The Beautiful Daffodil Cichlid Care Guide

[@markfranklin8831]

Beautiful fish

[@benininho]

According to Verduijn Cichlids in the Netherlands, a reference point for cichlid afficionados in Europe, it is really important to don't keep them in too high temperatures. The ideal temperature is somewhere between 25-26 degrees celcius. According to Verduijn they can handle temperatures colder than that much better than temperatures above this range. I really like the colors of your daffodils, they stand out.

[@FwishList]

That's really helpful. Thanks so much for sharing!

[@DomnulSarb]

African cichlids: beauty of saltwater fish with the hardiness of betta fish.

[@FwishList]

Haha exactly 😀

[@jokervienna6433]

For being Tanganyika, they are fairly nice. The thing is that they do defend their territory and with some time will make a colony. All other fish will eventually be "pushed out", though not actively killed. A nice way to control their breeding is to put some Synodontis petricola in the tank. They will eat some of the fry and the Daffodils can´t really hurt them. I´ve kept and bred many variants, and they are very much the same. Easy fish to keep, and a colony is a true sight to see!

[@FwishList]

Thanks so much for sharing. They are such a fun fish. I've got two different types of synodondits in here so they do a great job of keeping them under control.

[@jokervienna6433]

@@FwishList Ah, you already knew that trick. Great! I do love those fishes too, but haven´t had any in many years. A really great thing with Tanganyika is that you can have a lot of specialized cichlids in the same tank. Daffodils will stay with their colony, just give them caves. Shell dwellers will love the open sand, if they have a lot of shells. Julidochromis will stay in the deep caves, and don´t like to cross the open sand. Cyprichromis might like some shade, but will mostly cruise in the free water space. A well designed tank (of some size) can host very many fish, that each live in different niches. That is great too! :)

[@FwishList]

I get called out for saying this about every fish but Tanganyikans are my favorite 😂. There is a morsel of truth there because I did give them my biggest tank and I've never regretted it.

[@jokervienna6433]

@@FwishList well, I guess I have developed from my younger years, and can say that I DO have a lot of favorite fish, but I can´t keep them all. :D I did have two 600 liter aquariums with Tanganyika at the same time though. One in my livingroom, with "cliffs" I did on my own, from beton. I even had true plants from the lake (Potamogeton and Ceratophyllum). If I ever have the space for a 20.000 liter tank, it will be Tanganyika! I saw a similar one (in Berlin I think?), and I stood there watching for an hour at least.

[@jonkirch578]

These fish are the meanest cichlids I’ve ever kept, I had them in a 40 breeder when I first got them but moved them to a 60 gallon tank with nice rock work and the males started going after each other. I was loosing 1 big fish every 2-3 months to aggression but I kept pulling out fry. My only idea is to put them in a 180 with some Black Calvus but then I had to move and I couldn’t keep my big tanks. 2 out of 10 very pretty but I would never keep again.

[@FwishList]

Interesting! Thanks for sharing. I've seen them chase but I've never seen them kill one another. In other animals I've bred there's always aggressive genetics so I'm sure it varies.

[@bluecollarfox913]

Hey do me a favor, put some water in a bowl, dechlorinate it like you would for your tank. Let it sit an hr and test the PH. Then test your tank with araganite sand. Lmk if it’s any different. I tested two of my tanks. One with bare bottom, one with crushed coral. Exactly the same PH. I find that the coral and araganite sand doesn’t do anything

[@FwishList]

The aragonite water has a pH of 7.6 and my regular water has a pH of 6.8 but the biggest difference is the hardness which is much higher with the aragonite. pH is a funny thing and it's affected by a lot of different factors so I sometimes think it's unreliable. I think the hardness is the most important thing when it comes to water parameters. The hardness of the water is what really affects the fishes ion exchange due to the hypo/hypertonicity of the water. I pay more attention to hardness and tds when it comes to keeping fish healthy. Many years of schooling ago I probably could have explained it better but I'd have to crack open a chemistry text book again and that just doesn't sound fun. Maybe one day I'll muster the courage 😁.

[@bluecollarfox913]

@ ahh ok cool. I’ll have to test hardness in those tanks and see what I get. Thanks

[@jokervienna6433]

The pH will stabilize, but what some special sand/coral sand do, is to "protect" the pH. With time and not enough care (not saying YOU don´t care), the pH will normally sink in any aquarium. This is very unlikely to happen with a calcium rich substrate. It will simply keep the pH stable.