just wanted to share a few pics of the boyfriend's cichlids that i am fish sitting while he is away... pretty fishies!!!

here is the tank... odd angle, i know...

this is lefty...

this is spike...

this one doesn't have a name, but i'm just calling him orange...

this is poncho...

this is stripe...

THOSE are so cool i love your fish there buties.
and your tank is awsome!!!


good job setting up the tank loooooove it

and this is face...

here is a bunch of them...
thank you ali!!

one more ornament... a car... go figure...

and the last pic... one more of the tank...

Your bf has some beautiful fish there! I especially like Orange.....nice, nice coloring!! BTW, do you know what size tank that is? Just curious.....

Nice looking Mbuna you have there Chellekins.

I like Face, I'm sure he's pouting to the camera!

sorry! i had forgotten that i had posted these! it's a 30 gal, although he wants to upgrade when he gets home.

What a lovely tank how many gallons is it?

Those are gorgeous!! Im so in love with Africans now. I definitely want to get some. Do you ever have aggression problems in there? Just wondering. It seems like theres an awful lot of open space. Africans are very territorial and I usually recommend adding lots of rock (such as lava rock piled up to make individual caves and hiding places). They still look pretty small for now, though. They all look very happy and healthy. Again, very pretty.

Wow! i loved all of those pictures great fish

I never knew the were some pretty I love the color on them..so bright

I think he should try for a more natural look when he upgrades. Sand for substrate and rocks piled up from the bottom to form caves. Thats what Mbuna's natural habitat is like and its not that hard to do from what i've seen on the cichlid forum.

lol! funny is they dig their own caves! they move the rocks one by one and dig out holes for themselves. and then i clean and they flatten out and they have to do it all over again! but it keeps them busy! no problems with agression yet and the tank has been established for months now. they do chase each other a bit more vigorously than goldies, but they never hurt one another, so i guess they have sorted out their pecking order no problem. and they LOVE thier food. we give them crushed cichlid pellets by hikari, chushed up krill, and shrimp pellets. piggies, piggies, piggies! i know the 30 is a bit small for the 6 of them, but he wants to move them up tp a 55 when he gets home. anyway, that's the story!

I'm not researching Mbuna that much but i'm pretty sure most breeds should be eating mostly veggies........such as spirulina flakes/pellets and fresh veggies. Some Mbuna such as yellow labs are omnivores but the majority of them are mostly herbivores.
Im guessing because he didnt stock harums that there hasnt been any aggression due to breeding. I sometimes see people post that everything is fine for weeks/months and then one day everything changes and a fish goes on a rampage.
When he gets the 55G he can stock probably at least 20. Mbuna live in an overcrowded rocky enviroment in the wild. But some Mbuna are mild and others are pretty vicious. I know hobbiest stock males with several females depending on the breed. Some are so mean that they require more females/space than others.

Nice africans. I had a female just like the orange one I think it is called (elongotis) and a colbolt blue male that would spawn often. That was my first experience with mouth brooders. She would deposit the babies under the large rocks in the tank after the eggs hatched in her mouth. That was the coolest thing I had ever seen in my aquarium.

wow they look amazing.. very beautiful!

ty for the compliments and for all the info! i wishi could do more for them other than just simple mainenanc, but as it stands i cannot. this place is going to look like a pet store very soon, and while i know they need an upgrade and remodeling, i simply cannot at this point. as it is, i have 6 tanks running amd even when he revamping of the tanks are sone in may, i'll still have two goldie tanks a 50 and a 75, an oscar tank (55), a tropical tank, (20) the cichlids(30), a 10 gal quarantine tank, and still a betta tank running.

that's still 6 tanks, and they will be getting larger when all is said and done. i wish i could do more for them, but as grad student, with not a lot of time and most of those tanks being his, my options are limited. mine are the goldies his are everything else... put toghether 6 tanks, and three rattie cages, and you have a lot going on all hings considered.

but i'm glad you liked the piucs...

I for one, can sympathize completely with you! There always seems to be projects that need doing!

Speaking of ratties.....here's a not so good pic of one my son's rats.....this is Bubbles

And here's Squeak......

awww!! watermama they are sooo cute! and i love the names Bubbles and Squeak! are you from the UK? the names make me thing of the Disney movie Bedknobs and Broomsticks!

Naw...born and bred in the USA but I love the movie Bedknobs and Broomsticks!!!

What cute rats!! I love rats so much. That reminds me of how my sister and I used to build our own "houses" for our pet mice out of tubes and boxes.

As far as mbuna, it is true that too much meat in their diet can cause problems such as Malawi bloat, so as mentioned make sure it is a largely veggie-based diet.