So I received a nice box in the mail today! (from mike205)

I got some pseudocrenilabrus nicholsi From Mike 205 today and I have to say i was very impressed! the packaging was awesome and absolutely no DOA! all the little fry are less then an inch but happy fat and healthy, acclimated well and are already out and exploring there tank! I will for sure be ordering from him again! I recommend you do too! Thanks Mike! Here is a picture of what these wonderful fish look like

thanks man
i do my best to make everyone happy

Wow they will be beauties!

everyone is doing great, and eating like piglets. they are amazing

Where are the pics? LOL

nice fish!where does it come from?looks like Malawi

Don't all Cichlids come from lake Malawi?

Pics, or we don't believe you have fish!

I'm going to post some pics of my nicholsi and brichardi fry that I bought from mike205 a few weeks ago. Not a single floater and they had no problems acclimating. Good seller. Great fish.

the nicholsi,s are considered victorians but i think they actually come from the dominican republic.
correct me if im wrong H20NYCK

lakes Malawi, tang and Victoria are where the African rift lake cichlids come from. There are also riverine fish from Africa who do not like the hard alkaline water that the rift lakes do.

cichlids are from all over the world actually but most are African or south american. They live in different areas that range from soft water to hard water. Angels and discus are south American cichlids as is the oscar yet you would never put them in the same tank. When it comes to cichlid you need to narrow it down to areas such as what lake, river or region they are from.

Kribs come to mind.. an African fish loving soft water and low ph..

Due to the stream they come from they are not like one of the african lake cichlida

Oh.. I didn't realize this was a lake only thread.. my bad

no I was saying kribs are from a stream in Africa so their water perimeters are different than most African cichlids.

That's what I so badly was trying to point out... LOL...

On our forum. one guy wrote in he was starting to set up a cichlid tank... no other info... wanted to know how to go about it!.. Bill in Va.

That's like saying I'm setting up a fish tank! LOL

Pretty much!.. Back to the orig thread!.. I too was part of Mikes Nich/Brichardi shipment to Va. Awesome fish, awesome shipment. Bill in Va.

These guys came in at about 1/4-3/8" or so almost a month a go. They spent 4 days in transit. They were well packed and in a group of 30+ fry, there weren't any floaters.

nice!

Yes yours are already much larger then mine, I try to get pictures, but still end up catching nothing, these guys are so fast and there are a ton if things in there tank, they are gone in a flash, I have spent more then a week now trying to divide male to one tank and female to another, its cause i cant catch them they are so fast, But i want to let the females grow there full potential as they can stunt if they start breeding to early and have much smaller brood sizes, these are a west african cichlid, that come from small ponds, drainage ditches, and creeks,native to West Africa it is found in Zaire, in the eastern central Congo basin, between Lakes Ankoro and Upemba
Its a very colorful fish, and known to be madly aggressive to its own species. so much so that if there arent enough females, or they are not pulled, the male will harass them until they eat the eggs just so he can mate again. and he can be very hard to the other males in the tank, so it is best to have two or less males, and tons of females. I read as much as I could find about these little fish. a for sure challenge.

H2O Nyck wrote:Yes yours are already much larger then mine, I try to get pictures, but still end up catching nothing, these guys are so fast and there are a ton if things in there tank, they are gone in a flash, I have spent more then a week now trying to divide male to one tank and female to another, its cause i cant catch them they are so fast, But i want to let the females grow there full potential as they can stunt if they start breeding to early and have much smaller brood sizes, these are a west african cichlid, that come from small ponds, drainage ditches, and creeks,native to West Africa it is found in Zaire, in the eastern central Congo basin, between Lakes Ankoro and Upemba
Its a very colorful fish, and known to be madly aggressive to its own species. so much so that if there arent enough females, or they are not pulled, the male will harass them until they eat the eggs just so he can mate again. and he can be very hard to the other males in the tank, so it is best to have two or less males, and tons of females. I read as much as I could find about these little fish. a for sure challenge.

How are you identifying males and females? I've noticed aggressive chasing behavior, but no nipping and the chases are short lived... now when my pictus catfish comes out from beneath his rock, the hunt is on!

About 5 of them line up and chase him while he makes a mad dash around the tank eating everything he can identify and then scooting back under his comfy rock.

I'm not sure, but I believe that I have a mix of nicholsi and brichardi. One group STAYS in and around the rocks and the other group wanders all around the tank, rarely staying in the rocks. I've come down at night to even find them sleeping on the bottom of the tank in the open. Is this normal?

I have another tank with blue mbunas that I want to consolidate together with the nicholsi and brichardi into one 75g planted tank. Is that a good idea? Will having an abundance of rock caves and crevices and large thick plants help with any aggressive behavior - giving the more timid fish places to hide and to be out of sight, out of mind?

Thanks,

Bobby

First, the way I have been sexing them, Is the females don't seem to chase, and they tend to grow slower, Looking at your photos, the second picture looks like a male, the males tend to start by getting a black tipped Dorsal fin, like a black line across the top fin, the females from what I have seen tend to stay grey in color for the most part and have just a few darker grey spots. The males will become very bright! after the black line, they will start to get the Yellow around the mouth, then red and blue all coming in at about the same time, they will show lots of color early on, however you need to start dividing males as soon as you can tell, leaving just a couple in the tank, or they will fight and kill each other, from everything I have read, please don't think this is the only option, just research on my part. the things I have read says that they do better in a species only tank. however i am considering putting some dithers in as I would like to keep two males to my group, but I also have a back up tank if that's not possible. If you have the brichardi you will know because even from an early age they will have electric blue on there fin's and the bodies will be solid dark grey blue. I hope that this Helps.

3 males in 55g or more for most harem breeding africans. tiger barbs make decent dithers for Africans and they are fairly cheap so its not a big hurt on the wallet if you lose some.
Nphocus, that water sprite and anachris will be the first plants to be eaten just so you know. The brichardis are fine in a planted tank though as they dont eat the plants, you want to stick with stem plants with them as they will bury plants with all of their digging. I had mine in a fully planted 75g and all was fine till I removed one rock, then it was downright murder in the tank. Brichardis are not the best fish in a mixed tank, a mated pair in a 20g long is the best thing to do with them. They are fine with their fry and they are about the only fish that forms a family clan, any fish that is born in the tank is fully accepted by the parents and siblings and will remain un-harassed, this can go on for generations.

https://picasaweb.google.com/nphocus/CichlidEmporium?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Theres a good shot of one of the Nicholsi in there. All of my cichlids are now in there. The only thing that I wish I could get out of there is one of the two chinese algae eaters that I put in there. They completely cleared it of brown and green algea and all bearded algae that was coming up on my grass... now I want to put one in another tank, but they seem to see the net before I even get it into the water and they scurry to the far corners of the tank.



The Brichardi are growing very fast. The Nicholsi are taking their time, but they look freaking beautiful. I really hope mine don't turn out to be as aggressive as I've read. So far, they stick to the deeper darker rocky areas. The only way I got them out for the pic was to feed them.