Jewel Cichlids

Ok, I have been keeping most african cichlids for quote some time, but I have never kept jewel cichlids.... I found a few on a good deal, and have been keeping them with my mallawi guys.... Everyone seems to be gettin along just fine, so was wondering if anyone has had trouble with these guys?? Ive read they can be pretty nasty to other cichlids, but really they seem pretty peaceful in my tank now.

Can someone who has had exp please tell me a little more about them?

So no one has kept jewel cichlids before??? Wow, I must be onto something... maybe I will breed them, start gettin them popular.... lol... but seirously, any help would be appreciated.

just got one of those guys, anything youve found i should know?

Nothing Ive found yet.... they eat really well.... and they turn red when there mad... lol i try to keep them mad allot, cause they look way cooler when red.

haha mine seems to be doing OK swimming around nibbling on everything that moves but my little jack is teasing him and taking all the caves, jewel is like 10x the mass of my little jack and hes takin it seems way gentle and only has just a hint of red along the rear edge of its tail fin

They turn red because they are going into breeding.. They get Really red when they are about to breed.. I had mine laying eggs every couple weeks because they were young and eating the eggs i think... and since the eggs were gone they seemed to immediately try again..

I recently took mine out of the 90 and put them in the 110.. My 110 has higher ph and has Fullebournis Convicts and convict babies, Some orange parrots 2 pairs of Rainbow bosemanies a rope fish and a black ghost knife.. Nobody does anything too aggressive.. Just a little dominance chasing. Its not even the jewels that are being aggressive. I am waiting to see if they become more aggressive once they get bigger.

seems to do it when hes pissed off now, goes red like a display of some sort when the bigger fish mess with him, then back to normal in 20 mins or so

is there a way to sex em?? I.E. this guy/gal??
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
very skittish and doesnt hardly ever turn red, it is also about 2.5 inches. *edit* Also it is very peaceful and un-territorial. Allows the lil fishies to uproot it from its cave.
What ive heard is u can tell by the tail and anal fin but to me they all look the same (Silverdale Petsmart, which are only like 1.75-2 inches)...

Typically the male will have allot more metallic lookin jewels on him... the female a little more dull..... Both sex will turn that redish, color when breeding, aggession display, etc etc.

Im not sure if there is a trick with the anal fin??

so Nuka what would be your verdict on this guy/gal??

WIth mine i got all of them the same size and my male shot of in size quickly compared to the other ones and their dorsal comes to a slight point like most male cichlids.. Weird that your jewels turn red when showing dominance.. Mine only ever went solid blood red in color only when they were going into breeding and during.. But i dont have huge fish with them either..

Billie.... I actually started this thread to see if i could get more experienced fish keepers that had jewels to answer some of my questions... lol.... So I am not the best person to ask....

but if I was gonna take a stab in the dark, I would go female on her?? but honestly, this is just a guess, maybe a lil' educated guess behind it. Anyone else agree/discagree?

i would say female as well...

LOL whoops >.< didnt realize it was you who started the thread.... thanks for the edumacated guess =-P

Alrightty so i went down and purchased another Jewel Cichlid looking for one with either a more pointed or rounded dorsal fin, I happened to get a more rounded dorsal finned one, but also has Black edging to the lower half of tail and anal fin is all lined... My First one is now RED and active as hell... soo should I let them get used to each other or try my hand at dorsal fins again?? I did rearrange my tank when I added the new one... any ideas from what you've noticed or general african cichlid tendencies i should know about??

I had a tank full of Jewels a while back. Fuskers got all violent and the tank was a killing field! lol..

Well I need a lil' more infor... like how many of what kinds of cichlids are in the tank... how big is the tank.... what is the temp... and water parameters.... all that stuff is important if you want them to do the dirty dance. I also like to do the whole multiple thing... 2-3 females for every male...

The red one could be just excited there is someone in the tank.... even if it was the same or opposite sex, my guys used to get red with aggression displays not just breeding... It may pass after a night with the lights off.

im not tryin to Breed them lol.. i wanted to get another but not have the male territorial fighting.. but if it makes the difference ill get it all checked.

just get a bunch of them and supply hiding places

I second the idea on overstokin it... Tends to kill the aggression.

sandnuka wrote:Well I need a lil' more infor... like how many of what kinds of cichlids are in the tank... how big is the tank.... what is the temp... and water parameters.... all that stuff is important if you want them to do the dirty dance. I also like to do the whole multiple thing... 2-3 females for every male...

The red one could be just excited there is someone in the tank.... even if it was the same or opposite sex, my guys used to get red with aggression displays not just breeding... It may pass after a night with the lights off.

Jewel cichlids are a problem fish. Much like a bumblebee cichlid. Nothing good can come from them, unless you build a tank specifically around them. Also I don't recommend mixing lower ph fish with Africans. You're just asking for a compromised immune system from stress.

Just keep them crowded, they will calm down.

Cory wrote:Also I don't recommend mixing lower ph fish with Africans. You're just asking for a compromised immune system from stress.

