Electric Yellow

About

The Yellow Lab Cichlid (Labidochromis caeruleus) is one of those fish that manages to look almost too vivid to be real, and yet it earns its place in mixed African cichlid tanks by being considerably calmer than most of its mbuna relatives. Endemic to Lake Malawi, it comes from a relatively small stretch of the lake's northwestern coastline, where it exists in several color forms. The bright yellow morph so familiar in the hobby is actually uncommon in the wild, with blue and white variants being far more widespread. Nearly all fish sold today are tank-bred, which partly explains why the yellow form dominates the trade. In the aquarium, Yellow Labs are manageable for keepers who have some experience with cichlids but aren't quite ready for more combative species. They do show territorial behavior, especially around spawning time, and males can push females relentlessly during courtship, so running a group with several females per male is the sensible approach. They can coexist with peaceful haps or even some hard water rainbowfish, though in a mbuna community the tank should be well-stocked to spread out aggression and discourage territory-holding. Like their rift lake relatives, they are maternal mouthbrooders, with females carrying clutches of up to 30 eggs for several weeks. A fascinating behavior to observe once the colony settles in.