All of the local per stores only have assorted african cichlids. How do I know how to care for them sense they are all of different origin I assume? I know very little about cichlid handling but want to get into it. I do not want to have to order specific cichlids in. I know they all vary in the pH they can handle.

I am no expert on Cichlids but here is my experience so far.

Cichlids have a large range of PH so setting something like 8.0 for the target PH will be good for most/all.

As for assorted cichlids in the pet store, best thing I can say is choose the ones you like. Find out when their trucks deliver, when the stock from the truck is put out for purchase, and be sure to show up that day to get the best picks.

I know Petsmart carries the "pure" version of their assorted stock so you can look and match the colors usually to the get an idea of what type they are. But these stores also usualy have some type of sale going on so can usually pick them up fairly inexpensive. FYI get the smaller one which are cheaper and well they grow up fairly quick (not full adult size but just bigger).

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100G->African Cichlids:Kribensis-2,Bumblebee-2,Red Zebra-2,Elec. Yel. Labi.-2, Acei-2, Elec. Blu. Johanni-2,Peacocks-2 / Community: Australian Rainbow-3,Turquoise Rainbow-4,Dalmatian Mollies-2,white molly-1,Dojo Loaches-1/Cleaners:Chinese Algea Eaters-5/Murderers: Dinosaur Bichir-1And lots of other tanks,2-Gourims,6-Rams,1-Arrowanna,6-FW Flounder,1-Farlowella CF, 1-Spiney Eel

Make sure you do your homework on these, there are tons of forums, books, videos on cichlids. There are plenty of resources out there, IMO if you want to get into keeping cichlids do your homework so that when you go in you will have an idea of what kind of cichlid it is. Some of those fish are better alone, some are good for group tanks, if your doing a malawi tank you might have to decide between rock dweller (mbuna) or open water cichlids unless you have a tank large enough to accommodate both groups. Also I have heard something about not getting multiple fish of the same color. Certain chiclids are better to overcrowd to cut down on the aggression. I'm not an expert I'm just saying there are a lot of things you should know before attempting to keep these fish.

Hope this helps. If you'd like I can link you to some resources.

In big box stores African Cichlids are all kept at the same ph and hardness as their other fish (they have a system wide filtration system). With many of your fish shops, this isn't the case. There are several Large Lakes in the Rift Valley of Africa where African Cichlids originally came from and each has a special mixture of salts that go with them. When you buy an African Cichlid from one of these fish shops, ask them about what the water parameters are of their Cichlid tanks and try to match them at home.

you could match the shops water but the truth is they would prefer water closer to their origin. From all that I have read on Cichlids, producing water parameters that are close to the natural home habitat will produce much more vibrant colors and promote their normal/interesting behavior.

Now I am not saying to jump right in an start playing with the water parameters. But it's something you can look at with an empty tank or even a 5G Bucket.

I use the DIY Cichlid Salt recipie mix a 5G batch let it sit over night with a power head stiring it. The next day I seperate it out to 1G containers and when doing a WC I mix in 1G of Cichlid mixture to the new water. Keeps my tank at the same levels and my fish are happy. So much so I think my Johanni's are male and female and are courting.

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100G->African Cichlids:Kribensis-2,Bumblebee-2,Red Zebra-2,Elec. Yel. Labi.-2, Acei-2, Elec. Blu. Johanni-2,Peacocks-2 / Community: Australian Rainbow-3,Turquoise Rainbow-4,Dalmatian Mollies-2,white molly-1,Dojo Loaches-1/Cleaners:Chinese Algea Eaters-5/Murderers: Dinosaur Bichir-1And lots of other tanks,2-Gourims,6-Rams,1-Arrowanna,6-FW Flounder,1-Farlowella CF, 1-Spiney Eel

I have South American and African Cichlids at my store. You can check out my website at http://thebettaboutique.com

Good luck Melissa
owner of The Betta Boutique

my suggestion would be to look up online what you want and then go see if your LFS has them. I was looking at cichlids before and I can now see the difference between a bumblebee chiclid and one that isnt that.

There's some of what I have in my Cichlid tank. If you browse the pictures I uploaded you can see the names for most that are in the picture. Again the yellow lab and red zebra were assorted buys, the rest were bought while on sale at petsmart. All of them were small which also keeps the price down cause they are more finiky and saceptable to dying.

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100G->African Cichlids:Kribensis-2,Bumblebee-2,Red Zebra-2,Elec. Yel. Labi.-2, Acei-2, Elec. Blu. Johanni-2,Peacocks-2 / Community: Australian Rainbow-3,Turquoise Rainbow-4,Dalmatian Mollies-2,white molly-1,Dojo Loaches-1/Cleaners:Chinese Algea Eaters-5/Murderers: Dinosaur Bichir-1And lots of other tanks,2-Gourims,6-Rams,1-Arrowanna,6-FW Flounder,1-Farlowella CF, 1-Spiney Eel

I just realized this is a duplicate thread for Kyfish.

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100G->African Cichlids:Kribensis-2,Bumblebee-2,Red Zebra-2,Elec. Yel. Labi.-2, Acei-2, Elec. Blu. Johanni-2,Peacocks-2 / Community: Australian Rainbow-3,Turquoise Rainbow-4,Dalmatian Mollies-2,white molly-1,Dojo Loaches-1/Cleaners:Chinese Algea Eaters-5/Murderers: Dinosaur Bichir-1And lots of other tanks,2-Gourims,6-Rams,1-Arrowanna,6-FW Flounder,1-Farlowella CF, 1-Spiney Eel