ryanjury

Demasoni do breed at 4-5cm remember they only get to 8cm or so.. So that is half grown for them. Catching them is a mission thats for sure I have heard of people having success with letting them spit in the tank and the parents don't eat the fry (but that is in a species tank who knows what you have with them.) If you do remove the mother be very careful stripping her they are hard to strip and easy to damage, I wouldn't recommend putting her in her own tank to spit because introducing a female back into a colony of demasoni is very difficult to do without her being killed.

I think the recommended tank size for an adult empress is 75 gallons+ so that would be an about 300L tank.. http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/p_taeniolatus.php Demasoni and yellows would be good tank mates I have mine in with a heap of bigger agressive fish and they're happy but not coloured up.. They will be going into a tank with some little dems and other young peacocks so they will be the biggest fish in the tank.. If you are considering demasoni then remember you need to get 12+ more if you can afford or get them as they only really do well in larger groups.

Not bloat? Also what did you treat with and how did you treat for worms/flukes?

The bolivian rams might be alright in there generally it is not recommended to mix africans with other types of cichlids they don't tend to get along too well. Yellows would be good with empresses, also other africans it really depends on what you like and also what size tank etc you have..

lol why are you doing 100L a night? Do you have young discus growing out? IMO you do the water changes to remove the nitrates that build up, and with the same bio load (fish) in your tank the same amount of nitrate will be produced justifying the same amount of water changes?

Sorry to hear about your male I hope you find a good one Remember to qtine all of your fish when you buy them.. I think my female is guarding one or 2 babies still had quite heavy losses though don't really know why though.. It is her first go so will try again later And an extra canaster wont mean less water changes the 2 filters will still convert the same amount of ammonia to the same amount of waste you have to water change out.. Only difference is your water may appear cleaner (less crap floating around) but that is not really why water changes are needed..

Be careful buying clowns off the list.. Recently they have been very small and skinny and not doing well in peoples tanks try and find bigger fatter ones and pay more for them..

am glad that the front arrived safe and sound dude.. I am also very gutted that nzpost have done this again.. My main concern was the fact they couldn't tell us where the package was after being first contacted at 9am in 3 hours they couldn't tell us where the tracked package was so we could attempt to pick it up? To me that is terrible service and it is not the first time it has happened, we contacted them at 10am yesterday and they still had no idea where it was.. I can fully understand if it was a one off screw up but they shoudl still be able to track it and tell us what has happened or show some compassion, this is also the 3rd time this has happened to us with nzpost. I am just glad that the fish made it safe and alive this time, however all future shipping will be going through nz couriers as we havce had nothing but good service with them. I am glad that I got those heavy duty bags and tie wraps and packaged the hell out of him The odds I would place on any fish surviving that (especially a big male front) are very slim.

There have been a few floating around at times and Bilbo and his brother in Bulls here have some beauty breeders and is about the only person who I know who has managed to breed and raise them.. I got some off them and managed to kill them though.. Good luck with yours!

I have no idea why they die.. Water conditions are always fine have tried treating with prazi and metro with new additions, tried nz bred blue and golds lost the lot and wont ever buy them again sick of wasting my money lol There are theories about fish being hormone fed for growth/colour, theories about them being so inbred they cant handle a normal aquarium, there are theories they have all sorts of nasties from being bred in outdoor ponds.. Who knows?

They are relatively easy to sex just post some pics.. Are they normal or balloon golds? Breeding is easy in theory, the hardest part I have found (and I have owned an awful lot of them) is keeping the fish alive long enough to keep them to breed..

Awesome setup am loving that back ground too did you make it? The dubs look great too cant wait to get some of them one day.. How is your auto water change setup (overflow and timer with solenoid?).

Here is a thread that discusses it.. http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/eheim- ... 34720.html Also google and you will find tons of comparason articles.. I own an FX5 and its an awesome filter, think the only advantage the 3e had was alot more biomedia space.. I guess it all depends how much you really have to spend. I can guarantee the FX5 would do an awesome job personally I don't think the eheim would do a job to justify the extra price but that is just me.

DaveAmy - you can remove the eggs and raise them artificially just stick an air stone near them for water movement and meth blue or other anti-fungal in the water.. The mothers are usually pretty good however do eat the first few batches you usually dont take them off the parents unless you really really need the babies or the mother has had heaps of goes and failures.. Tracy sorry to hear about your fish, it is very hard to identify what happened from markings on a fish after it is dead as they can usually be from fish who tried to eat the dead fish afterwards.. Glad to hear the other pair are doing well

I dont know my males have always cruised around the only time I have seen them hang around the pots is when they're breeding or trying to convince the females to go into the pots and lay in them.. Where is the female?

We have all got them off a guy on here Will get him to get in touch with you as I don't know what he has left and hasn't posted his details etc and I don't want to unless he already has..

I hope your male shows dave+amy im sure he will they can be sneaky little buggers at times.. Glad it all worked out getting some angels and others you needed down to you TM

Damn sorry to hear about this I know nothing of birds but sounds like you did everything that you could, hopefully the petshop in questions gets educated so more don't have to suffer.

60L should be fine depending on how compatible the pair are.. I guess they are like people some get on in a small space some like to smash the crap out of each other and might need a bit more room.. My female is in a 30cm cube tank (30ishL) with her eggs at the moment and if anything happens to the babies it will be the tank I add the male to do attempt to breed them again. If you have only the pair and a cycled filter you would only need to do your normal weekly water changes on a 60L tank.

Just typical community water conditions average ph etc.. Min tank size for a pair would be 2ft but if you wanted to keep them with other fish id say 3ft min.. My female is guarding wrigglers at the moment in her own tank not many as it looks like alot of the eggs she laid on the bottom of the pot in the gravel weren't fertile.. The male has spawned a few times with another female and I have only ever seen eggs on the roof of the pot so don't think he saw the bottom ones to do his thing.. Heres hoping the wriggers keep going I thought about posting and suggesting a wager there are quite a few of us with fish from the same line probably the same age etc would be interesting..

Interested to hear how carbon keeps ph stable? And at 7... Haven't heard that one before.. Some salt will clear up the white spot..

Nice pic Looks like he is getting some size on him, I bet you can't wait for the long flowing fins to grow!

I have dropped a few fish.. Worst one was a bowl full of baby fish.. Had just caught them was around 70 demasoni, 30 johanni, and 40 peacocks and a heap of jullies at 1-2cm long.. It took a long time to find most of them unfortunately lost a heap Moral of the story dont balance things on the top of the tank while your working in it..

lol cheers mincie YEah it is stressful for the fish and also for the owner.. Nothing worse than packaging a fish ativating a heat pad getting it all ready to go until you need to write the address and having to undo it all again Especially when it was such a big fish and I had to use heavy duty bags big tie wraps etc etc. Oh well will try again later hopefully dude contacts me soon!

You and me both Johannes.. What a dumb ass packaging up a fish with nowhere to send it, considering trying to find someone else in Ak to send him to but don't know what part of Ak he lives in and would hate to have him delivered to the wrong side..