(Part 2) Top products from r/Cichlid

Lookin good . my only concern is the smooth rocks on the left side falling. im sure they are more stable than it looks (pics never do justice) but for peace of mind id putty them in place for a semi permanent hold. Also a black backdrop would be nice imo :P other than that the tank looks great. i would love to see a large group of demasoni in it but thats just me :P cheers

Going to refer back to here
buy some de-encapsulated brine shrimp eggs or Fry starter

As far as survival rate, it should be pretty good as long as you have nothing else in the tank that will eat them. The parents will protect the young, and each spawn will also help protect the next and so forth. As far as the breeding cycle, it takes 6 to 7 days from egg laying to hatching. And they spawn about every 3 weeks in ideal conditions. So expect the next spawn about 3 weeks after the first sighting of little fish. And the spawn size will likely get bigger each time. Hopefully you have something lined up with your LFS or have a way to sell them, unless you plan on getting multiple tanks or just one really huge tank.

Depending on what you have for filtering, I would look into getting something to put on the filter intake if you want to minimize babies getting sucked into your filter. While I've had baby plecos survive and grow to a good size in a filter, I don't believe the same would happen with baby Daffodils. My local LFS sold me some foam like this and I cut it to size to put around the intake. You'll need to clean it periodically as it acts just like an additional pre-filter filter.

Feel free to ask as many questions as you want to the aquarium based subreddits, we all don't mind :) The subs are here to help people be successful with this hobby and to share our love for our fish.


I just wanted to say I'm really happy to see you asking questions now, before you've gotten your fish yet! The reason why most people come to these subreddits for the first time is that their fish is dying and they want to save it, but the damage has already been done if they didn't know about how to cycle a tank, have been over feeding and gave their fish fatty liver, etc.


I really recommend picking up a water test kit like this one, as you will need to check your ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels (your "water parameters") once a day for the first few weeks of setting up your tank as it cycles. :) Don't bother with the paper test kits, as they're ~$10 for a pack of 12 and notoriously inaccurate. For ~$20, the liquid test kits have 800+ tests in them. Once you can get a cycle established, taking care of your fish will be 1000x easier. I only have to do ~30% water changes once every week or two on my main nanotank now.

Thank you so much for this info! I actually looked into the aqua clear 50's and also 70's. Another user, MoistDiapers mentioned that I could use 2 or just 1 powerful filter, so I was thinking about using just one, the Marineland emperor 400, what do you think about that?

EDIT: This is the filter I read many good reviews about, along with the 50's that you recommended.

I have a 12 Gallon Mr. Aqua with 7 similis.

I'd get a pack of 36 escargot shells from Amazon for about $17.
https://www.amazon.com/Roland-Snail-Shells-Extra-Large/dp/B004Y18ANU/ref=sr_1_1_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1499669502&sr=8-1&keywords=escargot%2Bshells&th=1

Get 20 lbs. of Caribsea for $11.

https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/caribsea-super-naturals-aquarium-sand

I'd use 1 to 2 sponge filters to keep it cheap and safe for the fry.
https://www.amazon.com/Hydro-IV-Sponge-Pro-Filter/dp/B0002602SC/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1499669556&sr=8-7&keywords=sponge+filter

I think you're really going to need to get the malawi cichlid salt mix and add it at the proper dosage. You can make it yourself if you want but if you don't know that much about chemistry you could really screw up your tank. Malawi cichlids can't really be kept w/o adding the malawi rift lake salts to the water. No wonder they are unhappy! Also ph 7.8 is more or less the minimum, 8-8.5 would be ideal. If you add the lake salts to being the water chemistry more towards what its supposed to be and raise the ph to ph 8 (at least!) I think your fish would be happier.

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lake salt mix

They never look mangled, they were swimming around like normal not hiding or anything.
They looked like bones which ive never seen before.
I am feeding them https://www.cobaltaquatics.com/collections/flake-fish-food/products/cichlid-flake-food and yes they were eating before death.

They are fed 3 times daily by 2 EHEIM Automatic food dispensers and they do not leave much if anything behind. https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B001F2117I/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Also for food, I use New Life Spectrum Cichlid Formula 1 mm sinking pellets. I get 250g at a time, and it usually lasts a couple months at least.

https://www.amazon.com/New-Life-Spectrum-Cichlid-Formula/dp/B0002E7IRW

The biggest problem illness-wise that Cichlids can get is what's called "Malawi Bloat". It causes their digestive systems to swell, and they usually die quickly. No one knows precisely what causes it, but poor quality food or overfeeding can be to blame. There are a number of other good foods that will work, but I've had this recommended to me by a number of big aquarium keepers as the best, and I've never had a single issue with my fish being sick. It's a bit hard to find though, so I usually just order in the mail. PetCo and Dr. Foster's and Smith both carry it. This formula also has ingredients in it that encourages brighter colors in cichlids.

I have two Penn Place Cascade Cannisters 1000s.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002DJ9NY?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf