Hello all,

I have just set up my first tank about a week ago and one of my Lighting Yellow African Cichlid has been swimming at the top of the tank for about 2 days now.

Tank setup:
60 gallon tank

2 Tiger Oscars:2",3"
1 Pleco: 2-3"
1 Bichir Dragon: 4-6"
3 Cichlids
2 Lighting Yellow: 4-5"
1 Blue: 5-6"

Cascade 300 Waterfall filter(100 gallon)
300 watt submersible heater


All of them except the Bichir is eating fine, i have to hand feed him. They are fed floating pellets 2-3 times a day(New Life Spectrum small).

Hello and welcome to OFL.
Most likly question will be :Did you cycle your tank correctly?
This will take 40 days.
Do you have a test set and what are your water parameters at this moment?

It also sounds like you're overstocked, an easy thing to do when you love fish. Any chance of getting a bigger tank?

I only cycled it for for 2 weeks as instructed by my local fish store owner. As for the overstock issue i was lucky to convince my wife to let me get this tank so im sure she will not go for getting another one so soon. By parameters im guessing you mean pH wish is currently between 7.2-7.4


Edit:
I just noticed how the first post came out. I only have 3 cichlids, 2 are yellow and the other one is blue. So thats 7 all together.

I also posted pictures of every fish and an overview of the tank so you can see the sizes and size of the tank visually.

You have some lovely fish, your yellow's are especially beautiful. Since your O's are so small you're ok for now but you will be shocked at how fast they grow. Does your wife help take care of them? If you get her interested and give her time to fall in love with the fish she just might suggest a bigger one herself My husband used to keep fish and when he started back all I did was help clean the tanks which was no fun at all then he got another tank and let me pick the fish, once I had a tank that was mine I was lost. If you have kids let them pick a fish that is theirs, fish keeping is a wonderful family affair Good luck to you!

Did you add benefial bacteria, to jumpstart your filter?
Could you test for Nitrates-Nitrites and Ammonia?
Those reading will tell us more!

"I only have 3 cichlids, 2 are yellow and the other one is blue. So thats 7 all together."

3 africans + 2 south american oscars = 5 cichlids

lol nice fish. i have had several electric yellows (you called them lighting yellow) and guess what... out of 5... i have one left, oscars find them delicious, and they cost me 17 dollars a piece, an expensive snack FYI.

also... those electrics, they are super territorial. mine goes after anything that comes near it.


what we really need to know for now, to help answer your question, is what is your ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite readings at right now??? also is your tank welll aerated? and what temperature do you have it running at? if your getting stale water your fish may be oxygen deprived. that might explain the hovering at the top of the tank. electrics are almost exclusive to the bottom of the tank. its unusual to see them at the top like you describe. either have a water problem (nitrates/nitrites/ammonia) because its not fully cycled, or theres not enough disolved oxygen in the water... or it could be quite simply they are scared of your oscar and dont have cover to hide behind? they do like caves get us those water readings

Ha ha ha, thanks for pointing that out Win. Ill have to go out tomorrow to get those readings. I noticed one of the other cichlids was chasing him around and when i started to look at him harder i noticed some red marks on him which im guessing is blood. I set up a 3 gallon tank for him and moved him into that so he can get his own food and not worry about the other ones. He seems to be doing better in the smaller tank so far. Hes not on top to much any more and eating well.

It's always good to have a hospital tank up and running all the time, you never know when you're gonna need it. I keep a 10 gallon going but if I had to put one of the O's in it I know they'd cuss me for weeks lol

you really need atleast a 30 for the electrics. they themselves arent too large but they do command a large territorial area they will defend vigorously.

nitrate=0-10
nitrite=0-.2
hardness=75-80
alkalinity=110-120

update-
His fins/tail all have lost there "webbing" (couldnt find a better word). And his tail has a dark line of red on it. and hes not eating but he is swimming around more and spending 50% of the time on top and the other half on the bottom.

What about the ammonia? Nitrite is a little bit higher than we would like. What test kits are you using?

It sounds like your fish may be suffering from bacterial fin rot, could you please post a photograph?

If indeed your water conditions are good, it's really difficult to come up with a reason why your fish is behaving like this, most cases of fish ill health is caused by poor water conditions.

You have got to remember that sometimes fish do become ill, even if you have a good water conditions, it's not common for this to happen, but don't rule that out.

If you could give us your water conditions again, that would be helpful. But this time, please give us all of them, ammonia, nitrite, nitrates, and pH