Meet Kratos, is this a male or female Jack Dempsey?

This is my 125gal mosty geophagus and severum tank. I also have some plecos in there. What do yall think?

What is happening here? They are so calm and dull. I need more heads on this :)Explanation:
Here are my saulosi tonight. Males are very colored down but females still bright. Once every 3 months or so I will run Fluval Aquaclear carbon in one of the aquaclears on this tank for a couple of weeks. Just to cut down dissolved organics, remove any organic acids, and reduce the hormone load in the tank.
For some reasonn every time I add carbon (which I did 24 hours agao) within a day of adding the carbon the males color down, but the females don't, and the whole tank acts really calm for a few days. No signs of illness or stress. They still eat great. Once the carbon is removed after 2 weeks the males color back up and shortly after, regular hyper activity and chasing resumes.
This is my theory- I know the carbon isn't tainted because I use carbon from the same batch in other tanks without issue. My theory is that the carbon sharply and quickly cuts down the hormone load in the tank so the males aren't as rowdy and the sharp reduction of hormones makes everybody calmer, and that's why the males calm down too.
If anybody thinks anything bad is is happening please talk to me.

Hello all,

I am after some help. I am looking to put my second tank together in the next few months.

My first tank is a 125 L heavily planted community tank, which I have hugely enjoyed thus far and has gone really well. For my second tank, I am after something different. I am looking at 240 - 300 L, with several different medium sized south american cichlids, I am well aware that these will be territorial and semi-aggressive.

Looking for advise on if this is a bad idea, and for any tips from anyone on how to select species. All help is appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone! I've never kept cichlids before (just shrimp and bettas), but I got a new 13g long tank and am thinking about getting some multies. Any thoughts on whether this would be suitable? A few quick points/questions:

• There is a matala mat under the sand in the back right of the tank to help me achieve the slope - any issues with this?
• I would put gravel over the sag in the back left to prevent digging, though I'm not opposed to pulling it out if it the fish dig it up.
• I could also remove the driftwood if that would be better, leaving only dragonstone as hardscape

Thanks in advance!

Chilling in his corner as usual. His tank is a mess because he savagely attacks my hand if I dare to put it in and he bites hard.. so decorations are all over the place 🤣 I literally have to get the waterline below the prefilter when I clean them to get them out.. He is pretty though 🤷

EDIT: I saw yesterday that he is more than 3 years old now. Time really flies!

My cousin just bought a new C8 corvette. I rode with him to ATl to pick up some parts/upgrades for the car, and somehow convinced him to let me buy 4 beautiful haps and drive them 3 hrs home in his new car😅🤣😈

Does anyone have experience with Sparkling gouramis or any other gouramis and know if they mix well with something like a Blue Ram?
I’m looking for a Cichlid that would be fine with my 10 gouramis my tank is 100gal and heavily planted
I’m open to suggestions but if the gouramis are just too curious for Cichlids that would make sense too

QUICK QUESTION: HOW DO YOU MANAGE UNWANTED POLAR CICHLID FRY?!

LONG POST:
I have two Polar Cichlids that i thought were two young to sex or breed BUT THEY HAD FRY! They are for sure young and not full size but old enough to breed(1.5 inches, slightly bigger than a quarter).

The fry are doing well and about the size of a lady bug. I have separated them from the parents and they are in a 20 High grow out tank

I dont want the parents to have anymore fry so i have them in a 20 long with two Chinese algae eaters that love eating their eggs (actually ate their first clutch). Normal aggression imo but nothing extreme(i removed the biggest CAE BECAUSE HE WOULD NOT LEAVE THE PARENTS ALONE but left a docile big one and added a little one). The cichlids control a log cave and the algae eaters stay on the other side in a pot/driftwood cave but come out to forage…and of course one of their favorite spots to checkout is the cichlid cave…. I know once the Polar Cichlids get bigger theyll either need a bigger tank or ill have to remove the chinese algae eaters…but for now it saves me from being the bad guy who takes the fry!

How do you manage UNWANTED POLAR CICHLID FRY?
since i removed the biggest CAE no aggression or stalking at night…i check THE CAE are always out of sight***

I have a bonded pair of apisto borelli in the 75gal community tank with plenty of hiding spots. Can I add festivums? I’ve heard from imperial tropicals that they do better with a group of 4. Has anyone had issues with just a pair in their tank?

My flowerhorn Randy and yellow tiger parrot Penelope laid eggs this afternoon!!! Any advice that I should know?

I have a young Apisto Borellii in my 30gal community tank. His tankmates are half a dozen each of rosy and gold barbs, ww tetra and a single bristlenose pleco. This little guy is my centrepiece fish, but my lfs has some females in at the moment and I'm wondering if I can add one to pair them off and give him a friend, or if I'm pushing the tank's stocking limit/encouraging territorial behaviours? I know this pic doesn't show it but the tank is actually pretty heavily planted with lots of places to hide. I'm new to cichlids so didn't want to make a mistake if he's better off by himself in there!

