Electric Yellow Cichlid
(Labidochromis Caeruleus)
Lemon Yellow Lab
Yellow Prince
Blue Streak Hap
Lemon Cichlid

Geographic History

This brilliant fish comes from Africa's Lake Malawi in the area of Lion's Cove.  It lives in deep water rocky areas where small amounts of sediment occur.

Enviornment

The Electric Yellow Cichlid prefers a sandy or fine gravel substrate with lots of larger rocks scattered around.  Some of the rocks should be stacked to form caves so that they will have dark areas to hide.  Be sure to leave quite a bit of open area in the middle of the aquarium for swimming room.  You should anchor plants well because this little beauty loves to chew and tug on the leaves.

Compatibility

This semi-aggressive fish will do well with other African Cichlids and active fish of the same size.  The males will be aggressive to others of their own kind.  Electric Yellow Cichlids best kept as one male with two or more females.

Sexing

Males will usually have brighter colors and more black coloration on their fins than the females.  The males will also have longer, pointed anal and dorsal fins, while the females' are shorter in appearance.

Behavior

Groups of this fish with multiple males will tend to be more aggressive toward each other.  The males will establish and order of dominance and fight constantly to maintain it.  Multiple females for each male will reduce overall aggressiveness and spawning stress.  The males will spend a great amount of time chasing the females in open water.

Breeding

The Electric Yellow Cichlid can be spawned in a community aquarium.  Just be sure that you provide a lot of hiding spots and some plants for the juveniles to hide in if they get seperated from their mother.

For spawning to occur, you should provide a flat rock in a cave area for the females to lay their eggs on.  After she lays around 30-40 eggs on the flat cave rock, she will put them in her mouth and follow closely behind the male.  The male then fertilizes the eggs while they are in the female's mouth.

The eggs hatch in a few days, and the female protects the fry by keeping them in her mouth for about a month. The fry will leave her mouth to feed on baby brine shrimp and crushed flake.  The female will stay close to the fry and allow them to swim into her mouth again if they feel threatened.  Males will have no part in the protection of the fry after spawning.

After the eggs have hatched, take care to not remove the female from the aquarium where her fry were spawned. She may become stressed and eat them. 

For more information, go to Wikipedia's Electric Yellow Cichlid page.