unexpected visitor

[{OF}Vmax]

I have a 20gal tank with four different type of cichlids, all males or so I thought. the other night I was watching them move the gravel around, because I spent hours making it flat for them. well as I am watching them I see a little movement in one of the caves in the rear of the tank while all four fish are feeding. I couldn't quite see what it was, but something was in there. when they all finished feeding I decided to move the cave and see what was in there. when I moved the cave I got the surprise of my live, what I thought was a piece of plant that was moving in the current was a little fish about half an inch long. now the question is where did it come from? nothing new has been added to the tank in 2 years and all the fish are male, verified by a cichlid enthusiast. i think the enthusiast was just guessing and i have no idea on who the female is in the tank but soon they will be moving in to a new 55gal because they are out growing this one. i will try to get pictures when i move them to their new home.

[LadyB]

Ohhhh cool!!! I would love to see pics!!! What kind of cichlids?? We used to have what we thought were Kenya cichlids but turned they were not. Can't remember what they were exactly.... A7 would know that. Now we have 3 brevis (cichlid family shellies)

[{OF}Vmax]

i have one kenya, one red zebra, one yellow lab, one electric yellow, and now a mutt. it is pink with some blue flake in it. the kenya and lab are my favorite and they have been in the tank the longest, about 3 years.

[A7ESF]

Ours were Bumblebee cichlids.

VMax, it sounds like a female has slipped in the mix and fooled you into believing she wasn't a she. That's not entirely unusual any more with Cichlids due to the massive amount of crossbreeding that has been done (intentionally and unintentionally) depending on what species you have, they can be pretty difficult to sex anyway. My guess would be that you have one very fortunate baby swimming around. Either that or a friend tried to feed the wee little guy to the cichlids (yes I've done this) and he was somehow too fast for them and escaped.

[{OF}RKT]

Originally Posted by {OF}Vmax

now the question is where did it come from? nothing new has been added to the tank in 2 years and all the fish are male, verified by a cichlid enthusiast. i think the enthusiast was just guessing and i have no idea on who the female is in the tank but soon they will be moving in to a new 55gal because they are out growing this one. i will try to get pictures when i move them to their new home.

well the last time Dudio was at my house, a month later we discovered that cat had become pregnant....

[{OF}Erad]

Originally Posted by {OF}RKT

well the last time Dudio was at my house, a month later we discovered that cat had become pregnant....

Did the kittens look more like his "Picture", or like their Mom???

[{OF}RKT]

Originally Posted by {OF}Erad

Did the kittens look more like his "Picture", or like their Mom???

Lets put it this way, we know it has to be Dudio because we can't tell which end is it's butt....

[{OF}Blong]

umm can we say hijack?????????


We had african cichlids in a 125g tank. the yellow ones (dont remem what they were called) had new babies about every 3 weeks. we had lots of babies that we gave away. Maybe someday ill start trying to breed them again and sell them to the lfs to make some extra $$$$ . the baby cichlids are very easy to take care of and to get them to grow to adulthood. Just have to get them into a different tank or nursery before the older ones eat them.

[HowardTheDuck]

You should post some up-close pics of your cichlids from some different angles. My friends brother has owned a plethora of cichlids since I've known him and I'm very confident that he'll be able to identify the female.

[{OF}Blong]

yeah vmax get your but into this forum read it and post some pics .