cool..............lets see some picks will..................

Here's some pictures:

Blue ones name is gus. Orange one is spot. Red one is king (he's def the dominant male)

Is he eating? Is he eating the food and then spitting it back out?

Opening his mouth like that and being stationary are signs of Malawi Bloat which is something you have to watch for when you have Africans. However, if he is eating just fine then that's not his problem. With bloat, the first sign is that they will run up to the food and then either not eat it or eat it and spit it back out. You can cure bloat, but only if you catch it early on. Once it reaches a certain stage, the fish is gone.

I can send you the treatment if he is indeed not eating. It is a six day treatment and has worked 100% of the time for me when I started it immediately when I saw a cichlid spitting food.

Cichlids are very messy eaters so it is not uncommon for them to put a ton of food in their mouth and then not be able to swallow it all and spit some back out. What you want to look for is when they go up, nab a pellet, and then quickly spit the whole thing back out. Then the fish will try several more pellets with the same result. Finally he will say screw it and will run away with no food. That is the behavior to look for.

The other major symptom is white stringy feces.

If your fish is eating then he doesn't have bloat. He may just be getting adjusted to the tank. Or he could be on the bottom side of the heirarchy. Have you noticed who is the dominant male and where his territory is yet. Has anything been bothering your blue fish. Sometimes they hide just to get away. I have a female red zebra who lays sideways up under the filter output so no one sees her. I'm not kidding. The first time I saw it, I thought she was dead, but when I reached my net in there she took off. When the males bother her too much she heads up there every time.

Oh and by the way the best food or cichlids is the New Life Spectrum stuff. It is a little more expensive, but well worth it. All the serious cichlid guys I have ever talked to use it. Good stuff - I recommend it. I use both the small pellet cichlid formula and the large pellet formula since I have a wide range of sizes in my tank.

Anyway, keep us updated on your cichlid.

I forgot to add. No matter what food you choose, it needs to be low in meat and high in vegetable content. With cichlids, you can't just go to the store and buy whatever you want. These kinds of cichlids are used to dining on algae off of rocks in Lake Malawi and their digestive system is set up for this. If you give them to much meaty stuff, it will jack them up. This is even believed to be one of the causes of bloat.

If you decide not to give the New Life Spectrum then find a food that is spirulina based. It will say it is right on the container and alot of times the container is green colored to give you the vegatable impression. Do not feed them other foods. If you look at the ingrediant list on your current food and see things like shrimp meal, fish meal, etc. at the top and no vegatbles, it's not good for them. You want the meat protein to be low.

Also, never feed them crap like brine shrimp or krill. Some people say they like to feed these "treats" but they are awful for cichlids. Leave them out of their diet.

Finally, if you want to give them a treat, buy a 98 cent clip with a suction cup on it from your fish store and attach a peice of lettuce to it. They will love it and it really helps with their colors. They also eat boiled peas and peices of zuchinni rubberbanded to rocks. It may take them a couple of times to get used to what the vegetable is, but once they figure it out, it will be gone in no time. It's pretty fun to watch.