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At my LFS they have a tank with cichlids that say assorted on it is it a good idea to buy from this tank or not to. in the tank there is a good selection of color and pattern and i like wat i see but i am not sure that i will be able to identifie them and is they will last long. wat do you guys think

Ah yes, the assorted cichlids...

At times you find nice fish in this tank but you right it's hard to identify fish when your starting at assorted cichlids

I'd say buy them out of that tanks if you can identify them in the store.

I have also found it hard to acquire a decent number out of these tanks as assorted seems to be 1 or 2 fish of 20 assorted species.:%)

but if you can identify them and they have a decent amount, go for it

assorted tanks can be one of a few things. alot of times a fish store has left over cichlids at the end of the week. instead of leaving 1-2 fish to tie up an entire tank they take the left overs and put them into one tank.

they could also be orderd like this. if they dont know what they want they can ask for a bag of assorted and thats what the breeder sends them.

in either case they are good fish just mixed up in one tank. doesnt usually cause a problem cuz crowding lowers agressing with cichlids. many problems with this though as you allready found out. its almost impossible to indentify any of them. how do they feed such a large assortment of diets? they feed them 1 thing and those that die owell they just left overs anyway.

one other note. there is one other possibility of fish in these "assorted tanks" and thats hybrids. this is prolly the least common but it happens. "mixed" or "assorted" could be their way of saying " a little bit this and a little bit of that" in the line of the fish. you could ask the store how they came about but 9 out of 10 times they havent a clue unless its a manager or something. if they dont know how are you gona know?

so in short if you want a perticuler fish, research it. then go out and buy a fish that looks like the one you want and is labeled as such.there are no bargains in a mixed tank only russian rullette.

Sin in Style

Well said Sin

thanks guys for your thoughts. i think i will take you advice a research a certain type than buy it.

make sure you quarantine any fish from the assorted tanks. every one i have bought from the . tanks have had disease. mostly ich, but i have seen bloat and other parasites. a lot of times the assorted tank contains fish that people have traded in and they may be sick, beat up, weak, deformed, hybrids or just not wanted anymore. this applies to tanks that have mainly adult size fish in them. . tanks with nice looking juvies are usually better fish (if not hybrids) that they get from breeders.

if you dont quarantine them, you risk infecting your show or main tank. think about it before you purchase them.