CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

royal blue Hello everyone I just purchased two "African Cichlids" at Walmart yesterday only to have one die. Anyways, I am trying to figure out the sex of this fish (I'm hoping that one male/one female will not kill eachother), but I dont even know that its true name is. Its a light blue, with black or dark blue tiger tiger stripes on the body and Black along the edge of the fins and one or two white dots on the bottom fin. Ok when I bought this fish it had the tiger stripes, but now you can just barely see a color difference (is that normal?) I will try my best to get a picture once the water clears a little, hopefully this one fish will be able to live thru the water cycling.

Is there anything anyone can suggest to help me out? My temp is around 74-78F and I bought distilled water (Walmart brand) to fill the tank with after having so much trouble with fish in the past. I have put some Ich medicine in about 5 hours before the fish went in because my group of fish died from that. I'm really tired of loosing fish, so I would gladly accept some advice.

Originally posted by goldmember614
royal blue [B]Hello everyone I just purchased two "African Cichlids" at Walmart yesterday only to have one die. Anyways, I am trying to figure out the sex of this fish (I'm hoping that one male/one female will not kill eachother), but I dont even know that its true name is. Its a light blue, with black or dark blue tiger tiger stripes on the body and Black along the edge of the fins and one or two white dots on the bottom fin. Ok when I bought this fish it had the tiger stripes, but now you can just barely see a color difference (is that normal?) I will try my best to get a picture once the water clears a little, hopefully this one fish will be able to live thru the water cycling.

Is there anything anyone can suggest to help me out? My temp is around 74-78F and I bought distilled water (Walmart brand) to fill the tank with after having so much trouble with fish in the past. I have put some Ich medicine in about 5 hours before the fish went in because my group of fish died from that. I'm really tired of loosing fish, so I would gladly accept some advice. [/B]

Hi Goldmember, and WELCOME TO THE FORUM!!

Starting an aquarium can indeed be a frustrating experience. My suggestion is to visit the Aquaria FAQs at http://faq.thekrib.com -- in the upper left hand corner you'll see a link "Your First Aquarium", which is probably the most complete start-up info source on the internet (that I know of --). Starting an aquarium needs to be done correctly, but it's not very complicated! Keep us updated on how you're progressing - -

--Mark

The best way to set-up an aquarium is to give it time. Let the tank cycle properly before adding a whole tank of fish. The cycle could run as long as a month or so, so patience is a must. The above mentioned link will help with all that stuff.

As for premedicating, I wouldn't suggest it for healthy fish. I mean I not going to take medicine everyday just so I DON'T get sick. Your fish will thrive in great water and a good diet, so don't sweat the pre-medicine.

All the Africans I have ever dealt with don't require distilled water to do well. Kinda a waste of money IMO. Africans require hard alkaline water and distilled water doesn't meet either requirement.

From what your saying about your fish and the discription I'm thinking maybe Demasoni.? It's hard to say without a picture. The color of your fish should return after it settles in to it's new home. Moving and handling of fish always causes stress, and that's probably what's going on here.

And last but not least, I'd like to welcome you to the forum!! The longer your around the more you will learn, there is alot of great and helpful people on here. Also the longer your around you'll find that I am NOT one of them!!!:D

Good luck, post some pictures for your fishes I.D