Arent jewels africans? but they are lower PH africans.... Like the Talapia butterkoiferi.... I had my jewels in with convict/dwarf tank.... until I decided to go rift lake... then they hung out in higher PH until I gave them to sidekicking

so your always asking my water parameters and i finally got it tested and remembered the stats
PH- roughly 7.3
NO2- 0
NO3- >20
Water Hardness- >25
Alkalinity- somewhere between 180 and 300

my guy is super relaxed when iput my han in the tank to cleen he swims right up to it looks at and swims away bring my hand close he stay all others run lol (sounds like a scary movie)

Billie.... your water peram. are perfect for the fish you like.... good job!

AWESOME
u found much more out about jewels?? since i kinda stole ur thread??

Nothin more than what is listed in the thread already .... actually gave up the jewels.... I became obsessed with tropheus. and The two wouldnt make it in a tank together..... so gave them to sidekicking.... se there your fav. fish.. good choice, great personality, and a nice small group of them in a 29 gallon is super fun to watch.

so as those who have red this know i have some jewels in with some zebras and thts not the reason for post but just to bring it all back...
so i went on vacation and left feedin my fish to someone (not a fish person either >.< long story short i only lost a fish and my friends tank lost all 5 goldies hed spent time picking out) but anyways back to the point when i left i had a dominant jewel (the First one and not the largest) itd been same story of who was where on peckin order and jewels and zebras didnt bother each other...
I get back and my "dominant" Jewel hides in a cave (not small inside but small entrance) and has been all red since ive returned and doesnt leave it... the larger one has increased its aggression to the third and the Gresheki, but on top of tht the one in the cave allows NOTHING in it... not the cat/eel/zebras or anything and is just red as can be... doesnt even leave cave to eat waits for food to float its way then pokes out and eats then dissapears...
any ideas?? cause im confused to hell about wtf happened in the 12day period i was gone...

I dont think this is a bad thing billie.... Think he is guarding eggs! or just found a territory that he wants to spawn in.... Thats exactly the way all my cichlids acted when guarding. The way to find out for sure is try to reach in the cave slowly, if he attacks your hand most likely theres eggs in there... well, or you could just look in the cave

For all the jewel guys out there, I just found out there are six different jewel variations... some are super red, in my opinion one of the best lookin cichlids around... then the more common ones are more dull in color... Just thought i would share that cause I went to a friends place and saw his breedin pair of jewels, they were expensive, and STUNNING!

well i stuck my hand in near cave and it kinda looked at me like WTF... so i moved one of the pot fragments and it came out and by moving it i could see inside and there was notin but a nice dug out circle and once i put it back and closed lid another jewel (the smallest) swam by and the one i had just scared out wanted notin to do with em, he flared his fins and turned and swam back into the cave and returned to the normal peepin from under the fragment i moved... so idk.. but as it returned it proceeded to chase the 4 zebras tht had suddenly flocked in..

Spyral wrote:just get a bunch of them and supply hiding places

+1 hiding places

treat jewels like tropheus. they are agressive and will breed more easily with 1-2 males 5+ females.

baglel10 wrote:my guy is super relaxed when iput my han in the tank to cleen he swims right up to it looks at and swims away bring my hand close he stay all others run lol (sounds like a scary movie)

it's cause he's a hungry little food mongral

So Old Thread New news... I have a Pair of Jewels Now Watching their eggs on some clay pots in my Tank... One i had for a while and the other i got from Icer711 back in September (the larger one) i saw him dancing for her and thought ehh not much will happen its a tank full of fish.. Wrong.. i have about idk... 100 eggs and the partents are gaurding tht whole section of tank (1/3 patitioned off partially by a flat rock..) from all the other fish...

And theres the Eggs.. well half of em... they disappear into the shadows further... this is after they spawned last night..
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
And here are the parents (sorry about the specs in the picture, they are air bubbles from my powerhead right to the left of this)
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Father left Mother right (One that I got from Icer711)

When I first raised jewels fortunately had all males and they lived with some misc africans with no problems. Then eventually found some girls for the boys, seperated them out into tanks for pairs found they weren't really interested in breeding once they didn't have anyone to strut for so used OB easthraes(?) as dithers which worked well. Growing them out did the overcrowding scene to help with aggression issues.

In the trio scene trying to get pairs they did become murderers, when in large groups I'd pull what was acting like pairs before the serial killing began.

With them in with africans tried to be sure there weren't any with "red/reddish" colorations which helped with aggression towards them.

JME

Red Zebras >.> and 2 more jewels tht are brilliant red >.>

Billiethekid.
Love the color on your Jewels. I wish mine would show that much color..

Thank you!
yea i got lucky and they got really red when i moved em to this other tank.

Hey all, I kept jewels long ago, I had great success breeding a pair in a remarkably small setup. Not saying I recommend it, just sayin in my case it worked. Fern has a bunch of Jewels though, and I suspect knowledge to go along with it. I thought my jewels of long ago were CA cichlids till fern and some others on COV corrected me