How to get African Cichlids to colour up: 3 months on colour enhancing food
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- Опубликовано: 4 апр 2022
- In this video I show my 9-10 month old 6ft Waterbox African Cichlid setup, which is a mix of Lake Malawi peacocks, mbuna and haps.
For 3-months I have been feeding the fish Absolute Color, which is a "no sex hormone" colour enhancing food. I fed it everyday for 2-weeks, and now I feed it once every second day. The African Cichlids showed a difference in colour within the first week, and it is even more pronounced now.
I also feed them New Life Spectrum (NLS) Thera, NLS Algae Max, and Hikari Cichlid Excel daily.
My fish used to breed and hold eggs. I have observed breeding behaviour but they have not held eggs since beginning the food. I would be cautious about feeding your fish this food if you are wanting to breed your fish!
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Absolute Color (I bought mine from MAD Aquariums)
www.aquaristiconline.com.au/p...
My Waterbox Setup - 6 months running
• Waterbox Clear Pro 722...
My Rimless NVS Net Lids
• NVS Aquariums Rimless ...
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Thanks for watching! :D 
Животные
Beautiful tank,love the simplistic decor, great colorful fish.
Thank you so much! 😊
This is the most beautiful african cichlid tank I've ever seen. Beautiful fish too! Im jealous 😁😁
Thank you so much!! 😭❤️
That's a beautiful tank and the fishes are so colorful!
Thank you so much :)
Your videos are so dope keep them coming!
Thank you so much :)
That is a very nice setup, looks super fresh.
Thanks so much 😊
Really beautiful tank! Going for a chiclid tank for my next one... hope it looks half as good as this! 👌🏼🐠🐟
Thank you so much :D I'm sure it will be!! African cichlids are awesome fish
Your fish are looking awesome!!
Thank you!! :D
Following your advice I started feeding my cichlids absolute colour and even after a week they are so vibrant! Thanks for the great tips ❤
That's so awesome to hear!!
Nice clean looking tank and the ripple effect.
Thank you! Yes, I love the ripple effect, it reminds me of saltwater tanks
As many times as I watch your videos, I NEVER get tired of looking at your cichlid tank!!! Absolutely breath taking!! I can hardly wait to get my tank up and running 🎉😅
Thank you so much!! 🙌❤️
@@Kaityscichlids My wife loves your set up. So I'm buying my stand from Waterbox!! I decided to go BIGGER!! I was buying a 150 gallon StarFire glass tank but now, My new tank is from SC Aquarium. With 15mm Eurobrace on top. 210 gallons!!
72" L x 28" H x 24" L StarFire glass, black silicone, 68 gallon sump. Waterbox sure does make a very nice product for sure!! Your tank is so clean and modern looking, she won't except anything else. When we see other large aquariums on RUclips with ugly, old looking stands and canopies, she doesn't want that look in our house! 🤑 Now she is watching more of your videos and new subscriber👏👍
Kaity, best aquascaper
Thank you!!
Yours aquarium look amazing
Thank you so much :)
Niiiice...love your aquascape and water clarity..try the spirulina shrimp...it helps alot too.👍
Thank you so much 😄
I have shared this video on my malawi cichlid group consisting of 200 members. We have a debate about food this week and we definitely going to discuss your video. I am a rival from South Africa.
That's so cool! I would love to hear how it goes 😊 What are the two sides of the debate?
Super dope ❤❤❤⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Absolutely stunning!!!! I love your cichlids. I wish they could ship that food to USA.
Thank you so much 😊 Yes, it's such a shame it's only available in Australia at the moment!
It’s not hard to get it in the US just got to contact a shop directly in AUSTRALIA by phone or email to discuss shipping is best I got some into Canada and also there’s other stuff you can get especially if you are in the United States
it's some on ebay as well
Really nice set up. Fish look really good and aggression levels seem low 👍
Thank you heaps 😊 Yes, it's a pretty peaceful tank!
@@Kaityscichlids Just subscribed the tank is to nice not to. Something like that is definitely on my list for the future. For now my 55 has to do. I'm not new to the hobby but I am new to african cichlids about 6 months. Such fun fish and so much personality.
@@Bluembuna79 thank you so much!! I've just subscribed to your channel too 😄 They are awesome fish. I kept mbuna about 10 years ago and have only just come back to African Cichlids this past year. They are definitely one of my favourites
Good, vibrant colouration with your fish. Ever thought about a black background to make them pop out even more? Would also blend with the equipment to make it less noticable.
