Discusmadboy

i have 2 x Giraffe cichlids in my tank , both males...they have been "best mates" for months hang around together all the time and now since this morning they seem to be fighting each other non stop. infact all the other mbuna cichlids i have in the tank seem to be overly aggressive today and they all seem to be nipping at each other. I have breed succusfully in the past with some of them however they have never displayed such aggressive behaviour towards each other at all until today...i have not done a water change for 2 weeks and water parameters are all fine, so dont know whats going on.

Hi Ryan good point When I purchased them all i cross checked them all and even took some back after discovering that they were not actually what was advertised. All the fish in my tank are African Mbuna cichlids. just cant remember each scientific name for them all. i have no hybrids in the the tank. However The Problem i have is Identifying which male in the tank is responsible for these fry. I keep an eye on my fish and dont even notice mating habits or any pairs circling each other or anything that mite indicate to me who the pairs are. So will have to wait for the Fry to get bigger to determine what is going on. I will try to get hold of a camera and take pics of them all as well and post them here for positive ID and give ya all a look at my tank setup at the same time.

believe it or not the only camera i own is on my cellphone and I cant email from it either. time to buy a camera me thinks

yeah she spat them and then took off and came back and took them back in her mouth and held onto them for about 5 minutes and spat them again. but they were dead. so dont know what happened there... cant explain it, however the others are fine and she is a good mother to the others so dont know what happened there. I Just looked her up in my Cichlid Bible i am totally conviced that she is an Labidochromis Textilis and very colourfull fish so cant wait for her fry to get bigger.

check out this link ? this seems like the easiest way to strip cichlids ... i jsut dont know what the guy is using and could i use a water syringe to achieve the same result ?

check out this link ? this seems like the easiest way to strip cichlids ... i jsut dont know what the guy is using and could i use a water syringe to achieve the same result ?

I let nature do its course, she let them all go this morning. 20 fry all up. 10 of them were dead and the other 10 were healthy. this is the second time she has bread within 6 to 8 weeks so hopefully she keeps breeding. I think I will attempt to next time strip out the babies and see if i have better luck. She is a beatiful fish so cant wait for both of these batches of fry to get alittle bigger. for anyone that has stripped there fru out i am interested in finding out how you actually strip them out. I watched a you tube video of a guy using a cyringe of water and simply spraying it into her mouth and this flushes them out. I just want to find out the best and easiest method of stripping them out...

Aarg, i need more input i cant decide if i should leave alone or strip them out im too exited lol

i have a female cichlid who has holding eggs in her mouth for a week. I setup a Mini "ER" tank and put her into this tank alone. I can now see in her mouth baby cichlids. i have previously stripped the babies out of her mouth and a previous breeding attempt and they are all fine. this time should i strip the babies out or just let nature do its course ? Also once she does release the fry if i let nature do its course then how long before i have to take her out of the tank before she sees them as food. ?

No im not going to strip for you lol. i have a female cichlid who has holding eggs in her mouth for a week. I setup a Mini "ER" tank and put her into this tank alone. I can now see in her mouth baby cichlids. i have previously stripped the babies out of her mouth and a previous breeding attempt and they are all fine. this time should i strip the babies out or just let nature do its course ? Also once she does release the fry if i let nature do its course then how long before i have to take her out of the tank before she sees them as food. ?

I am sorting out my Digital Camera to get some pics of the ones that i dont know about to post on here. I have learnt alot about them in the last view days haha, very intersting behavior: The Female Cichlid that i stripped the babies out of is hanging around my "Breeding Pen" and chasing away any fish that come near it. I have not lost any of the babies yet and they seem comfortable at the moment and the water conditions are perfect so that is good. i have done further research adn now wondering if i should buy another tank and put the breeding pair into a new tank on there own and let them breed in piece as i think ihave figured out who the pair is: However i read somewhere that the male fish that is responsible for all the fry tend to dominate the tank that they are in and breed with all the other females abit like a harem so dont want to break that up. let me know your thoughts and esperience on this ?

thanks for your reply, I purchased a small fry mini breading box that sits in the tank just under the water jets so the babies are getting decent filtration, they seem to play in it non stop which is good for now There is a male cichlid in the tank who seems to be there personal bodyguard and chases away any fish that go anywhere near there enclosure so thats good too. I am feeding them a liquid food that i got from hollywoods upon there advice so all is good. I will Post some pics in the next few days...

I decided to give my tank a good clean after discovery of a dead chilid in the tank. i tested the water and everything is fine. Also one of the male electric chiclids seemed as if he had been chomped at as well, poor fellow has almost lost his tail. and came across a tiny baby chiclid cowering in a crack in one of the rocks in my tank... So the Hunt began, found 4 small electric yellow fry in the tank, i know the other cichlids would def eat them so created a makeshift holding area for the babies using some coat hangers and old stockings. I then decided to do some more research and discoverd another cichlid had a very swollen mouth and suspected that it may be holding some fry in its mouth, so i caught the fish and stuck it in a bowl watched the youtube video about 100 times of the process to strip the babies out and what i need to do with it and used a small ear bud and massaged its mouth and it spat out 10 babies. I am off to the petshop tommorow to get either another Tank to hold them or Split up my 5ft tank with tank dividers. i dont know what to do next: What do the fry eat coz they are so small ? and can someone make out why i have a dead fish and a beaten up electric yellow cichlid ? I can only presume that the fathers of these cute little chiclid fry i have have been very possesive and agro due to the females holding. i have had no prior deaths in the tank and the tank is well established. WOW what a day, having toilet bowl funerals to celebrating new babies in the tank !!!!

