Fish

Native to three lakes in Africa: Lake Malawi, Lake Tanganyika and Lake Victoria, African Cichlids could be one of the most beautiful and colourful fishes you can ever have in your tank. These species are known for their amazing personalities and traits making them among the most popular for aquarium keepers and fish breeders. African Cichlids are known not only for their attractiveness, but also for their being sociable and intelligent. Despite the ease of care for these fishes, they could tend to be aggressive due to their territorial instincts.

If you are planning to bring home an African Cichlid, it is pertinent to understand these species first and set them up an environment best for their personalities and nature. In setting up a tank for your African Cichlids, it is best to mimic where they come from. The native lakes they are from are generally very rocky so putting rocks, corals and even clay pots could create an at-home atmosphere for them. This would also prove to be helpful in dealing with their aggressive behaviour as allowing more areas of cover in the tank gives them more opportunity to claim their own territory. Woods and rocky areas in the aquarium also serve as hiding spots for other fishes that becomes target of dominant Cichlid males. Their aggression can also be dealt with by paying attention to the size of your tank. Generally, the bigger your tank is, the better.

All three lakes also have hard water and high pH. It is then ideal to maintain the water in your African Cichlid tank at a pH of 7.4 to 8.6 and a water hardness of 10 to 20 dH. The water set at 78-78 degrees F and providing a lot of filtration in your tank keeps your cichlids inhabitants healthy. Ideal selection for aquarium heater for them is 5 watts per gallon. With their eating habits, African cichlids could be quite messy so power filter with good flow is an excellent choice.

There are several options for substrate. Black gravel is popular because it allows the fishes’ color to show up better. Others opt for red granite gravel, crushed limestone, crushed coral or any regular sand as they would all work great for African Cichlids. Plants are not a good idea for tank additions since African cichlids loves to excavate. With the absence of plants, lightings for your cichlid aquariums need not be intense.

Setting up your African Cichlid tank may take some work, but it pays to get it right. If done properly, you can keep your African cichlids healthy and happy and you can make your beautiful aquatic display dream come true.

There are probably hundreds of spectacular species of freshwater tropical fishes out there. The beauty and uniqueness of these creatures have drawn more and more people into fishkeeping and the hobby had become so popular all over the world.

Most fish owners, seeks out the very rare species for several reasons. Rare freshwater tropical fish are preferred by those who have the passion for the exotic. These people, who are mostly collectors, have the ‘eye for the unusual’. Others desire to preserve them from extinction. Those who are more inclined to business, buys the rare ones to breed them and make profits from them.

Among those what are thought of as rare freshwater tropical fishes are dwarf cichlids, livebearers, rainbow fish, labyrinth fish, killifish, gobies and gudgeons. Lake Tanganyika, Lake Malawi, Lake Victoria are those that are sought of because of their extraordinary colors. African cichlids are most admired for their fantastic beauty and charm. Siamese fighting fish and Poecilia reticulata are probably the best ones to show off with their splendid and brightly colored tails and wonderful contrast tints. But there are more out there if you do a little more digging in and want to be adventurous in your choice. You can find an overwhelming number of attractive rare species to explore with online. These rare and hard to find species for experts and hobbyists of all experience levels are not easily available in pet stores, but are mostly found in specialty online stores.

Places like Rare-tropicalfish.com, Karmafarmaquatics.net, Justrarefish.com, Tothefish.com and Reefhotspot.com are just among the few that offers such exotic creatures. It is hard to state the prices though since every kind is priced differently according to how difficult they are to obtain, where they come from, how they will be shipped, and a lot of considerations that goes with the cost. I must say there really aren’t that much places that has readily available rare freshwater tropical fishes, but if you know how to be resourceful, and would be willing to pay a few $$$ for it, you can actually own yourself the loveliest and most unique breeds in your showcase.

Getting the rarest may cost one a fortune. But whatever reason you have for wanting to purchase rare freshwater tropical fishes, may be well enough worth your money. After all, they are one of the world’s hidden gems. Seeing these lovely colored creatures would make one wanna pay any price for it.