Thank you! I've definitely considered it. I wouldn't paint the tank though, and I don't know if a plastic background would look as nice. But maybe a frosted background
@@Kaityscichlids Painting or even black film would be awkward in its current position anyway, but you could just clamp on some thin ply which would be easily removable too.
@Kaityscichlids I appreciate your videos! Very soon I will add fish to my first Cichlid tank, mixing mbunas and peacocks. In the video, you mentioned that you typically feed you cichlids a mix of Cichlid Excel, Algae Max, and Plec Pellets products. Do you mix them together with each feeding (i.e. twice a day)? Or do you alternate between the Algae Max and Cichlid Excel (e.g. one kind in the morning, another in the evening)?
Really nice tank ..congratulaion👏👏👏.the type of your light also have blue led?do you have link to found that..look great...
Thank you so much 😊 Yes, they have a blue LED. They are called freshwater AI Prime lights. I really love them! This is where I got mine from: www.thetechden.com.au/products/ai-freshwater-prime-16-led-light-black
Love ur food really I am jealous the only thing we have here is extreme and new life spectrum please till me what other colour food enchantments like this do the same thing please I tried to get this online but no luck
Are those marine lights Kaity? Nice video.
These ones are the Freshwater AI Primes!
@@Kaityscichlids Thanks, I know some people run marine lights with Cichlids, was just wondering.
hi friends , im cichlid lovers from indonesiaa 🔥😁😁
Beautiful tank & fish what substrate are you using? I'm just getting started with my 90 gal I will be Adding peacocks soon
Thank you 😊 I use unicorn pool filter sand, it's really cheap but it doesn't raise the pH like crushed coral substrates do
BEAUTIFUL FISH TANK.....BEAUTIFUL FISH......YOU SHOULD TRY OMEGAONE FISH FOOD.....READ THE INGREDIENTS....WHOLE FISH...NOT ANY FILLERS....I'VE BEEN USING THIS FOR YEARS....I DON'T BOTHER WITH ANY OTHER FISH FOOD....I TRIED ALL OF THEM.....NO COMPARISON TO OMEGAONE.....
Thank you so much 😄
Try cichlid Bug bites my cichlids love those ! They go crazy for it , by the way how many gallons Is the tank? It looks super clear n wide
Haha mine love these too!! I use to give them the spirulina Bug Bites. The tank is around 650 litres. It's a Waterbox Clearpro 7225 :)
Wow there so beautiful. I love your tank too. Question how are you able to mix males and females
Thank you! I just bought them all as juveniles without knowing their genders, and it all seemed to work out ok
@@Kaityscichlids thanks you got lucky. Your doing a amazing job
@@dbrown4752 thank you!!
Çok güzel olur
Lovely tank! Can you tell me what type of lighting you have used? What are they called? They look lovely!
Thank you! They are Freshwater AI Primes 😊
@@Kaityscichlids thanks 😊
Nice tank. First you're mbuna require a plant based diet which is one reason you shouldn't mix mbuna with peacocks or haps. Also there is alot of other factors to enhance africans to fully color up. Not criticizing you but been in the hobby 40 plus years and i made alot of mistakes myself. One thing about this hobby i find is you're always learning. Take care and good luck.
Thank you 😄 In the video I show the plant based foods I give to my mbuna
Given that Peacocks, Haps and Mbunas can all come from the same lake, Lake Malawi, I find it interesting when people insist that "you can't keep them together." Now if you are saying "you can't blindly throw the 3 together, if you don't do it correctly", then I agree. Kaity and others, including myself, have found ways to successfully mix the 3. Target feeding, tank size, set-up, age introduced, intentional overcrowding are just some of the things to consider when doing this.
Have you noticed any aggression issues after feeding these pellets?
Fabulous setup of african chiclid, absolutely adorable,bhow much did it cost .
Thank you so much :) I'm not too sure on the total cost, but it is a Waterbox Clearpro 7225 (tank + cabinet) with AI Prime lights
@@Kaityscichlids I've never seen a tank like this. I'ts awesome and crystal clear. Glass is thick as a brick wall 😃👍🏻
@@alejandrolisdero4531 thank you 😊 yes it's super thick! 19mm to be precise
How do you tell if your colouring foods has hormones or not?
I'm new at the hobby. I'm looking at rusty and yellow labs and the dwarf salousi and the white night ali.will this work in a 55 g tank.with your experience would you do this
Any possibilities to send these food in India.nice colors of ur fish. Looking so nice
It is possible they may ship to India! If you google Absolute Colour it will hopefully come up :)
I was advised not to have an open top aquarium with Cichlids as they can be quite feisty. Have you ever had one jump out?
