# Neon Jewel Planted Tank



## Als49 (Jul 11, 2014)

Got bored with N. brichardi and replaced them with 6 neon jewel cichlid (3 bigger ones and 3 smaller ones).

The tank is 120 x 37 x 50 cm (48" x 14" x 20") with 12 tiger barbs for dither because I read that jewels are very timid. Lol in fact my wife called them "stone" because most of the time they stayed still in bottom, like stones dropped into water.



I also found that they're diggers and have succesfully uprooted many cryptocorynes.

And despite their bigger size (compared to multies, brichardi, julie and demasoni), they're easily spooked. One of them just jumped out of the tank this afternoon when I fed the multies, next to their tank.

It seems I may a have pair because two of them dag to create a nest under the rocks in the left side of the tank.


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## tanker3 (May 18, 2015)

Als49 said:


> I read that jewels are very timid. Lol in fact my wife called them "stone" because most of the time they stayed still in bottom, like stones dropped into water.


LOL, she will not think so if you put a few more males in there.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Mine are not timid. They were all over the tank from the day they were added.


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## Als49 (Jul 11, 2014)

There are a few chasings near the bottom, behind the woods. They rarely swim to the front of the tank, and mostly stay still in their territory. It seems very similar to how multies behave.

They're only active during feeding time: chasing pellets or gulping FBW from hand feeding.


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## Als49 (Jul 11, 2014)

It's been a week and the jewels are still shy. They hide behind the woods and rocks most of the time and only come out during feeding time.

If there's no tiger barbs in the tank, people will think there's no fish there.


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## BC in SK (Aug 11, 2012)

You really can't conclude much of anything about a cichlid by keeping it for 11 days. From my perspective it takes many years to really know a cichlid species.


Als49 said:


> It's been a week and the jewels are still shy. They hide behind the woods and rocks most of the time and only come out during feeding time.


All you could really say, under the conditions of your tank, is that tiger barbs failed to perform a 'dither' role shortly after all were introduced.


DJRansome said:


> Mine are not timid. They were all over the tank from the day they were added.


Placed in a Malawi tank, I think that is what you would generally expect. Very confident and outgoing nature makes Malawi cichlids perform the 'dither' role very well.


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## Als49 (Jul 11, 2014)

Yes, it takes years with many samplings and experiences to learn about a fish species.

The tiger barbs always swim out in the open. That should invite the jewels to come out as well, shouldn't it?

Or will mbuna be a better dither for jewels? Say something on the peaceful side of mbuna such as yellow lab?


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## Als49 (Jul 11, 2014)

Currently in the process of catching the tiger barbs using bottle traps.

Because perhaps they're not the "best" dither for jewels, and more importantly, because these voracious barbs eat much faster than jewels. So when feeding slow sinking pellets, the jewels almost got none because tiger barbs darted much quicker to each pellet and gulped them all.

The funny thing happened, all of the jewels were out of their hiding and trying to get inside the bottle traps to eat the FBW. They're all so active now!


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## BC in SK (Aug 11, 2012)

Als49 said:


> Or will mbuna be a better dither for jewels? Say something on the peaceful side of mbuna such as yellow lab?


IME mbuna perform the 'dither' role, second to none. And do not require 'dithers' themselves. Yellow lab, IMO, an excellent choice.
Regardless, of the dither role, IME, I think mbuna make better tank mates for a jewel cichlid then tiger barbs will.
I like tiger barbs and have had them a few times, but IME don't last very long with aggressive cichlids (6 months tops). A few people have had success with them, mixed with aggressive cichlids, but I certainly haven't. I've kept them with jewels though do not remember anything specific about there interaction as it was a long time ago and there were other cichlids in the tank. The last time I kept tiger barbs (about 15 years ago) I purchased 6 and added them to a 100 gal. ( 48" x 24" x 21") with a bunch of young convicts who were much smaller then the tiger barbs to begin with. All tiger barbs were killed off with in 6 months. How well they perform the 'dither' role I can't say as there was no need to add any fish to make the cichlids feel comfortable in any of these tanks. But they definitely failed as a "target" fish or tank mate.


Als49 said:


> The tiger barbs always swim out in the open. That should invite the jewels to come out as well, shouldn't it?


Reason to think that. Of course reality is that so far in 11 days, it's not working like that. 1001 possible outcomes in any tank. Overly scared, skittish and hiding is more the outcome you could expect by placing only 2 jewels in a tank with no other tank mates. I think in time it would change. But any time in the past that I had a problem with overly scared, skittish cichlids, a quick solution was to add more fish.


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## Als49 (Jul 11, 2014)

BC in SK said:


> IME mbuna perform the 'dither' role, second to none. And do not require 'dithers' themselves. *Yellow lab, IMO, an excellent choice.*
> Regardless, of the dither role, IME, I think mbuna make better tank mates for a jewel cichlid then tiger barbs will.
> 
> Reason to think that. Of course reality is that so far in 11 days, it's not working like that. 1001 possible outcomes in any tank. Overly scared, skittish and hiding is more the outcome you could expect by placing only 2 jewels in a tank with no other tank mates. I think in time it would change. *But any time in the past that I had a problem with overly scared, skittish cichlids, a quick solution was to add more fish*.


Thanks for sharing your experience BC.

We're still in the process of catching the tiger barbs and make good progress. 3 left from 12.
And I also got 8 juvie yellow labs to replace tiger barbs.

I wonder about adding more fish, do you mean to add more jewels, or add more dither fish?
Because I'm confused in this particular case: there are 6 jewels, and I read that once they make a pair, the rest will be killed.


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## BC in SK (Aug 11, 2012)

Als49 said:


> I wonder about adding more fish, do you mean to add more jewels, or add more dither fish?


No, I did not advise anything specific with that statement; merely stated that in the past, adding fish was often an instant solution to a 'spooked' fish.
You added the yellow labs. See how that goes first before considering any other changes.


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## Als49 (Jul 11, 2014)

BC in SK said:


> No, I did not advise anything specific with that statement; merely stated that in the past, adding fish was often an instant solution to a 'spooked' fish.
> You added the yellow labs. See how that goes first before considering any other changes.


Got it. Hopefully yellow labs will make the jewels more active and brave 

Actually there's another option: remove all of the hiding places, just like in the LFS. This will make sure they can't hide and can be easily seen. However I don't like bare tank :lol:


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## Als49 (Jul 11, 2014)

Just found out that two pairs spawned this afternoon! And it was just 2 weeks ago when I got them.

Actually I wanted to replace them with maingano (for getting active yellow and blue combo), but then I found out that they just spawned, so for now we keep them.

And I wonder why they didn't kill other fish in the tank? I read in many threads that breeding jewel cichlid kill other fish in the tank.
The distance between those nests are about 30 cm (12").


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## Als49 (Jul 11, 2014)

It seems that jewels are very docile compared to N. brichardi. They let yellow labs ate their eggs and they didn't attack my hands either when I replanted crypts near their nests.


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## Als49 (Jul 11, 2014)

The jewels and their tank mates were rehomed to QT, to be sold or bartered. And this tank becomes a new home of 1m:1f geo RHT


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## Als49 (Jul 11, 2014)

This has become a new home for Geos RHT


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