Thanks for that ok does anyone know of any local breeders in auckland ?

been to Jansens they are downsizing, been to hollywood any other good petstores i should know about that stock chiclids ?

ok thats fine, onlt thing is the tank is getting very cloudy white....... should this be happening and the ammonia level is at 4 with ph level at 6

also the water seems to be quite cloudy as well...... thanks guys for all your help this far

AMMONIA LEVEL = 4.0 NITRITE LEVEL = 0.25 NITRATE LEVEL = 0 ph level = 6.0 Hi guys, seems like the ammonia level is begining to go up... im doing daily 20% water changes at the moment.....and not using any ammonialock at all ? let me know wot else i should be doing, i have also got activated carbon in the filter and after every water change adding stress zyme and stress coat to the tank... i am howeva still concerrned about ammonia levels....what shall i do now ?

since last week sunday...i have been doing 20% waterchanges every second day....ammo levels still high at night...tested in the morning before work....ammo levels high.,..so added ammolock......at night did further water 20% changes and then in the morning....added some ammo lock......this was all last week every second day.....in hind site....i should have jsut thown the ammolock away and did a 50% water change... on this saturday that has just past.......fish were all gulping for air yet ammo levels where falling to 2.0 and they ;looked very uncomfortable...so it thought stuff that i will do a 50% water change.... and now doing 20% water changes every day.... fish are comfortable... at the moment levels are fine except for ammo....which also could be false readings due to the use of the ammolock..... i dunno ...i have chucked the ammolock to one side...and now jsut trying to get my tank back into a healthy state.... I got over zealious with the ammolock....coz i did not want my fishes to die whilst i am at work.........never mind...im learnin heaps out of this exercise and hopefully...,me fishes will survive ..

i have stopped adding ammolock.....to the tank, yes the tank seemed about a week ago to go into an uncycled state....at that point iwas changing water once a week....10% changes....only adding stress coat each time i did a water change....vacuumed the bottom....and added 4 -5 Shist stone rocks to the tank... before that the tank was well established for almost 13 months any ideas

thanks discus guru, Thanx guys for all your help.... I have the following in the Tank: Airstone nice large one but i left it off...turned it on now, and eheim external filter with spraybar at the top of the tank which breaks the surface of the water.................which runs 24/7 20% water change last night Test as of 6:51pm 22 AUGUST PH LEVEL = 6.0 NITRATE LEVEL = 0ppm AMMONIA LEVEL = 2.0 ppm NITRITE LEVEL = 0ppm I am still concerned about ammonia level .....though.......fish seem to be more happy since the water changes on saturday and sunday... I will do a Further 20% change tonight........ any thoughts guys....and thank you for all your help

Approx 200 L Tank, the PH Level is 6.2 the ammonia level is just below 2 as well the nitrite level is now stabilized at 0...faint purple colour the nitrite level yesterday was light blue which did not show up on my colour chart , so indicated that it was below 0 if it can be...i did some research on the web on nitrite levels and the research i did suggested that the nitrite level was far to low, thus creatign some sort of acid that infects the fish and slows down the oxygen in the bloodstream and eventurally the fish die from suffication, because of the lack of oxygen in there bodies coz the discus were comin to the top for air and gulping, its not the ammonia because i am getting false readings due to ammo lock usage, the tank is well filtered with a Ehiem External Canister filter and i am not overfeeding the fish. the water for soem reason went into cycle mode, it is established tank...well was uptil that point in time... ...i recycled 50% last night due to the fish comin up for air so to speak....the fish are now comfortable........like i said getting false readings on ammonia.....but want to know....if i should keep doign a 10% recyle every 2nd day.... ??

yeah the ammolock was a suspect in the lineup, i am just concerned about ammo levels...should i give the ammolock the flick watch the levels and continue to do water changes....say 10% every second day or what do you recommend ?

hi all i am new here.....I have got a Well established 5 Ft Tank complete with the following fish: 3 Large Discus 4 Cory's 1 ghost knife 6 Rummy noses 4 Mini eels dont know wot they are called... Tank has been established for some time now, last week saturday, i vacuumed the stones at the bottom and did a 20% water change, added some Shist stone to the tank bottom floor. Since then my tank has now gone into recyling mode and readings for Ammonia and nitrite all over the place.... i did a emergency 50% water change as i was not happy with the ammonia level gettign to high, added activated carbon to the filter, have used the following: Stress coat on water changes Stress Zyme Ammo lock... ammo levels are slowely comming down, but i am obviously gettin false readings due to the use of the ammolock, fish last night all of a sudden started going to the top for air and gulping....so with my trusty lifesaving test kit , tested the water for everything.....everythign past with flying colours, ammonia was lower(false readings) EXCEPT for the nitrite level...which came up a green colour which indicated to me that the nitrite level was far too low, i understand that if the levels are too low of nitrite then this can turn into some sort of acid which poisens the fish and Inhibites the blood from carrying vital oxygen throughout the fishes body and they sufficate and Die from lack of oxygen. so i did another emergency 50 % water change.......tested the water again for nitrite levels are they were in the safe range. I am just abit concerned at the moment, i dont have an emergency tank to put my fish in, anyone got any suggestions as to what i shoudl be Doing: I was wondering if i should Continue to do a 10% every second day water change that i have been doing last week due to the issues that i am having. I dont like using all this stress zyme, ammo lock, stress coat that i am using as i would prefer the natural process to kick in and sort itself out, but i am nervious about loosing my discus, i dont care about the other fish as much its more the discus that i am concerned about. any ideas guys ? anyway