How Long Do Red Zebra Cichlids Live?ĭepending upon the tank conditions, feeding habits, and how many fish you’re keeping in the aquarium, Red Zebra Cichlids can live up to a decade. You can find them prowling around the tank, protecting their territory.
Moreover, Red Zebra Cichlids have a matriarchal family, so the female is hard to befriend, especially when she is about to lay eggs. They react violently towards other species as well as their own, meaning they are not friendly. Red Zebra Cichlids are highly aggressive on account of their territorial nature. Both the male and female fish have similar behavioral traits, so research before introducing them into home aquariums. While some fish are aggressive only during the mating season, Red Zebra Cichlid shows no lessening their ferocious behavior. Or you’ll need to place them in a separate tank. If you desire to keep docile and sociable fish in the tank, it would be best to avoid owning this species. Interestingly, if no male is present in the aquarium, a female will sometimes assume male colouration and go through the motions of enticing other females to spawn without ever having the ability to fertilise any eggs.Like most African Cichlids, the Red Zebra variant is no different, known for its semi-aggressive nature. Several colour forms are available and these should not be kept together under any circumstances as they will hybridise.
To add to the confusion, it was only described as a distinct species in 1995, having previously been regarded as a morph of Maylandia zebra. It is unlikely it will remain in Pseudotropheus. Notes Top ↑Ī deservedly popular mbuna, there is ongoing debate as to the true genus of this species, it having been variously grouped in both Maylandia and Metriaclima, as well as the currently valid Pseudotropheus.
The fry are large enough to take brine shrimp nauplii, microworm and powdered dried foods from birth. Some breeders artificially strip the fry from the mother’s mouth at the 2 week stage and raise them from that point as this usually results in a larger number of fry. It is also worth noting that if a female is away from the colony for too long she may lose her position in the pecking order of the group. Care must be taken, if you decide to move the fish, in order to avoid fry predation or harassment by the males. If a female is overly stressed, she may spit out the brood prematurely or eat them. She will not eat during this period and can be easily spotted by her distended mouth.
#OB RED ZEBRA CICHLID GENETICS FREE#
The female will carry the eggs for around 3-4 weeks before releasing the free swimming fry. When she tries to add them to the brood in her mouth ,she actually recieves milt from the male, thus fertilising the eggs. The male fish has egg-shaped spots on his anal fin and the female is attracted to these. When a female is willing, she will approach the spawning site and lay her eggs there, after which she picks them up in her mouth. He is quite vigorous in his pursuits and it is in order to dissipate this aggression that this species should be spawned in a harem. He will show intense colour and attempt to entice females to mate with him. This may be a flat rock surface, or a shallow pit which he excavates in the substrate. The male fish will clean and then display around his chosen spawning site. Condition the fish with a high quality diet composed mainly of vegetable matter. The pH should be around 8.2-8.5 and the temperature 77-80☏. A 48″ aquarium is a good size (although larger is preferable) and this should be furnished as suggested above, along with some flat rocks and areas of open substrate to act as potential spawning sites. Ideally it should be spawned in a species tank in a harem of one male and at least 3 females, although it will often spawn in the community aquarium. In populations where males and females are of the same colour, they can be sexed by size (males are usually larger than females) and by the egg spots in the anal fin, which are larger and more numerous in males. However, depending on locality, there also exist orange and OB (“orange blotch”) males and yellow or OB females.
Some males are blue in colour, while females are orange. Several females should be kept per male, in order to reduce harassment by the male and only one male should be kept unless the tank is very large. The tank should be overcrowded to reduce aggression and territory formation. It should not be kept with peace loving species such as Peacocks or Utaka but it can be combined with other similarly sized mbuna. Not especially aggressive for a mbuna, although it is quite robust. To find high quality fish foods, click here.
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