I believe they are Moorii of some sort but not sure from what reef/region.

Images from Practical Fishkeeping Magazine UK - anyone recognise them ? Hope so .. ..

..

I secured a second hand 90 gallon recently which came with 10 juvenile ‘Flowerhorn’ cichlids which I have not come across before. As I understand it these cannot be imported into NZ or Australia, hence my ignorance.

Was wondering whether there are Flowerhorn keepers on this forum that could shed any light on:

1. The strain of Flowerhorn I may have (photo of largest is attached) and those available in NZ 

2. The best tactics to try to grow out and secure a pair from the 10 juveniles (largest 5 inches, with 5 of them around 2-3 inches. I have 90 and 65 gallon tanks to house them.

The only problem is that now I am unsure what I want to stock next. I won't be getting any more fish for a little while, but I want to have it planned out.

I like the demasoni, but am worried about aggression. Not opposed to some more yellow labs either.

I also would like to stock some haps and maybe peacocks, especially the dragon's blood peacocks, borleri and freyeri.

It would be great if fellow malawi keepers could suggest some numbers and recommend any others which are colourful and compatible. The peacocks are especially confusing as with all the colour morphs and hybrids I am not sure what HFF can get in.

I can post pics if anyone would like.

I'm getting back into fish keeping after a couple of years off due to moving to the south island. I have a lot of experience keeping freshwater aquariums (south american and community tanks mostly). So I want to try something new. I'm thinking Lake Malawi cichlids.

I have a Blue Planet Vista Aquarium (167L) with a EHEIM classic 250 external canister (in addition to the built in filter). I know this is on the small side for Africans, but I was thinking of keeping it pretty simple.

I have read a lot about how to stock an African tank but most assume a massive tank. I am thinking along these lines:

• 2x Male Electric Yellows, 6x Females
• 1x Male Red Zebra 3x females 
• 1x Male Blue Orchid
• 1x Male Butterfly (Freiberg)

Would this work? I know mixing rock dwellers with haps/butterfly can be problematic, but I am thinking that this combination should work. 

Any recommendations? Am I on the right track or way off?

Thanks

http://apisto.sites.no/default.aspx

I am new to Cichlids and started off with a Green Terror.

Today I added:

• 1 x Fire Mouth
• 1 x Texas
• 1 x Arcana Blue

The Green Terror and the Arcana since being together are lip wrestling. I read up on about it and it said it could be Territory, courting, dominance, female in the tank.

The tank is 220L and the Cichlid's are between 5-7cm, there is also a bristle-nose in there so heaps of space.

Its to aggressive to be courting from my observations, I can see the lip locking area is bruised. I want to rule out female is there any way to identify a male to a female Cichlid?

I turned off the lights hopefully they get some sleep and don't continue on fighting through out the night. Does anyone have methods which has helped there Cichlid with aggression?

Thanks heaps!

For the record I am not selling these fish privately so please do not pm me about buying some. They are currently being sold exclusively by Hollywoods Fish Farm who also ship country wide I believe.

First some pictures of what the fish look like now a little over 2 years after I bought them. They are fully matured and the male regularly spawns with one of the other females. ie. they do not form lasting pairs. The largest fish are around 15cm in length and are relatively peaceful towards each other. It is important to keep these fish over a fine substrate such as sand to allow them to sift the substrate through their gills when eating.

October 2015: I bought 7 newly imported youngsters. These were the first fish ever to be imported into New Zealand:

March 2016: Growing quickly but still not a lot of red on their forehead:

Dec. 2016: The dominant male is now showing full sexual maturity colours and are starting to impress the girls:

May 2017: First couple formed and the female's forehead is as red as the male's. Their spawn on the glass bottom but end up eating the fry:

Sept 2017: The male has now spawned with another female and has been removed from the tank as it was him eating the fry. The fry has just started to swim freely but often seek shelter in their mothers mouth:

A week later and the female has been removed as the fry are now capable of seeking food themselves:

Feb 2018: The young has grown rapidly in an 800L tank with sand substrate, heavy filtration and weekly 50% water changes. The have now reached the same size as the ones I originally bought. Circle completed:

Can I use spare aragonite sand from when I was going to set up an African Cichlid tank?

How many should I have?

Cheers

Not sure if these are M.insignis or M.festivus but I'm leaning on the former, just basing on the color on the lower body.

Am growing out two at the moment and am still undecided on sex of both but leaning towards male and female at the moment, so hard to tell though.

Would love to see pics of anyone else's, here are a couple of my two both in the first week of purchase. Will get some up to date ones this weekend..

First one smaller potential female, second larger potential male.

Partial tank shot of potential male tank.

After several days of the eggs "disappearing", I noticed the male with his mouth always closed even when food's near.  Took a video, continued observing and about 15 minutes later, out comes a clutch of fry from his mouth.  Totally surprised!

New to the forum – all though I have been reading in the forum for the last few years.

My family and I are living up in Kerikeri and recently started our second fresh water tank. Our first tank was a Juwel 200L community tank.

When my work situation permits I always want to try a marine setup as well, so when we decided to upgrade our fresh water tank we invested in a Red Sea Reefer 250. That in itself was a bit of a challenge as only one importer in New Zealand (Living Reef in ChCH). The first tank arrived to the country in Nov 2016, but unfortunately was on the train that was hit by the Kaikoura earthquake.

I finally got my tank in March and an absolutely joy to setup such a piece of high quality tank. It’s rimless tank with max capacity of 204 L and with a build in 40L sump.

From my previous experience I found it a hassle working with canister filters etc. And always wanted a simpler setup and easier to do maintenance – hence why I wanted a tank with build in sump.

I don’t have that much fish keeping experience, mainly from my childhood where my whole family back in Denmark had tanks.

Our 4 year old daughter really wanted some colourful fish so we decided on an African cichlid tank.

Anyway below are our setup and some photos.

204L tank with 40L sump

Eheim Compact +3000 return pump

Koralia wave maker in main tank

De Bary UV (running around 750 L/hr flow rate)

2 Al Prime Led (these are great and can be controlled wireless from an App)

Approx 3L bio material (matrix + ceramic noodles) in a homemade filter basket in sump

Decoration is cichlid stones with fake silk plants

PH 8.3 and Alk 8-9 dKH

For testing I am using Salifert products and a Hanna ammonia checker

For feeding I am using Hikari cichlid pellets as well as a Nori blended with small amount of dry shrimps.

Water:

We are on rain water tank (plastic tanks). I have a 3 staged + UV filtration on this + a filter basket at inlet into rain water tank with limestone chips and Akdolit (burned limestones granulates). The lime helps to increase the PH from around 5.5 to around 7.3. I am quite obsessed with having clean water for my house hold and I don’t think it’s healthy for either human consumption or your water heater with acid rain water...

Anyway to help increase the PH further and buffer the water I am using Seachem products.

The tank has been doing a fishless cycle for around 2 months and so far it appears to have a decent amount of bacteria’s.

We recently got or fish (all bought at the same time) and all juvenile:

12 yellow labs

1 Demasoni

1 Dragon blood peacok

1 Butterfly peacock

So far we are enjoying the tank and my daughter has already named all the fish. The blue fish got the name “Danger”, which is probably appropriately!

Anyway just wanted to introduce our tank and I am sure I will have question as we go forward. This is our first time having African cichlids.

Brgds Lasse

Auckland.