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I bought two Cichlids a few weeks ago. One of them is digging the stones out from his (her?) cave. Why is it doing this? I'm not really sure what kind of cichlid they are. They were just listed as African Cichlids at the LFS. They are bright orange, pretty small and the LFS said they grow to about 5 inches.

just establishing a territory, most likely a male stting up a spawning area. Africans can spawn from about 2". Seems like you might need to do some research as these fish require a high PH, & unless you have labs they will probably require @ least 50G, & more numbers(stock). With just two, one of them will undoubtebly become dominant & harass the other consistently.

By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.
Socrates-
I happen to have become a philosopher

They look like Auratus but are bright orange. They were in a tank with the striped Auratus at the LFS. Is there an orange variant? They also have white spots on their anal fins.
My PH is 8.4. I keep them in a 20 long with lots of rocks and caves. There is a row of plants in the middle to try and block their view some. Will they be ok in there?

if they are some type of melanchromis (auratus species), then you might have a hard time housing them. They are known to be one of the most aggressive Mbuna, possibly the most in some peoples opinion. A 20Long will be just as good as the 30 b/c of the footprint however, two males of auratus will not tolerate each other & you will need at least 4-5 females so that the male would be satisfied & not kill them as well. I think this might be some type of hybrid but you can try posting a pic to get a + ID

By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.
Socrates-
I happen to have become a philosopher

Do they have the two 'auratus stripes' along the upper half of the body? Or do they lack stripes?

There is a 'tangerine morph' of Metriaclima zebra which is bright orange, but that doesn't have any stripes.

Nearest I can find thus far in The Cichlid Room catalogue to an 'orange auratus' is the female of Melanochromis chipokae. If you have chipokae, then you're in for a rough ride, because this is one of the 'hardcore criminals' among the Mbuna - extremely strong territorial instinct, and a male will NOT tolerate another male or even another fish that bears some resemblance to a male chipokae, and that's in a giant 8ft setup, let alone one as small as yours. This fish is one of the most determinedly pugnacious of all Mbuna, so you need to check FAST to make sure that you don't have this fish, because if you do, it'll be an out and out berserker, an aquarium terrorist with a truly savage attitude toward anything it considers as an 'intruder' in its territory. Bayoubuddy has one of these, and he described it to me in the chat room as "Hitler with fins" ...


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I think it is a Red Zebra. It looks a lot like th epicture here on fishprofiles and with some research I am almost positive it is. It doesn't have any stripes.

If it doesn't have stripes then you're probably right - you've probably got one of the Metriaclima zebra morphs. Trouble with this species is that the wild varieties are themselves so diverse in colour terms that one could almost pick a morph to match the wallpaper, and that's before we end up looking at population hybrids between different wild morphs that have occurred in the aquarium (and which strictly speaking should be prevented altogether or very tightly controlled while the taxonomic situation is still in a state of flux).

Metriaclima zebra is a pretty aggressive fish, because it's fairly demanding when it comes to territorial 'real estate'. However, with careful aqurium furnishing, it can be mellowed somewhat, particularly if it has a prime site in the aquarium that it likes a lot and no other fish seeks to launch a takeover bid. Problems arise when this fish has to fight for its favourite spot - when that happens, it has a habit of taking no prisoners ...

As for digging, well, it's probably doing what so many people do when they buy a new house. Remodelling it to suit. The trick here is to make sure your rock furnishings are secure and stable, and unlikely to be undermined by your fish's excavations. There are ways of achieving this, epending on the type of rock you've used. Tufa rock of the kind used for marine aquaria is PERFECT for an Mbuna setup for several reasons:

• It adds to the calcium buffering capacity of your aquarium;

• It can be modelled and shaped without specialist tools (a screwdriver is all you need to dig holes in it to make extra caves);

• Its porosity makes it a good haven for algae, so in time, your fishes will have something approximating to an aufwuchs bed to graze upon.

With Tufa Rock, you can shape piecss to suit, and also do clever things like mount it on legs that are slotted into holes bored into it for the purpose, so that any Cichlids that dig under it won't be crushed by collapsing rock. in the case of slate or similar rocks, you could build supports from Lego, silicone glue them to the rock, and then bury the supports under your sand layer. That way, when the fishes start digging, they don't cause a rockfall that will crush the fishes, and more catastrophically, come crashing through the front aquarium glass. If you run with the Lego support idea, test the supports in advance before deploying the rocks in a 'live' aquarium setup - make sure that the resulting artefact is both stable when sited, and unlikely to suffer from failure of the supports!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

from experience the zebras are not nearly as aggressive as most would indicate. They are no more aggressive than yellow labs or Rusties. Yes once in awhile there is one that becomes overaggressive but it doesen't seem to be the norm. With that said you would still need to up the stock so that a single member is not picked on, and aggression can be spread out. In that 20Long you can possible go with 4 fish but try & keep only one male if possible. I would also say keep it a species only tank. They say 5" but only a dominant male will get this big, females will generally stay in the 3-4" range.

By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.
Socrates-
I happen to have become a philosopher

I have no idea if I have males or females. How can I tell? From what I've read males hve some blueish tint, but I haven't seen any like that in the LFS.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Metriaclima zebra. A fish that has LOTS of fans, and deservedly so, but which can be a minefield for the unprepared.

The reason? This fish has dozens of colour morphs. As well as the standard OB (black stripes on blue) morph, there's a B morph (cobalt blue zebra), a tangerine morph, there are red ones, albino ones if you want them, and ... well, it's getting to the point where you can almost find a colour morph of this fish to match your wallpaper.

My tip here (and I'm back to provenance again!) is this. Find a specialist dealer that handles these fishes regularly, segregates ALL Rift Lake fishes by species in their own dealer aquaria, labels them fully with proper scientific names, and knows how to tell males from females for your chosen fish where that is possible. In the case of some Zebra morphs, this isn't too problematic, because in those cases, the males are VASTLY different in appearance to the point where only a blind person would be unable to differentiate them. Other morphs, on the other hand, cause more problems in this regard.

While an experienced aquarist can pick up some bargains from dealers that don't provide this service (the stock of those dealers that do tends to be more expensive because you're also paying for a known provenance and specialist advice), the scope for newcomers to this species to court disaster because the eight fishes bought include five males that weren't obviously different from the females is considerable. While some morphs are fairly reliable in that only males have 'egg spots' on the anal fin, others aren't, and learning which is which takes time, patience and a willingness to make some potentially expensive mistakes.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

well, the red zebras are some of the harder of the Mbuna to sex when young. Depending on the size of the fish it can be nearly impossible. Even when they are in the 3" range thay can still be quite diificult to sex. One way is probably through behavior as males will set up spawning areas (like your was probably doing)& will also begin shaking, almost vibrating in place to attract females. The best way known to sex them is by a process called venting. i have never done this so I really cannot give you advice on it. but there are many articles with pics that show how to do this on a number of sites. You can probably just buy a number of these guys, say 8-10 while there small & after figuring out what they are through behavior's, pull out the xtra males & unwanted femmes & return them. Or you can do what Cali said, but I have found it very diifficult to find a very knowledgeable Mbuna person outside of internet forums.

By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.
Socrates-
I happen to have become a philosopher