Always wash your hands before as after you’ve been working on the aquarium. If you use a siphon hose, make sure that you are not getting water. Some fish diseases are also contagious to humans, and vice versa humans can also transmit pathogens to fish.
Nutrition
Some cichlids only eat plant foods, others cichlids only animal foods or both. Most cichlids have a varied diet. Many Cichlid Fish will diet frozen or accept dry food. It is better for many species to feed them fresh, live food every now and then such as mosquito larvae, water fleas or mealworms. Live food and frozen food are possible sometimes transmit diseases, so get them from a trusted supplier. Algae eaters such as Tropheus species you should not give protein-rich food such as Tubifex or mosquito larvae, they have vegetable food such as Spiraling flakes.
Feed cichlids once a day, as much as they eat in one to two minutes. If you also have dry food do not put the jar on the aquarium light cover, because it will get too hot and go lost the vitamins.
Reproduction
With many cichlids, it is difficult to tell the difference between males and females. If there is the difference is then that the males are often somewhat larger and have brighter colors than the females. In the mating season can also be seen that the sex papilla in the female is blunt and in the male pointed. The sex papilla is a bulge at the anus. In the way of reproduction there is a lot of difference between the different types of cichlids. Cichlids exhibit brood care, which means that they take care of the eggs and the young.
- They do this until the young are several weeks or even several months old. Some cichlids only do it female or male this, but often a couple together provides the offspring. The young do not therefore have to be removed directly from the parents. There are various forms of brood care. The mouth brothers are a very special group. Some of the mouth brothers take the boy in the mouth, after hatching the eggs. Another part takes the eggs in the mouth she hatches from there. Mouth brooding is usually done by the females but sometimes also bymales.
Another form of brooding can be seen with the open substrate brooders, such as the angelfish and the discus fish. They lay eggs on a smooth surface, such as plant leaves, smooth roots or stones. In most cases, the male defends the territory and the female takes care of the eggs. She fans oxygenated water over the eggs and removes sterile eggs. Also with the boy is guided in the search for food. Some species, such as the discus fish, secrete mucus from the skin, which the fry can eat.
The cave Brothers
Cave Brothers resemble open substrate brothers, only they lay their eggs in caves or burrows. In Lake Tanganyika there are cichlids that lay their eggs in empty snail shells, such as a number Lamprologus and Neolamprologus species. One of the parents can then stand guard in the entrance to the cochlea so that the eggs cannot be eaten.
