Newbie to the forum, need help with some id's please

[Stacy86]

Hi everyone

im a newbie to the forums and im wondering if someone here can help me with some id's

Ok so here's my story:

i adopted my friends cichlids about a week ago as she has just moved overseas,

She has no idea what fish they are other than they are cichlids, she just bought them because they looked pretty, lol

ive been looking online trying to id them and to be honest i didnt realise there were so many types of cichlids lol, any-who, im hoping that you guys can help me, ive taken the best pics that i can (most of them are quite camera shy)

Hopefully they are good enough for you guys to id for me.

Also, they are currently all in the same tank, but i was thinking of seperating the smaller ones from the bigger ones, as the small blue striped ones chase and attack all the other fish, even the bigger ones.

i was thinking of keeping the 6 bigger ones in the 4 ft tank they are in now, and moving the 6 smaller ones to a 3 ft tank. Would this be a good thing to do or not?

ok so here are the pics:

The first pics are of 2 fish that used to look exactly the same, i remember when i visited my mate when she first got them, they looked identical, then a few months later i visited again and one had had a huge growth spurt and got some awesome blue colors through it.

it is now almost twice the size of the smaller one

Curious as to whether they are a male & female, or two completely different fish?

Here is the smaller of the two

And here is the bigger one

ok, so these next two almost look the same, but one has a white-ish face, and the other is getting a small bump on its head.

here is the one with the white face

and the one with the bump

the next two fish are my favs,

again they look very similar, but one has a blueish face, and the others spots are alot darker.

In the pics it looks like one doesnt have any of the spots at all, it does they just fade a bit sometimes.

here is a pic of them together

Ok, now these guys are nasty buggas lol

they chase all the other fish around the entire tank, even ones that are 3x their size.

one of them turns a very dark blue when its chasing the other fish.

here is the dark one

and the lighter of the two

now these ones pretty much are identical, araprt from their spots being in different places.

they have very small orange spots aswell as the black ones, you can kind of see them in the pics

here is one

and the other

and these are the last of the lot.

i could only manage to get one pic, they are very camera shy,

luckily these two are completely identical.

also thought i would share a pic of my oscar pair,

i dont need id's for these ones, just thought id share a pic of my babies, well they arent really babies anymore lol, but ive had them since they were tiny

So these are my fish, hopefully some of you can help with id's for some if not all of these beautiful fish. And also some advise on whether i should seperate them or not?

i am now in love with these fish and want to do the best for them

Thanks in advance

Stacy

[myster619]

Blue Acara

Blue Acara white saum

Strawberry peacock

Dragonblood peacock

Venustus

Kingsizei

Marble peacock

Electric yellow

Oscar

Before you buy pets, make sure you know what they are and what their requirements are. They may not be compatible.

[Stacy86]

Thanks for your quick reply.

I appreciate the info on the fish,

However, if you had read my post you would see that i didnt personally buy these fish, they were given to me.

If i had bought them myself, or course i would have done the research needed.

This is another reason i joined this forum, as i said i am now in love with these fish, and i want to do the right thing and what is best for them.

Rather then just saying that some of them might not be compatible, some suggestions on which ones are ok together and which ones are not would be more helpful.

[myster619]

Sorry, I should have read the whole thing.

[Stacy86]

Thats, ok, i didnt mean to sound rude if that how i came across.

is there any other info you can give me on these fish?

And thanks again for the id's, i do appreciate it.

[brucem]

Generally speaking, cichlids from different parts of the world like to live in different water conditions, or at least can do better in different water conditions. On that basis the two Blue Acara's and Oscars are American cichlids and the others from Lake Malawi in Africa. So firstly I'd separate the acara's from the others. Some people do successfully mix these, and I have no experience with acara's, so see what others say. But the Oscars and acara's aren't compatible either.

The other Africans should be OK together in the 4ft tank. Typically you'll find that no matter what the temperament of Malawi cichlids, one or two will be dominant in a tank. If you remove the Kingsizei, you'll probably find that in a matter of days, another fish will be at the top of the pecking order and begin to ascert their dominance. While the Kingsizei aren't physically damaging the others, I'd leave them together. If they start to cause physical damaging then you may have to remove the offender.

[Stacy86]

Thanks heaps for the info

My Oscars are by themselves in a 4ft tank, they are MUCH bigger than the other fish, so i wouldnt even think of putting anything with them.

im not sure where else i could home the acaras right now, they seem to get along with the other fish, so i might leave them for now and see how they go.

