My African Cichlids

Question
Thanks so much for your help.  One more quick question, I've noticed at some pet stores I frequent, they drop cut pieces of cucumber into the cichlid tanks, should I and would my babies enjoy this?

Thanks,

Tracy
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The text above is a follow-up to ...

-----Question-----
Hi Ron,

I have a couple questions for you, I have a 30 gallon tank with 5 African Cichlids and one Pleco.  They are all waiting eagerly on my 50 gallon which is cycling as we speak and not quite ready.  All my cichlids are about 3-4" long, they are wonderful!  I want to give you a view of what our schedule is like, I feed twice a day, they get a variety of Cichlid Gold floating pellets, Cichlid Attack sinking pellets, freeze driez brine shrimp, live guppy feeders, live ghost shrimp feeders, frozen cubes of mixed veggies, frozen cubes of cichlid delight, frozen cubes of blood worms and some algea/seaweed left over from the pleco.  I feed alternating between all of these things, just to keep them interested and give them variety in their diet.  They are very healthy and beautiful, their colors are very viberant.  I do a 15-20% water change and vaccum the gravel every week, replacing the water with bottled spring water.  The tank sparkles!  I also have two filters on the tank one is a large biowheel rated for 75 gallons so it's very well filtered.  I'm planning on putting a Rena XP2 or 3 on the 50 when they go in it.  

Here comes my question...  I notice that sometimes they appear to flash, also there are times when I think they have neurological disorders as they make twitching movements and jerky short swim bursts.  I've treated for ick, it was the first thing I did the first time I saw one of them do it, but the ick treatment did nothing.  I was wondering if there was something else that may cause this kind of behavior and what I should do.

Also, what do you think of the Rena XP?  What size do you think would be best for my little guys in a 50 gallon Bowfront?

Thanks for all your help.

Sincerely,

Tracy Fischer
-----Answer-----
Hi Tracy,
 I read your schedule to my fish and they want to move to your house!  Your fish have the good life... mine are lucky to get flake food, once a day.   :)

 You have nothing to worry about. The twitching is actually a very good thing.  That is typically a male fish either displaying at another male fish or trying to catch the eye of a girl.  They have limited ability to drive fast cars or buy expensive jewelry, so instead they twitch.  The females think that is pretty good stuff.  Surprisingly, it seems to have quite the opposite effect with humans...

  Typically, a male will find a nice bright spot in the tank where everyone can see him and do a series of twitches.  He will likely spread his fins to the max and pump up his colors.  You should be impressed because that is his best move.  

  The one thing you might consider not doing is feeding the feeder fish. Feeder fish are notorious for carrying diseases (like ick) which transmit very easily to cichlids.  Every week I get emails from people whose fish are dying as a result of feeder fish.  

  As far as the Rena XP, I haven't used any of the Rena filters so I really can't comment.  I will say that you can never have too much filtration on a tank.  

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
  Cichlid Research Home Page <http://cichlidresearch.com>


Answer
Hi Tracy,
  Are you sure it is cucumber?   Typically it will be zucchini squash.  Sliced zuchini is an excellent food for plecostomus catfish and other fish that eat most vegetable matter.  Once they discover the stuff, they really love it.  

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
  Cichlid Research Home Page <http://cichlidresearch.com>