Lighting is an African cichlid aquarium should be dim. They especially like twilight. Therefore, 1 lighting unit is sufficient. Note, if there are plants in it because you keep dwarf cichlids, make sure that the light is on for 6-8 hours to prevent unwanted algae growth.
Water quality
The water for African Cichlids must meet special standards. The PH values must be between 7 and 8 (at most 8.5). Do not forget to change the aquarium by 1/3 every two weeks. The temperature should be somewhere between 23 and 28 degrees.
Food
An important food source besides insects is the algae that grow on the rocks. However, never give African cichlids red mosquito larvae! These are very bad for them. Instead, try frozen food, flakes, or white mosquito larvae. As with other aquarium fish, diversity in food promotes the immune system!
Brood care and reproduction
African cichlids produce about 30 to 40 young at a time. Initially, the female lays the eggs on a stone, after which the male fertilizes the eggs. Then, which is typical for cichlids, the female takes the eggs in the mouth. The eggs hatch after only a few days. The young then remain in the mouth of the mother fish for at least another 3 weeks until there comes a time when she spits out her young.
Quite an experience because the mother fish does not eat anything during that period, a month. It is therefore not surprising that during this period the mother fish lose weight. However, she will act as a real mother when there is danger: the young will be taken back into the mouth by the mother. But at some point the boy will have to do it herself and the mother will swim away and the fish will be left to their own devices.
Would you like this boy to survive? Then make sure there are enough hiding places. Usually it is the case that if there are other fish, you will have little to no young.
Finally
African cichlids are among the most beautiful species among the cichlids. With beautiful blue, yellow, gray and many combination colors, a beautiful display. Do you want others to be impressed by your aquarium? With me, even my friends watch a beautiful aquarium full of cichlids.
The consequences are great, because with cichlids the lower and upper jaw are each moved by their own muscles, there are many more options for movement. Cichlids can therefore, for example, both scrape with the jaws in the horizontal direction and exert bite forces in all kinds of directions. As a result, they can eat many food types and also survive in times when there is little food. That’s why they don’t die out so easily. In addition, only minor evolutionary changes are enough to adapt a cichlid to another food specialization. This also has to do with the decoupling of the lower and upper jaws, because an evolutionary change that means an improvement for the upper jaw, for example, can no longer be inhibited by the consequences this has for the lower jaw.In this way, many different specialties can be created in a short time. If possible, cichlids eat their favorite food. They only settle for other food if there is no other option.
Sun basses can either scrape horizontally or bite in one particular direction, not both. As a result, they can eat far fewer different food types and evolutionary changes are more difficult. Perch-like families with the sunfish bite mechanism all have far fewer species than cichlids.
Cloudy water
The cichlids have everything in terms of evolution. In our view, the species richness of cichlids is due to polymorphies in males ‘color and females’ preference. Through the subsequent sexual selection, groups grow into species. They manage to coexist side by side with a fast food specialization thanks to flexible throat jaws. The many available food sources that Lake Victoria offers are extremely divided between species.
Unfortunately, we do not yet have any indication of the importance of sexual selection by color for species separation. At this time, pollution in Lake Victoria has become poor. Species now mix because females can no longer distinguish different colors – and the species diversity diminishes.