Hey Daan! Yes, I definitely recommend having lids on top, African Cichlids certainly love to jump. I have netted lids on mine, but I just didn't have them on in the video. Before I had lids I lost a few of my fish sadly. These are the lids I have: ruclips.net/video/6X1km1DEFSg/видео.html&ab_channel=Kaity
A great experiment would be to swap back to your old food to see what happens to the females.
Yes, that's not a bad idea! That would be very interesting to see
Why my cichlids are so aggressive. They just keep sitting on one place and only comes out while feeding and if sometimes any fish comes out the dominated cichlid will attack it .
What to do?
Hi Divyakanth! A few things that can help with aggression in order of what I find most effective are; (1) Adding more fish to help diffuse aggression between them - the dominant fish can't keep on top of all of them; (2) Adding a wavemaker to the aquarium to cause a distraction/disruption; (3) Moving your ornaments/rocks around so that the territories are disturbed; (4) Making sure they are being fed enough so they are not competing over food. I hope that helps :)
Wath is name food please reply me
Hi Kaity, just wondering how the absolute feeding is going? Have your females bred yet?
Hey Liam! It's going well, I'm still using it but my African Cichlids have never bred again since eating it. I feed it once every 3 days now. At one point I ran out and I did go a month without feeding it, and it seemed to cause some issues with aggression because it messed up the dominance hierarchy I think
@@Kaityscichlids ahh bugger! I want to do an experiment with it. Get a breeding pair then feed them the absolute and then after a few months then stop it and see if the pair are able to breed again.
Does anyone know where I can get this in the United States or who ships there?
Katty which model of lights u used
Hi Muhammad, the lights I have are freshwater AI Prime lights. I have a video on them here :) ruclips.net/video/XHtin86VkPg/видео.html&ab_channel=Kaity
Where did you get the rocks?
They are from my local fish store MAD Aquariums 😊 They're called Texas Holey Rock
Does this food de-crease your fish’s life span or is it unhealthy in anyway?I’m not trying to breed cichlids but I just want to make sure that it’s okay to feed them with any major consequences. there’s a shop that sells this stuff near where I live and I really want to try and colour up my fish.
I honestly can't say for sure, I tried to look into it before I started feeding it and couldn't find any information. The ingredients in it aren't very nutritious though so I would always make sure you feed it with another good quality food regardless
@@Kaityscichlids Cheers Kaity, I’ll give it a go and mix it in with other foods!
Does feeding them colour enhancing food stops the breeding? Because if the female starts looking like a male then will it breed?
Yes it does! My ones stopped breeding after I began feeding it
Pretty sure those were males that you pointed out at the beginning to start with.. takes time for them to color up
I just had a look to see which ones they were, and the first two (the yellow one and the red one) are definitely females as they've both held fry in the past. Some of the others ones though, like the sunshine peacocks, I'm not too sure about. But it definitely made the females colour up!
@@Kaityscichlids Aulonocara jacobfreibergi.. that's the name of the red one
@@georgeskondras1513 Thank you! That is definitely it. I always thought mine had a bit of an odd shaped head, but looking at photos of them they all seem to have the same bump
@@Kaityscichlids no problem by the way the fish look great!!
@@georgeskondras1513 Thank you so much! 😄
If your females colour up and don’t produce eggs it definitely has hormones in it not saying that’s a bad thing as long as not being used in a commercial store when selling fish
Also note using this to much can reduce slime coat on your fish
No cover on top?
I've got netted lids on top 😊
These are my lids: ruclips.net/video/6X1km1DEFSg/видео.html&ab_channel=Kaity
What kind of sand do you have?
It's called unicorn pool filter sand
@@Kaityscichlids thank you!!
sadly ABSOLUTE COLOR is Not available in the United States.... and no one from Australia with ship it internationally
I think that White Crane might be available where you are and I've heard from others it is similar 😊
Hello friends I am Mihir Guha Roy from India
Please say me which is best food for cichlid fish? Can you gift me 5/6 kilo white sand like your tank quantity?
I really like New Life Spectrum food :)
Mature Africans cichlids color is almost completely depends on dominance /hierarchy within a aquarium system, food brand will have little to no effect on color…nice tank though !
So does this mean that everyone in her tank is dominant? I think not lol
@@DjPosey3 between fish of the same species or ones that look similar , yes!…those colors will wash if they hadn’t just been or about to be feed
2xheaters + 2xfilters is a tried and true recipe for success. Great minds think alike 😊
100% agree!!
It's the way to go. I also use BCBs plus food quality resins in my cylinder filters plus an inline 32 W UV. I also have fitted a pre-filter to one of my cylinder filters. Plus it is heavily planted at either end of the tank.