My Job & Description
My name is Alyssa, and I am the animal behaviorist. It is my job to regularly feed our Jewel Cichlids, and make sure they stay healthy by doing daily observations. We have baby Jewel Cichlids in our tank, so we are unable to turn our filter on because it is likely they would get sucked in by the current, which is kind of where the idea sparked to add live plants, which help better the quality of the water naturally. It is also my job to research all about our fish species so that we are aware of their natural background, their personalities, etc. |
Jewel Ciclids
Jewel Cichlids are native to west Africa and are commonly found in creeks, streams, rivers and lakes with a variety of water qualities including brackish water lagoons. Jewel Cichlids can reach up to almost 8 inches in the wild, but only about 5-6 in an aquarium setting and are able to live for arouund 5 years. Our fish were captive bred right at High Tech High Chula Vista, so they will most likely be on the smaller side. Jewel Cichlids tend to be very aggressive towards each other, but are very protective over their eggs as long as they have another fish in the tank to take their aggression out on. Jewel cichlids are also known for nipping fins, but as long as they’re fed, it shouldn’t be that big of an issue. There diet is based on flake an pellet. It is important there tank is 74°F- 80°F and the PH level is 6.5-7.5.
Tracked Behavior (starting when we received our tank)
Week One- This week the fish seemed to be a little bit uneasy because the father of the 16 fry (baby fish) was still present in the tank and being a little aggressive towards the little one.... We later found out that he had killed the mother of the fry a week or two before. Week Two- We didn't notice much problem with the fish this past week, they seemed noticeably more relaxed without the adult male in there with them. Week Three- On Wednesday this week, we noticed that our fishs' bellies were signifigantly large and sticking out, so i was worried they had dropsy which is swelling, usually in the abdomen of fish, due to accumulated fluid. It's an infection due to bacteria that are commonly present in all aquariums and even the healthiest fish can fall prey to this infection. It could also be due to stress because of the quality of the water- which is intertwined with our experiment... so we ended up doing an emergency water change and a few hours later their bellies went down. It could have also been caused by something as simple as overfeeding. The fry are growing at a steady rate and we haven't even had one dead run yet, whch is SO good! Week Four- One of the cichlid fry magically grew almost 3x larger over the course of a week, and we had to do an emergency movement of the fish because he/she was bullying the other fry and nipping their fins off. Some of the smaller fry were missing large chunks of their fins which made me question if they had fin rot, but they had no other symptoms, so all we did was remove the really large one, which calmed the tank. Week Five- The tank has been pretty calm besides the dramatic growth of a few fry, therefore making them a tad more aggressive towards the smaller fry. Aggression in Jewel Cichlids is very normal, we just want to minimize it as much as we can so that the tiny fry aren't constantly stressed. |
Below is a video of our Jewel Cichlid fry being fed in the afternoon.
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