# Electric yellow cichlid with black bars.



## JellyRaven (Nov 17, 2014)

Hello everyone! First time on the forums. 

I've had a 30 gallon cichlid tank for 8 months now and everything has been going great, but recently my dominant male started to get black bars down his sides, I've read this happeneds when they get stressed so I'm worried, I'll post a picture of the tank and him at the end of this. I'm hoping he is just darkening up to show the other lesser dominant male that he is the boss as all the other electric yellows are bright and happy. He could be stressed because there is too many fish, if that's the case I will have to move the peacocks out, but they have a lot of room with how the tank is set up and lots of rocks so I'm debating if this is the issue or not.

They are all a bit camera shy so I had to feed them for them to come out lol.

Pictures of the tank - http://puu.sh/cUiYH/152211674e.JPG Close up of male - http://puu.sh/cUj1L/ad60c956e4.JPG

Tank mates - 
4 x Electric yellow cichlid (a female is holding fry)
2 x Juvenile peacocks
2 x Bristlenose catfish
1 x striped catfish 
1 x pepered cory

Water parameters - 
Ammonia - 0
Nitrate - 10
KH - 150ppm
GH - 200ppm
PH - 8
Temperature - 26 degrees Celsius (78F)

Maintenance - 
%50 water change every Saturday
2 internal filters, one is 400LPH, the other that came with the tank I am unsure of, but it has pre filter material, K1 plastic media, course carbon sponge, fine carbon sponge, then two other large sponges that make up the majority of the filter. 
I use API stress coat+ and add that to buckets of tapwater along with rift lake salts and I sometimes rarely add leaf zone, the water is always around 26 - 28 degrees when I put it in the tank.

I use API test kits and a Rift lake salt buffer to add into the tank since I only have two small pieces of Texas holey rock.

EDIT: also if the water is a little unclear it's because I just shifted all the rocks around, I'm always changing the aquascape, maybe this is stressing him with his territory changing all the time? I do it so they don't get too aggressive over one spot.

Thank you for your help!


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## JellyRaven (Nov 17, 2014)

Oh and I feed them Hikari herbivore pellets, the sinking type. The red ones in the picture are for a tank with only peacocks. c:


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## wortel87 (Apr 15, 2014)

My yellow is the tank boss. When he,s terrorising the others he gets some barring and dark blue cheeks.

For a pure-bred its pretty rare though.


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## JellyRaven (Nov 17, 2014)

Ah cool, thanks for the help! I'm a little worried he is sick because they have gotten a bit darker and he has been acting weird swimming up and down the glass.


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## hisplaceresort1 (Mar 10, 2014)

My yellow labs swim up and down the glass when they're happy... I'm reasonably sure of that.


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## JellyRaven (Nov 17, 2014)

mmokay, maybe he is fine then. ^^


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## wortel87 (Apr 15, 2014)

No they dont swim up and down the glass when their happy. Its called pacing. If they do it allot its stress. Mine do it sometimes when i changed something in the tank.


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## hisplaceresort1 (Mar 10, 2014)

hmmm wortel87... hard to make me believe that, but I guess you could be right. hadn't heard of pacing before... 
I only say that because my yellow labs (females) "paced" more when they were in an all-female tank that much less overcrowded... I've been wondering because I don't see them do it that often anymore, I thought it was because they might have been happier in the tank they used to be in, but maybe not. 
Learn something new every day!


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## pfoster74 (May 13, 2012)

your electric yellow will be happier in a 55g or larger tank, the barring i see in the pictures doesn't look concerning.


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## JellyRaven (Nov 17, 2014)

Thank you pfoster, my friend is selling me his 75 gallon tank for $50 once he sells his tiger oscars already in it. ^^ so they will all have a larger tank well before they grow up. Only adult is the one I'm worried about. c:


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