# Cichlids spitting out food



## Dustmaster

A few days ago I noticed that the fish seemed a bit more aggresive towards my hand when I was doing a water change. Today I noticed that one of my yellow cichlids puts flakes in its mouth but just spits them back out. I dont know if its male or female and im not sure if its holding any eggs. Any ideas? Its the one with the black stripe. I only have 3 fish in the tank.


----------



## jbyoung00008

No offence. All your fish look a little skinny IMO. Flakes are hardly enough food for starving Africans. I feed New Life Spectrum pellets Aka NLS, 2x daily. Its full of nutritious stuff and less fill. They go crazy for it. Flakes alone just doesn't cut it. They also enjoy a piece of zucchini elastic banded to a rock. 

Its not holding eggs. If its spitting things out that would include the babies. When all of mine have been holding. They don't eat at all. Has she held before?

Also I would need to see more pictures but your fish could have sunken belly. Which not to scare you is a parasite, a worm I believe. Its common with Africans but again more pictures would help. It might just be that you are under feeding. Make the switch see if that helps.


----------



## Dustmaster

I have never seen them hold before. Hopefully they are fine.


----------



## jbyoung00008

The yellow lab definitly has something going on. Not eating is a sign of stress. Paraguard makes a treatment for the worm. Again I'm not saying you have it but keep a close eye on it. Google African cichlid sunken belly. Youll find info. My 2 yellow labs female bellies sunk. I bought the treament to dose anyways since I hqve a lot of fish. No others fishs bellies sunk. Both yellow labs died shortly after. Both held babies a few times and I read that can be the cause aswell. 

What size tank? How many fish? Filters? Water changes? Etc.......


----------



## Dustmaster

33 gallon with only 3 fish left. I had more but they've slowly died off and any more that I add just turn into food. Have the aquaclear 300 filter. Change a bit of water every second week. Feeding twice a day. Place where I bought them from said to mainly feed them flakes and recommended nutrafin max for tropical fish.


----------



## jbyoung00008

Feed them pellets IMO. Im no expert but Ive done a lot of research on Africans and have a fairly nice African tank. Flakes are a pain and create lots of waste in a fish tank. Im against flakes for any fish not just Africans. Read the ingredients on the flake food. Than go compare it to NLS pellets or another higher end brand. You will be suprised on the difference in ingredients. Besides that I dont like flake food because its gets blown all over your tank, un eaten left to rot because the pieces were too small so the fish could care less to eat them. All that does is create a messy tank and more work for you. 

Now youve said youve been losing fish so Im going to give you some advice. To have a nice tank and healthy fish water changes need to be large and freequent. How freequent and how big is up to you but a lot of African keepers do weekly 50% water changes. Myself included. This is key. I wont comment on Ph/KH/GH except..... what you keep your water at is up to you. Some people try to mimmic Lake Malawi water others just use tap water with and have no issues. 

How long has the tank been running? Did you properly cycle the tank before introducing fish? What are you using for Bio media?

Id also recommend adding another filter. A canister with your aqua clear would make a good tank cleaning team. You can find them cheap on here in the classifieds. Stuff it full of bio media. Get your tank back on track. Than in a month or so as your tank comes back. Start introducing new fish again. 3 or 4 at a time every 3 or 4 weeks until you rebuild your stock.


----------



## clintgv

Try feeding NLS pellets. I used to feed mine flakes when I first started, after a month they started spitting them out too. I switched to pellets and they go crazy for it and still do.


----------



## mrbob

I agree with JB no flakes my Africans get ns pellets and omega one cichlid pellets! yes use Paragaurd for a couple weeks to make sure no parasites! extra filter is very good idea has suggested by JB min w/c once per week!!!

Good luck!

Bob


----------



## Dustmaster

Bought the NLS pellets. They seem to be enjoying it. Have been feeding a bit more also and they seem to have fattened up a bit and look healthier. The problem I have now is the yellow with the stripe (which im assuming is the male) is chasing the other yellow (which I guess is female) and it looks to be getting stressed out. The blue one just sits back and watches the show. Dont know if that one is male or female. Do they cross breed?


----------



## charles

you have too few fish in there and your tank is a bit small to add more fish. Normally with 2 yellow mbuna, you are going to end up with 1. The blue one is a peacock/hap; chance is small to hybirdized.


----------

