rm
Passport
- Grows to
- 15 cm (5.9")
- Lives
- 5–10 years
- Temperament
- Aggressive
- Care
- Intermediate
- Swims
- Mid-water
- Keep
- One is fine
- Water
- 22–28 °C (72–82 °F)
GuineaLiberia
Care requirements
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On record for Jewel Cichlid: adult size, lifespan, minimum tank, temperature, ph, hardness, minimum group, diet, care level, swim level, tank length.
A figure that is not on record is left out rather than guessed. One marked Suggested comes from keeping knowledge rather than a page.
- Minimum tank 110 L / 29.1 US gal
- pH 6–7.8
- Hardness 4–18 dGH
- Diet omnivore
- Tank length 120 cm minimum
Care notes written from general aquarium knowledge, not from the cited sources.
About
Jewel cichlids are the best argument in the hobby for looking past appearance. A breeding adult is deep blood-red scattered with iridescent blue-green spangles over every scale and fin, and it is genuinely one of the most beautiful freshwater fish available.
It is also one of the most aggressive. Outside breeding they're merely assertive; a spawning pair is relentless, and they will kill tank mates that other cichlids would only chase.
That combination catches people out constantly. The fish in the shop is a drab olive juvenile with a couple of dark spots, giving no warning of either the colour or the temperament to come.
Tank setup
Give your jewels their own tank. Community keeping works until they spawn, and then it stops working suddenly and violently.
Provide caves and flat stones as spawning sites, plus dense cover for anything else in the tank.
Use sand or fine gravel and expect serious excavation. They dig pits, move substrate and undermine anything sitting on it, so rockwork goes on the base glass.
Make the tank long. Territory is measured in floor area, and length is what gives a non-breeding fish somewhere to be.
They're tolerant of ordinary water chemistry and come from a wide range of West African rivers and streams.
Feeding
Jewel cichlids are unfussy carnivorous omnivores with big appetites.
Feed a quality cichlid pellet as the base, with frozen bloodworm, prawn, mussel and earthworm for condition and colour. The red deepens noticeably on a good diet.
They're greedy and fast. Anything sharing the tank needs food targeted at it separately.
Avoid: overfeeding, and avoid assuming a well-fed jewel is a calm one. Aggression here is about territory, not hunger.
Filtration and flow
Filter heavily. They're large, messy and destructive of substrate, and the waste load is real.
Moderate to good flow suits them, and they're robust enough to handle whatever a community filter produces.
Keep nitrate low with regular changes. They're hardy, but long-term neglect shows in colour and condition.
With plants
Jewel cichlids destroy planted tanks. They dig, they uproot, and they rearrange the substrate to their own plan.
Java fern and anubias attached firmly to wood or rock are the only realistic option, and even those get knocked about.
Plan the layout around rock, wood and sand, which suits both the fish and the way they behave.
Health
They're extremely hardy and rarely ill, and their problems are almost entirely social.
Injuries in the tank are the thing to monitor, and usually in the other fish. A jewel that has decided a tank mate is a threat will not stop.
Watch a pair that has stopped getting on. Jewel pairs sometimes turn on each other, and the loser needs removing rather than time to recover.
Breeding
They spawn on a cleaned flat surface, both parents guarding with an intensity that has to be seen. This is where the colour peaks and where the trouble starts.
They're excellent, ferocious parents. The pair will herd fry as a unit and attack anything that comes near, including your hand.
The fry are easy to raise on baby brine shrimp and crushed flake. The difficulty is entirely the parents, and a spawning in a shared tank usually means removing everything else rather than removing the eggs.
Tank mates
Avoid58
- Amano Shrimp Jewel Cichlid reaches 15 cm and will eat adult Amano Shrimp.
- Bamboo Shrimp Jewel Cichlid reaches 15 cm and will eat adult Bamboo Shrimp.
- Blue Bolt Shrimp Jewel Cichlid reaches 15 cm and will eat adult Blue Bolt Shrimp.
- Blue Dream Shrimp Jewel Cichlid reaches 15 cm and will eat adult Blue Dream Shrimp.
- Cardinal Sulawesi Shrimp Jewel Cichlid reaches 15 cm and will eat adult Cardinal Sulawesi Shrimp.
Only with care42
- Betta Jewel Cichlid is noticeably larger than Betta and may bully it or outcompete it at feeding time.
- Boeseman's Rainbowfish Jewel Cichlid is noticeably larger than Boeseman's Rainbowfish and may bully it or outcompete it at feeding time.
- Bolivian Ram Jewel Cichlid is noticeably larger than Bolivian Ram and may bully it or outcompete it at feeding time.
- Bronze Cory Jewel Cichlid is noticeably larger than Bronze Cory and may bully it or outcompete it at feeding time.
- Demasoni Cichlid Jewel Cichlid is noticeably larger than Demasoni Cichlid and may bully it or outcompete it at feeding time.
8 species are not covered at all, so they could not be judged either way.