Brichardi Fairy Cichlid

The Brichardi Fairy cichlid is endemic to Lake Tanganyika. The scientific name is Neolamprologus brichardi. The Fairy cichlid likes to have pretty high pH in the water. Around 8.5-9 pH is optimal, but it will do ok down to 7 pH. Temperature should be between 78 and 82 degrees. I would not recommend keeping this cichlid in less than a 55 gallons aquarium. They eat all the normal cichlid food such as pellets, flakes and frozen foods.

Buying Brichardi Fairy cichlids:
These are found in many pet stores around the world. As I do with most of my cichlids I buy them online. Sending cichlids is pretty safe and I haven’t lost any so far. Most sellers also give you money back if something happens. What I do is to buy my Brichardi Fairy cichlids from different people. That way I keep a mixture in my breeding groups. Here are a few good deals of Fairy cichlid sold online:

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Breeding:
The easiest way to breed the Brichardi Fairy cichlid is in a single species environment. The best way to build your own breeding group is to buy fish slowly. What I mean by this is that you first buy maybe 2 Fairy cichlids. After a while you add another and another. This will give them time to find their territories and build their own groups. You will notice how they stick together in smaller groups. When the first group produces eggs it will trigger the other groups as well. When the eggs are hatched I recommend feeding them microworms and brine shrimps. After some time you can go on to crushed flake food. Around 50 % of the youngsters will survive and this is plenty to keep you going and sell some to finance your hobby.

If you want to try keeping Rift Valley cichlids, then the Brichardi Fairy cichlid is a great introduction to this side of the hobby.