swimming up and down the glass

Q&A About Lake Malawi Cichlids

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hbaronoff
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jun 06, 2014 5:17 pm

swimming up and down the glass

Post by hbaronoff »

Hi Pam,

I have a 75 gallon mbuna community tank with Cobalt Blues, Red Zebras, White Top Haras, Yellow Top Mbambas, Rustys, Demasoni, Elongatus Chailosi, and Orange Back Cobues. The tank has two Aquatop cannisters and a Hydor Koralia powerhead breaking the surface. The substrate is sand and the tank is full of various size rocks making a reef with plenty of caves. The water is kept at 82 degrees with 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and 20-40 ppm nitrates.

All the fish seem very healthy and happy. As a matter of fact, the day after I recently added a male and a female Rusty, she began holding.

The 3 Cobalt Blues (around 2") seem to constantly swim up and down the glass on one side of the aquarium. Do you have any idea as to why they might act in this manner? Does this seem normal or is something stressing them out?

Thanks in advance for your time and thoughts,
Harley
Pam Chin
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Re: swimming up and down the glass

Post by Pam Chin »

Hi Harley,

Your tank sounds really nice!! Lots of color going on!

Its hard to say but fish will do that, where they swim up and down on the end of the tank, or in the corner.

But, I do see one red flag on your tank conditions; and that is the temperature. You need to cool them down, 76 -78 degrees F. is plenty warm for Lake Malawi cichlids. higher temps like that will shorten their life span, increase aggression, compromise your water conditions and the big one is lack of oxygen in the water.

Gradually let them cool down over a few days and go from there. Certainly as these juveniles grow, they will be exploring the rest of the tank.

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