Hi Guys Great site, glad I found it! I've had a 3 foot tank for nearly 9 months now (after having a 4 foot one for several years) and have noticed some weird behaviour of late. I do my regular water changes and cleaning etc and on the latest occasion I put in some new fake plants. I live in an apartment so I like to give them plenty of hiding places as I want to reduce the amount of stress with people walking past etc. Over the last few days I've noticed they are hiding in or behind these plants, ship wrecks and other hiding spots more than normal. Whenever my partner and I go near the tank they seem to flee for some cover. It's only been the last few days so not sure what's going on. At the moment I've got two blue gourami, 2 electric yellow and four firemouth cichlids. The firemouth cichlids are quite aggressive but even they are ducking for cover. Having this tank in an apartment has never been a problem but their behaviour of late seems a little strange. The tank is spotless and they are never over fed, once a day with the odd snack at night ;-). Any ideas or are they just going through a funny stage? Look forward to hearing from you guys. PeteO
welcome to fishlore. water parameters would be good to know. do you know how many gallons your tank is?
make sure you get a liquid test kit - strips aren't reliable. Most members here like the API master test kit.
The tank is 900mm wide x 600mm high x 450mm deep. Think it holds around 60 gallons but don't quote me. Hope that helps. The 2 electric yellow and the 4 firemouth cichlids were only small when I first got them but are now quite big. Not sure how much the electric yellow will grow but the firemouth cichlids grew very quickly and look to have stopped growing.
Excelllent, I now have some testing to do by the sounds of it. Will let you know ASAP. Any ideas on the behavioural change before I get the test done?
This would certainly be my guess as well. You have a mix of fish that, aside from differences in preferred water chemistry and diet, have vastly different behavioral characteristics. I'd wager to say that your fish are hitting sexual maturity, and as such, the behavior of each species makes no "sense" to the others.
Just because a combo works for a month, or two, or three, doesn't mean it'll work in 6 months, or a year. In addition to sexual maturity, as the fish grow there is less and less space, which can also alter behavior.
Welcome to Fishlore! Once we know your water parameters, we can rule out any other issues, but regardless of your parameters, my best advice would be to re-home the yellow labs (electric yellows) They won't do well with your firemouths or gouramis as they mature. We're glad you joined!
Ok...have been away for a week so here are my results: Nitrite - 0.2 Nitrate -120 Ph - 6.3 Gh - 170 The firemouth cichlids are breeding in a hollow log and look very healthy. All of their colours look great. They have been busy in shifting the pebbles to camouflage their breeding area. The female has the customary black stripes through it's body and is showing aggression towards the smaller cichlids. The electric yellos are moving around although hiding a lot also. The gouramis seem unfazed as always.
Yeah unfortunately that's all I had at my disposal. I did it three times to see if there were any inconsistencies but seemed to work OK.
Welcome to FishLore!! Do you have a reading for ammonia? In a cycled tank, the nitrite should be at 0 If we're to believe the strips (they can be inaccurate) Your nitrates are crazy high. Imo, a series of water changes should be done to bring the reading down closer to 10-20. High nitrates can cause health problems and account for odd behavior in your fish. What is your water change routine? I can't comment on your combo of fish, I don't know enough about them.
