Adult African Cichlids

Hey dudes and dudettes! It's been quite awhile since I've had a chance to hop on here, but now that class is over with for the summer, hopefully I'll be able to poke my head in a little more often.

Anyhoo---I've got two adult African Cichlids that I'll be rehoming in the next month or so, and since they're both particularly...er...opinionated fish, I thought I would see if any of the experienced fishkeepers on this forum might be interested before I bestow either of these bullies on an unexpecting Craigslist responder. I'll post pics if anyone expresses interest in seeing either of these. (Too lazy to dig out the camera if there are no takers! )

First is Henrik, a 3 year old Red Zebra. Two summers ago, I purchased a few juvenile peacocks and decided he was too pushy to keep in the main tank with the little guys, so Henrik's been waiting around in a smaller tank for the past 2 years. Now that several of the then-juvenile fish are now roughly Henrik's size, I thought I'd give him another try in the main tank, but to my dismay, he is STILL too pushy for the much less in-your-face peacocks. So, Henrik's gotta go, since I don't have any interest in keeping up a smaller tank just for this one, single fish. (Plus I had other plans for said tank before putting him in, and I'm tired of keeping those on the back burner!) He's one of the most handsome fish I have, so I'll be sad to see him go, but it is what it is.

Next is "Brown Fish," who is a ~2.5 year old female Red Shoulder peacock. I purchased her from Animal House a couple summers ago as a red-shoulder male, but she turned out to be female. I kept her anyway, because a) I'm too lazy to return a fish, and b) I had already picked up two other red shoulders, one of which was a male, so it all worked out. Anyway, despite being a female, she is incredibly large and pushy and her personality just doesn't mesh well with the rest of the peacocks in the tank. She regularly shoves everyone else out of the way during feeding time, and as a result, she is overweight while everyone else struggles just to maintain a healthy weight. Additionally, my male red-shoulder wants nothing to do with her (despite her obvious interest when he is courting the other, smaller, red-shoulder female), and the only fish actually willing to spawn with her is my Placidochromis electra, and I'm not interested in any fry that would come from THAT particular union...

If anyone's interested in either of these, just lemme know; I'll post pics then. I'm not looking for much in exchange for either of these two---I'm primarily interested in them going to a good home with someone that already has a tank of similarly-tempered fish. I wouldn't mind trading for a couple of plants, or possibly a little aragonite sand, or one or more unwanted 48" T8 bulbs (looking especially for an actinic bulb to experiment with). Alternatively, I would also be up for trading them for any peacock or similarly laid-back african.

Later on this summer, the 55g tank with the DIY background that I posted pics of forever ago (in the DIY section) will be up for trade, since I am starting a new DIY background project on a new tank next week or so. I feel like the tank may be getting toward the end of its useful life fish-wise, but it would make a pretty rad terrarium (this is what I will be using it for if no one else wants it).

ETA: Or snails! I would love some more snails. The bigger the better, as my fish love eating any snail small enough to get their mouths around!

I dont have any peacocks available for trade but I may be able to help you out with plants,substrate,snails, but I was wondering what your Perameters were as far as PH. The system that I am thinking about has south american and african so I keep the PH 7.2-7.4 not too high.

Ooh, yeah, they definitely need a higher pH than the South American ones. I usually keep the pH around 8.0 - 8.4, and total hardness and carbonate hardness both between 200 - 300 ppm. While I don't think they'd outright die, they probably wouldn't do so hot in a S. American tank just because the water chemistry is so different. Thanks for responding anyway, though!

I know they are acustom to higher PH its just that I several african cichlids in the lower PH that have done well for many years so I was just wondering if the aulonocaras you have are tolerable of a lower PH?Now that you mention it I suppose I will add some new Coral to the tank to bump it up slightly. I have one peacock that gets a gorgeous electric blue sheen from time to time but am unsure of the variety.I do know it is tank bred and maybe that played a roll in its acceptance of lower PH.The labidochromis are just hardy fish and seem to do well in a variety of conditions.The bicher is always chill...

Hope you find them the right tank