ryanjury

lol yeah you have a knack of wanting stuff just after it has gone, you did have first option on those others though and said no I prefer the maleri's too I just find them a better looking fish, they all do the swimming upsidedown thing even when they are tiny, I have a batch of 1cm ones cruising around with the parents atm and they are pretty cool. I got this pic a while back of the parents, + one of a older batch (upsidedown) + babies in the pot, the mothers mouth is a bit munted because she recovered from mouthrot and it has never fully grown back.

I have kept my breeding pair of maleris in my mixed african tank when I wasn't breeding from them and they got along fine, they don't seem to bother anyone or anyone bother them because they are so different.. If you wanted some just wait for my current batch of babies to grow out and I will have some here The last of the older batch went to Wellington on Saturday.. transcriptus and maleri are very similar but I don't like the transcipturs which is why I got the maleri when I started breeding them, the maleri also get larger and to me are more colourful, it all depends what you like really I found some pics of them in the mixed tank can't be bothered resizing them, they worked on the old forum http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f183/ ... 00x600.jpg http://s47.photobucket.com/albums/f183/ ... 00x600.jpg

Awesome, have you got a bigger tank already? Something as simple as framing in 4 x 2 with 6 uprights and some cladding would be fine, I found some rimu t and g on trademe in Palmy ended up paying less than $1 a metre for it so that would be a cheap way of doing it and still looking good..

Glad the tank made it in one piece I can see why you guys had issues transporting it, it is huge!

Yeah I would say the kribs and swords would munch most of your baby guppies

Sounds like a good selection of fish there for a 2ft tank.. As Dixon said probably the bolivians would outgrow the tank a bit, but if you had a very compatible pair it would be fine. Same goes with all the others if the pair doesn't get along it might end up being trouble. Can you find the nanacara's? Most of the apisto's are supposed to be harem spawners but I have found the first female to breed will beat the snot out of the other female in a trio situation.. The only exception is borellii (yellow cheeked dwarf) that I got recently when I had 3 females on eggs in a 3ft tank, but I had no end of trouble keeping them alive I have 1m 2f (and a batch of eggs just hatched) out of an original 7 purchased so be careful with them.

Kenyi are residing in the Metriaclima genus atm it seems they get reclassified all the time, at one stage most the mbuna were classified as ps. just the same as originally all peacocks were one species... They then came up with metriaclima/Maylandia which is essentially the same thing http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/m ... landia.php They will still cross though I would put all mbuna in that category not just ones in the same families as most of them can and do cross readily and do produce viable offspring.

Very dark for kenyi, maybe the colour was influenced by mood or lighting or the photo/flash. Or because that photo is of a younger fish sometimes barring is more intense on younger fish and fades out as they mature. That photo has been taken off a trademe auction The barring on those fish looks alot better than what is usually sold around NZ. http://www.trademe.co.nz/Home-living/Pe ... 325886.htm Completely different shape to be a 5/6bar lamp. If you look here that photo is almost a dead ringer for one of the photos of a female kenyi (use drop down box). http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/s ... php?id=798 End of the day who knows, ask the seller where they got it from and if it was sold as Kenyi? Dems and kenyi can cross but I don't think the cross would look like this.. But with hybrids you can never tell they can throw back anyway they feel the urge

Noone can tell you if there will be any survivors it depends what fish are you in your tank, how good they are at eating other fish, what tank size you have, how much rock work you have and how lucky you are to name a few considerations I have seen tanks with dubs with babies swimming around with parents so it is possible. The mum may release them and take them back in for a while once they are free swimming but most babies when spat just disappear and hide in the rock work or plants. I am unsure on the degree of care tropheus give as I haven't kept or bred them yet but have made a generalisation

Hi and re-welcome Your tank looks awesome, and it is awesome to see another local, has anyone contacted you about the fish meetings we are having?

lol sure would be Have you got a spare pair Mark? lol

I would have to agree with all the above comments.. At most I would keep a single pair of jullies or brichardi in a 2ft tank but they would have to be very compatible and you would have to remove fry as they got larger. Definately not suitable for anything but an initial grow out for mbuna/haps/peacocks. If you cannot have a bigger tank at this stage then definately go down the dwarf route as Nav has suggested. Overcrowding does work well with the africans especially mbuna it helps to spread aggression, and most malawis do well in colonies with groups of females and 1-2males.

