the top of the green section...I'm still working on moving them to a 55.

On a side note, the Kenyi really likes the spirulina flakes all of a sudden. It wouldn't bother with them until a few days ago.

91Stang

The Kenyi must get brave in the morning. Again i look in the tank this morning and the Kenyi is the ruler.

We'll see who's in charge later today.

91Stang

Has anyone experienced something like this with their cichlids?

The second i turn the light off in the tank at night and with just the light from the tv the Kenyi turns into another personality, dominant.

Turn the light back on in the tank and instantly the socolofi is dominant again.

cichlidsmad

haha sounds like my fish.
with the light on the sunshine peacocks the king of the tank.
and in the dark my red zebra fry all 4 group then roam around the tank causing stress on the other fish.

the gang of the tank.

91Stang

I'm in the process of treating the tank with melafix for the beat up socolofi. He/she still tries to chase the Kenyi (only if the tank light is on) with beat up fins. I ordered my 55 gal tank so next week will be an adventure switching them over to that. I'm not sure if you can tell how bad the fins are from the video.

Angela_96

You might want to consider getting a full stock when you do the 55, spread the aggression out and give them lots of caves.