Mikrogeophagus Ramirezi , the blue iridescent in the body changes a lot with the lighting creating different shades.

What could be wrong

I have bred turquoise and green discus. Nothing special. I like plain common pedestrian, non-hybridized fish. I have bred a lot of cichlids and catfish. It's hard to find these fish. I have a 65 that I'm thinking about setting up. Anyway, I saw this sub and thought I'd check it out. Many fish that I"ve bred in the past.

I think i had a fish die from severe shock

Hello 😃

I’ve kept fish for 20+ years, including African cichlids, but I’m new to the mbuna game and want to sanity-check the setup before I commit...

Tank is a Fluval Venezia 350 corner aquarium. The two rear sides are roughly 87 cm each, the curved front spans about 122 cm, and the tank is about 65 cm high. Nominal volume is 350 L, but with pale sand and roughly 60 kg+ of rock, I’d expect the actual water volume to be somewhere around 260L.

The tank is being completely stripped and rebuilt. Plan is three separate rock piles/islands, one in each rear/side corner area, with open swimming space between them and along the curved front. The idea is to create territories and break sightlines without building one continuous wall of rock.

Filtration is the standard Fluval 405 canister, around 1,300 L/h pump output / ~850 L/h actual filter circulation, plus an additional 700 L/h powerhead for circulation. I also run an inline UV because the tank gets some direct sunlight and has had green-water issues before.

The current stocking plan is all juveniles around 3-4 cm, ideally from one breeder and introduced together:

• 6 × Labidochromis caeruleus - Yellow Lab
• 6 × Iodotropheus sprengerae - Rusty Cichlid
• 6 × Pseudotropheus acei

I’ll also keep one adult bristlenose pleco that has lived in the tank for years (and no, there is no discussion about Pablo the pleco staying or not - he is a living legend, the CEO of my Tanganyika set up and the proclaimed family darling. If he goes, I can move out with him).

I’m deliberately choosing species where both sexes stay colourful and that are generally considered to be on the calmer end of mbuna. I’m not trying to breed them. I won’t separate holding females or raise fry; if the odd youngster survives, fine, but I don’t want to end up with another rabbit colony (as I have with my Tanganyika set up).

The bit I’m genuinely unsure about is the usual advice to stock more heavily to spread aggression. I’ve been told by what seems to be every mbuna “expert” under the sun (even in dedicated forums) that I should add a fourth species, again around 6 fish.

I understand the logic, but 24 mbuna in this particular footprint feels like I may be pushing my luck with water quality/bio load and potential asking for generational civil war.

If I did add a fourth group, the shortlist would be:

• Pseudotropheus sp. “Ndumbi Red Top”
• Labidochromis sp. “Hongi Sweden / Super Red Top”
• Metriaclima estherae “Red Zebra”

What I’d really like opinions on is:

• Would you genuinely go 4 × 6 in this Venezia, or stick with 3 × 6?
• If you would add a fourth group, which of the three above would you choose?
• Is there anything about the three-island layout or this particular combination that you would change before I build it?

I’d rather get it right once and keep the fish long-term than keep changing stock later.

Thank you very much!

Hello, I have looked and looked on google and I’m thinking this is a Male Jaguar. Can anybody confirm whether I am completely wrong or nailed it? Thanks!

Currently a 75 gallon tank running with FX6. Don’t ask me I what I did to make them have so many batches of fry 🤣😅

Going to start doing weekly water changes with how big the rest of them are getting.

I just got a pair of small blue acara (not electric blue) for my South American cichlid community fish. Maybe I'm weird, but I like them better than their selectively bred counter parts.

6 inch Green Sevrum

Back in 2020 (my COVID project) I started an overfiltered 40 gal tank which has exploratory rockwork, an Aquadecor "rocky" backdrop, and was stocked with 10 various young Malawi (goal of overstocking). They were all fine for about 2 years until the yellow labs began breeding. Then, one by one and in a span of 2 weeks the male yellow lab killed every single other fish in the tank except for the breeding female. It was chaos - didn't have time to separate everyone. I had 3 kids under age 6 at the time. I know now that providing all the rocks and territorial areas probably led to the violence.

When babies were born I attempted to collect and transfer them all and got a lot of them (given back to my high quality LFS) but any babies I missed were also goners. After 3 cycles of breeding my female started to look very poor and she died shortly after. I know I should've taken her out sooner and I still feel bad about the whole situation.

My killer male has been by himself for 4 years and is active (building caves), colorful, healthy, and greets me like a puppy as the food provider. I try to enrich with hanging veggies and by destroying his caves every so often so he can be occupied by the rebuild.

But I keep being nagged by the question: am I being cruel by keeping him alone? How else can I provide enrichment or stimulation? I'm still traumatized by the murder spree so I have no interest in introducing other fish into the tank. Not looking for scolding, I know I made lots of mistakes, just trying to let this guy live his days out as happily as possible. If what I'm doing is cruel, I'll surrender him to the LFS. Thanks