Yeah breaking up the viewing space so the dominant male can cruise around his half without seeing the others and feeling the need to smash them might help, but that would probably only help one of the others and then the less dominant maybe hit by both of them..

Redoing the tank wont achieve anything if these guys are smaller and less dominant he will just take as much turf s he wants.. But it might be worth a go, maybe adding a large feature breaking up the tank in the middle might help encourage him to take half the tank..

lol 5.5 Thats very low, however the fish do look happy and you would easily be able to tell if they were stressed, you know how I feel about this so I won't say anything I do have that coral sand here still if you wanted some to try and bring it up a bit.

Sounds like aggression to me too Options I would consider: Seperate the fish. Buy a bigger tank, most people say 6ft min for fronts they are big fish and don't tend to hide when they are getting beaten up so need the room to get away. Add more fish of a similar size to spread the aggression out. Remove the aggressive male as maybe he is just a grumpy bugger and get another male who might be more laid back. I have seen at least one male for sale that was sold under condition he didn't get put back with any other fronts as he just killed them off, this happens with fish at times sometimes they just have attitude problems. Either way I would do something soon because those fish don't look too flash with those torn fins etc, if they are girls I am sure you would have no problems rehoming them to an existing colony. What are the other fish in the tank ie the malawi's and other tangs? I noticed that when I had a single male in a mixed tank they picked on him more than he picked on them.

This is an awesome idea I would probably just get in touch with one of the tank makers down there and get them to make it all if time is an issue... DIY to save a few $$'s can take alot longer and at the end of the day you want things done properly as it will be on display and if it looks bad or even worse cracks then it wont do much for business. I would stock with africans as well, not only because I keep them, but because they are very hardy, easy to find, and colourful it is also very easy to buy some breeders and breed a large number of each species to stock a tank cheaply or there are plenty of breeders around who can help. Although a planted tank will look awesome I think it would be more maintenance than a rocky tank filled with africans, I have found alot of the tetras etc need to be replaced all the time as they cark it or have short live spans. It all depends what you like and probably what you can get hold of. Good luck and I look forward to seeing this plan develop

Tank looks awesome man, fish look great Don't stress about the shipping I have received and sent quite a few fish when the heatpads just didn't work well.. They need air and air circulation to work so once you activate them before sticking them in the box and then chuck them in the starve from lack of air and go cold. I recently received some fish from someone who breeds fish commercially and swears by his 40hr heatpads and the same thing had happened with his.. I think most fish will be ok as long as it doesn't get too cold. The tank will stock itself in the future with all those hidey holes you will get a few fish surviving and they will naturally come to an equilibrium with the number and ratios of fish in there so don't worry about only having 25 at this stage you will get more

There were 5 on the list recently Tropheus Duboisi - juvenile Tropheus Moorii Kaiser Tropheus Moorii Pemba Tropheus Moorii Moliro/Firefox Tropheus Moorii Karamba And I believe that all of those are in breeders hands I haven't seen any/many for sale.. I am also unsure exactly what strains of dubs we have here, I know we have the yellow and white bands well at least the white bands were around. I am sure johannes will see this and clear it all up for you I think best bet is just to buy heaps of whatever type you like as they love being in big groups and look best that way too..

Yeah I have noticed fish from different sources when treated the same way grow at different rates, I think if they are treated badly at the start or kept in poor conditions they can be stunted before you even start..

How long is a piece of string? Depends on what you feed them, what water they are kept in, how often you change the water etc.. Generally they take a year to mature (depends on species and strain) and 2-3yrs to get to 4-5" but obviously that varies hugely between people some people seem to have a crazy ability to just grow fish up very fast..

Those tanks would be perfect, you could have 1m and probably upto 6-10females if you really wanted to. You might get away with dividing them and doing a smaller colony on each half, the recommendations are really on an adult fish because they can get quite big but that does take a number of years.

Yeah I would say a descent sized 3ft for a colony of these, can easily be grown out to an inch or so in a 2fter but the bigger the better.. Colony can be 1-2males (they might scrap but can get along) to 2++ females.

What brand are the heaters, some are rubbish..

If it does fit into the back of a wagon and someone can get it as far as Bulls we can get it to Wanganui when we next go over there (unsure when we go over relatively often) as we need to see Rox's setup anyway