Nataku
Long story short: got a call from a friend of a friend that their tank (a 125) broke. Not sure how. But the person tried to save what fish they could and threw them in some 5 gallon buckets. But with no other tank they didn't want them anymore (I'm told it made quite a mess of their living room) so I agreed to take them in. I quickly converted a 65 gallon that was just a swordtail/fancy guppy grow out into their new home with some spare rocks and culvert pieces I had laying around.
They arrived to me laying on the bottom on the buckets but perked up soon after being added to the tank.
Problem: I was only given the information 'they are mbuna cichlids and they've been breeding together in the 125 for years.' That is really vague and cichlids are by and far my weakest point of freshwater fish. I have no idea what all I threw in this tank together.
There are 17 or 18 of them (plus one anastomus and one pictus catfish) varying in size from about 3 inches to 6 inches. I am presuming there are three different types? And that several are color variants of the same type as they otherwise seem to have the same body shape? But I could be very wrong.
The light pale golden one is the biggest and deepest bodied in the group. There are two like that and a third which has more yellowy gold speckling through out but shaped more like the orange and black spotted ones. A hybrid perhaps?
These are all golden yellow and have a weird 'nose' like droop on their face. Also sleeker in body shape than the rest.
Please tell me what I'm working with and what I need to be doing for these fish. Do I need to separate some out and rehome? Which ones? Is this an acceptable amount of cichlids in a 65?
They arrived to me laying on the bottom on the buckets but perked up soon after being added to the tank.
Problem: I was only given the information 'they are mbuna cichlids and they've been breeding together in the 125 for years.' That is really vague and cichlids are by and far my weakest point of freshwater fish. I have no idea what all I threw in this tank together.
There are 17 or 18 of them (plus one anastomus and one pictus catfish) varying in size from about 3 inches to 6 inches. I am presuming there are three different types? And that several are color variants of the same type as they otherwise seem to have the same body shape? But I could be very wrong.
The light pale golden one is the biggest and deepest bodied in the group. There are two like that and a third which has more yellowy gold speckling through out but shaped more like the orange and black spotted ones. A hybrid perhaps?
These are all golden yellow and have a weird 'nose' like droop on their face. Also sleeker in body shape than the rest.
Please tell me what I'm working with and what I need to be doing for these fish. Do I need to separate some out and rehome? Which ones? Is this an acceptable amount of cichlids in a 65?
