To raise the Three Lakes cichlid, it is not a difficult task, as long as there is no problem with basic cultivation skills, but to raise beautifully, it is not so easy, this is also the distress of many Three Lakes aquarists, why is the gap between the fish in my fish tank and the photo so large? The adulterer lied to me?! Sometimes "profiteers" are really wronged! So how do you make your Three Lakes Cichlid hair color like a beautiful picture?
The netmap goes like this!
That's what I have in my tank...
01
About the fish
Raising three lakes cichlid is the most taboo to raise a small amount of fish in the fish tank without landscaping, because it is easy to cause the rapid formation of the concept of the territory of the fish, resulting in fierce fighting, there is no place to hide from the weak fish in the landscaping, and the loss is inevitable! And the overall number of fish is too small, only will be nervous, reasonable landscaping, proper population and polyculture is very important!
How is the stocking of freshwater tropical fish calculated?
It's actually very simple, Dick Mills mentions this formula in his book You & Your Aquarium:
(Total length of stocked fish) X 30 (constant) = fish tank length X fish tank width,
Let's take a fish tank with a length of 90 cm (length 90 cm wide 45 cm high 60 cm) as an example,
(Total length of stocked fish) X 30 = 90 X 45→ calculated to obtain the total length of stocked fish = 135 cm:
We assume that the average length of the three lakes cichlid we want to raise is about 10 cm, so we can raise 135 cm/10 cm = 13.5, and 13.5 is a standard value. Specific species of fish only need to determine the number of feeding and polyculture methods according to the habit characteristics of the fish itself.
The basic habits of the Three Lakes cichlid
NO.1
Territorial awareness
Territorial consciousness is the characteristics of the Three Lakes fish that almost everyone knows, there are some territorial consciousness is strong, belongs to a relatively independent type, each of them will occupy a space to ensure their own feeding and reproduction, the typical breeds are pearl tiger, benthic Eliza yellow dragon king seabream, feathered Lambo, lanterns and so on. But please do not think that this type of fish only raised alone is no problem, there is really no problem of fighting and fighting in solitary breeding, but they will be quite unstable, nervous, afraid, long-term solitary breeding will be sick or even dead.
NO.2
Gregarious habits
Through the above description, everyone should understand that the Three Lakes Cichlid is really interesting, has a sense of territory, but does not like to live alone, so the habit of living in groups also belongs to their common characteristics, of course, they also have varieties with group living as the main feature.
Take Tanhu Sword Sand as an example, they belong to the social type, the population will establish a certain social relationship within a certain period of time with the way of display or fighting, the population is large enough to not fight you and me, so you can raise more to ensure their stability, similar species and Tanhu butterflies and so on.
The importance of landscaping
In summary, we know that nature has given them a wide space and different ways of living, transferred to a small aquarium, to solve such contradictory habits, landscaping and reasonable polyculture is particularly important. Reasonable landscaping can be partitioned for them in a relatively small aquarium, so that weak fish only have a place to hide, not to fight you to death. Reasonable polyculture can also avoid the death of depression caused by internal strife and autism in a single breed. In the case of pearl tigers, for example, they mainly attack the same kind of fish in their range, so if they breed a group of sword sand, their emotions will be stable, and there will be no life-and-death fights. There are too many specific cases to say, we will introduce them to you one by one in the future pictures and texts, so stay tuned
02
About the environment
1 Landscape
Consider the native environment of the three major lakes in Africa, and refer to some underwater photos of the native environment.
Polyculture tanks are generally made of rock landscaping and stone crevices for small fish to hide.
In most cases, the fish habits need to be considered for landscaping.
2 temperature
Because the native environment of the African cichlid is the highland graben lake in the tropical equatorial region
Therefore the recommended temperature is 25-27 degrees.
In addition, it is still necessary to take into account the distribution of the fish itself in the water layer of origin, generally speaking
Those distributed in the surface layer of the euphotic zone can be reared at a temperature of 25 degrees.
3 Filtering
Pneumatic filter cotton, submerged filtration
Drip filtration, external type, cylinder type all kinds of filters are available. Filter media is recommended for biochemical cotton that is inexpensive and can be used repeatedly. The selection of biochemical cotton requires regular cleaning, and can not be cleaned all at once, to be cleaned separately to ensure that half of the filter media can work properly, not completely destroy the biochemical filtration system of the fish tank. Other non-washable filter media must pay attention to replace regularly! The method is the same, do not replace them all at once! Half and half change, be sure to keep in mind!
If you are using an upper drip filter, you can put some coral bones as a filter material.
4 Bottom sand
Alkaline sand such as coral sand or neutral sand such as rat sand can be selected according to the local water quality and preference of the breeder. In the soft areas of the south, you can choose coral sand, which can enhance the hardness of the water, of course, if you don't like coral sand, you can also solve the hardness problem in other ways, which depends on the individual situation!
5 lights
Lighting can be basically divided into three ways: strong light, low light, and light and dark interlacing. The specific suitable varieties are listed as follows:
Strong light: butterflies, yellow jaws, etc
Low light: blue-winged blue pearls, aircraft carriers, etc
Interlacing of light and shade: sword sand, feathered lambo, lanterns, etc
6 Water quality
The water quality of Lakes Malawi and Lake Tanganyika is hard and alkaline.
That is to say, the water contains a large number of calcium salts, magnesium salts, sodium salts, potassium salts and other salts that affect hardness and alkalinity, and areas with soft water quality can appropriately add relative salts to improve hardness and PH value.
Note: when adding salt, you must adjust it in proportion outside the fish tank, add it when using the water change, do not add it directly to the fish tank, and the rapid water quality change fish may not be able to stand it!
7 Feed
Feed is divided into fry fish and adult fish
Newly hatched small fish can feed on self-hatching shrimp larvae, harvest shrimp larvae freezer, or baby fish bait
Adults can use harvest shrimp adult jelly flakes, or other artificial baits.
Special breeds should pay attention to special treatment: such as butterflies! It is recommended to feed the reliable butterfly bait!
8 Algae removal partners
Remind the smaller algae-eating catfish that they can help clean up the fish tank with the Three Lakes Cichlid, such as blue-eyed beards, moss rats, etc.
I would like to dedicate this article to my friends who have just entered the Three Lakes Gate!
The water of the three lakes is deep, and you need to be cautious when entering the lake!!
Thanks for reading
Text: Flying fish
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