African Cichlid tank and levels questions

Heading out today to get my fish. My tank finally cycled as of 2 days ago. Thanks to everyone for their help. :)
 
Awesome:clap:! Good luck and make sure you post pics too. It's always exciting when you get new fish!
 
I personally do not add chemicals to any of my tanks as it becomes a juggling game to maintain that level. My water is what it is. The only testing I do is for the big 3 Nitrite, nitrate, ammonia. I do not try to maintain native environment for fish that were tank bred and raised. It is a different story if I have an F0.
I also never buy fish that have been in the store less than a month or show any signs of illness. I have the LFS do any environmental acclimation needed (we both have the same water values).
 
I will post some pics in the next couple of days. Again, I really appreciate all the assistance everyone. Without your help this could have been a real headache for me.

Let me ask you something though. I got 6 african cichlids today for a 55g tank. Right now they are all pretty small and as I understand it the average is for them to grow to about 4 inches. Do I have room to add another 1-2 more or should I just stick with the 6?

Thx
 
wow as many as 20? Didn't realize that. Thanks for the information guys. I was worried about overstocking and causing issues with the water, but from what you guys are saying I have got room for several more.

I don't have a fallback tank though right now regarding dealing with extra males that might post an aggression issue. With that in mind should I focus on perhaps taking that number to 12 or so until I can have an alternative tank?
 
It depends on the species as far as sexing. Some have females that are a different color(dimorphic, I believe is the term), so it is easy. The ones whose females are the same color(monomorphic?), can be difficult to distinguish. Many say that males have egg spots on their anal fins, but this is not always accurate either because many females do to. If you observe enough, sometimes you may be able to tell that the males have more spots or they are more distinct. But the only real positive way of sexing in these cases is by venting. In this, you remove the fish and look at the genital area to determine gender. I personally haven't done it yet, but there are ways to tell, just do some research. What species did you wind up getting?
 
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