The kingsizei are not physically damaging the others just chasing them around the tank, so they should be ok?

I was thinking of putting the Kingsizeis, Marble peacocks and Electric yellows in a 3ft tank, as they are all roughly the same size, (about 3-4 inches) and quite smaller than the other fish, the rest are all between 6-8 inches, (apart from my oscars, which are about 10-12 inches) so i was going to keep them together in the 4ft tank.

Do you think this would be ok?

[brucem]

Can you put the acara's in the 3 ft and the rest in the 4ft?

[Firemouth]

Oscars aren't that aggressive.
Reakon the acaras will be ok with the oscars in the 4 footer.
As long as they're not an easy mouthful.
Provide a few hiding spots and see how they go.

[daveho]

realisticly the min recomendation for a single oscar is 55g (standard 4 foot) unless heavily overfiltered so i wouldnt add any more fish to that tank

[Stacy86]

Thanks for the replys everyone,

sorry for the late response, my net got cut off, just got it put back on.

I wont put anything in with my oscars, they are both quite territorial, and much bigger than the other fish so i dont think that would be best.

They all seem to get on ok in the 4ft, no fighting, apart from the kingsizei chasing the other fish, but i have a spare 3ft tank so i thought i could put the smaller ones in that with lots of hiding spots for the other fish to hide from the kingsizei.

Do u guys think this would be ok?

i know someone said that the American and Africans shouldnt be in the same tank, but my mate has had them all together since the start of the year.

Should i really have the Acaras in a tank by themselves and all the others together in another tank?

i dont want a tank with only 2 fish, and another tank full of fish...

Ahhhh so confused?!?!

[Azedenkae]

Honestly I wouldn't move them. They were fine before, they'll be fine now.

As someone with personal experience keeping Africans and Americans together, I can attest to the fact that they can do well together. The biggest factor, honestly, would be the difference in water parameters - but even then, it's not entirely true that they 'have different water parameters'.

The water parameters stated for them are simply the water parameters they are found in the wild - but that by no means mean that they must live in such water parameters.

Besides a select few species that require very specific water conditions, everything else don't mind.

Obviously, don't place an African cichlid in waters with a pH of 6, and don't place an American in waters with pH of 8.5 or something - but really, the water parameters that one usually would see - somewhere between 7 and 8 would be fine for almost all cichlids. So no reason they can't go together. It's a similar story with all the other water parameters.

Anyways, main point is you can keep them together just fine. Coming from personal experience, and the fact that I've seen plenty of mixed tanks. I'm sure if it was such a big issue with water parameters I'd heard of it by now.

The only issue is aggression, but that happens even if it's an American-only or African-only tank.

With so many fish, they will chase each other, but I'm sure you'll notice that despite the Kingsizei chasing the fish, he doesn't have one single target, and the aggression spreads around evenly.

That'll just be maintained until, well, indefinitely.

[Stacy86]

Thanks

i feel a bit better now knowing that someone else has successfully kept them together.

i still think im going to move the kingsizei, marbles & electric yellows to the 3ft tank, and kept the rest in the 4ft.

i have the spare tank and the room for it, & i think both tanks would look better with fish of the same size in them.

One more question if anyone can help..

does anyone know if all these fish are male or female? im not sure on the sexes of any of them to be honest, besides my oscars, i know are a male & female.

[Stacy86]

ohhh one more question...

does anyone know if any or all of these fish are hybrids/crossbreeds?

i was reading that it is hard to find fish these days that are a pure breed species. is this true?

[Azedenkae]

Yeah, if you have the tank space, and you want to, go for it. Make sure there's enough fish in each tank though, if there's not enough fish, aggression might be too crazy to handle.

No idea which ones are males or females - not too big of a fan of Africans, so ain't sure.

Your Oscars are probably pure - there's a chance that they are hybrids with very closely related species, but well, it's impossible to tell.

Acaras are pure.

E. Yellow seems pure. But I don't know for sure.

[Stacy86]

cool thanks for the advice,

i think im going to move them, and go and buy some more fish for both tanks to spread out the aggression.

im now in love with cichlids, there are so many beautiful different colored ones, im sure ill find enough for both tanks lol

thanks for the info on the pure/hybrids too