This page will feature my current cichlids. I've had so many before that its not worth talking about them unless they are featured. Recently deceased fish will also be up for awhile.
Ellen's Tank
Ellen was a cichlid from Malawi. I don't know any more than that. At first, we thought it was a female, but now we're not sure.
Was a community fish before, but not after awhile. She then lived in a tank by herself for several years. We thought she was indestructible because she was very resilient. Towards the end, you could tell her health wasn't optimal, because she was blind in one eye and possibly had gill flukes. But she survived despite these, hence resilience. She was approximately 7 years old when she died this fall.
Paralellus
Parallelus- He's a Parallelus. Black fish with 2 horizontal stripes of bright blue.
Note: He was the last survivor of the grand 10-fish African tank. He's now in his own little 10-gallon tank on my bookcase. He has now grown to be a rather large African cichlid. When I got my new tank, I kept saying that I didn't realize how much he had really grown until I had new ones to compare to.
The New Africans
History: This summer I suddenly got back into cichlids. I was going to start a community at school, but then I saw some really cool cichlids at Wal-Mart of all places, and I immediately set up the tank. I got 4 cichlids and a pleco the next day. I got a Hap (see past Feature), a Johanni (similar to a parallelus), an albino zebra (white with white stripes, lol), and an Eyebiter! I have never before and never since seen a Lake Malawi Eyebiter, a fish that I had always wanted to get. He was the main reason I started the tank, but I also wanted the Johanni (one I'd never seen, either), and the very cool Hap. The albino just filled out the cast.
In 2 days the Hap died, he just couldn't acclimate. I replaced him with an apparently black fish and a female Melanochromis exasperatus, which is very hard to describe. I initially thought that the albino was the head of the tank, because he took the best habitat. Well, I was wrong...he was the biggest wuss of a cichlid I have ever seen! He was so intent on guarding his house that he didn't come out to eat for almost 2 weeks! Well, within another week, the Johanni and the pleco died. I was mildly upset about the Johanni loss, but life went on. I replaced the pleco with another one (which died in a month too), and the Johanni with a Purple acei.
Fish update: Eyebiter, albino zebra, exasperatus, acei, and the "black fish". Well, once the black one acclimated, it turns out he's actually a purple zebra which slightly disappointed me (I didn't need 2 purple fish, and black was cooler anyway). My acei shorly acquired the disease known as "ich" which did not please me either. By the time I diagnosed it, the rest of the tank had been exposed, but I added the treatment to the tank. Guess what, he was cured! That made me happy. :) Anyway, the tank didn't seem to have a strict social order like most others did, but it appeared as if Eyebiter and the purple zebra were equal in power.
So last weekend, I went home to bring up these 5 fish. But something very strange happened: my albino disappeared into thin air! No trace of him whatsoever! No corpse in the tank, and I doubt they'd eat him completely if they killed him. We looked on the floor to see if he had jumped out...nothing. And my mom doesn't remember looking for him at any time. Oh well, he didn't endear himself to me. When I got up to school, I opened up their travelling cooler to find Eyebiter floating upside down and not looking so good. I was heinously pissed off! He was the entire reason I got new cichlids, and was my new favorite, and he was the ONLY one that died! I expected to have 5 fish, but was down to 3. I got a pleco and a cichlid that looks like either a Johanni or Parallelus (too hard to tell right now). The pleco died the next day, so I got myself a big pleco, damnit. But he got skinned in a few days, and the melanochromis lasted for a month and half. So its back to the 3 I brought up.
