changing to cichlids

Question
Karen
I have read your advise on staying with single variety of cichlids. I have a freshwater 55g planted tank that is overrun with some kind of livebearer tetras. Will the cichlids take care of my overpopulation problem? If I go with electric yellow, what would be a compatible tankmate?  Also, what do you think of buying fish online?
Thanks

Answer
Hi Preston,
It's very common for any livebearing species to quickly overrun a tank if the population is kept unchecked.

Cichlids would definitely eat livebearer fry. But they may not be able to keep up with the population.

Have you tried giving away some of your fish to any local petshops? Some are willing to take fish that are of a decent size to sell. They might even take them just for 'feeders'.

Community fish that would be fry-eaters for example are; Barbs, Angelfish, gouramis, Black widow/black skirt tetras and giant danios.

Electric yellows are docile compared to most african cichlids. Some people keep them in community tanks but you might want to just keep an african cichlid setup to include a few other african species with brilliant color. One species that has been kept with Electric yellows is- Pseudotropheus sp. "Acei" Tanzania. You can see a photo here-

http://www.cichlidforums.com/cichlidbase/index.php/profiles/Pseudotropheus-acei-...

They really contrast the Electric yellows color very well.

Other suitable tankmates would be Mbuna species from Labeotropheus genus for example.

Buying fish online is something I haven't done before. But plan to in the near future. I have found this really good bit of information on the risks of ordering online and precautions to take-

http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/fishqa/f/faq2010.htm

I hope this helps!!!
Karen~