ryanjury

What are you trying to do?

Leleupi would be good but probably not in a 3fter unless you had 1 of them or a confirmed pair they can be pretty nasty towards each other I started off with 4 in my 350L 5ft and 2 paired off and killed the other 2..

Because blue zebras are hybrids it is very hard to give an accurate guide to sexing they can throw towards whatever mix created them or a mix of them.. But generally the males get bigger and have more bigger egg spots and and can have pointed anal/dorsal fins, males can be more aggressive too. The best bet is venting them though so it is a good thing to start practising it becomes pretty easy after a while.

What are the dimensions? I would ditch most or even all of the plecos they will all get massive You could add something like Dems to that tank if you wanted I have none ATM but have plenty of little ones that will be ready in a month or 2..

How big is the tank? That is a really interesting mix with the sa and africans mixed together..

Any engineering shop should also be able to help..

Probably better than the bright pink holden ute that I can see sitting out the window :slfg: Wonder what lovely lady drives that?

WOW your fish and tanks look awesome! How many do you have in your tropheus colonies!

I didn't take any I will have to ask around and see who did, however first priority for any photos we get will be the AW magazine to help Caryl out with content!

If he is still having issues then I would drop the water level and treat the fish and the food with metro just to be sure.. It is not worth the risk!

They don't always bloat up when they have bloat.. Are the fish sick looking and off their food for a few days before they die?

Why add cycle when you had a cycled tank to take media from? It would be a waste of time/money, and when you transfer the media you need to transfer the fish at the same time otherwise the bacteria can die off due to lack of food (ammonia).

I have always just transferred all or most of the media and some of the water (less stress for the fish) when I change tanks and have never had any issues. Most of my tanks are bare bottom anyway and I am not sure how much of the good bacteria actually live in the substrate there wouldn't be an awful lot of water movement through most substrate. I think the most import part about cycling and the whole bacteria thing is to be aware of it, if your aware of it and don't just dump fish around into fresh tanks then you should be fine. You have even more room when your going to a much bigger tank, if you did happen to not transfer enough media and get a slight ammonia spike it would only be small and diluted to safe levels due to the larger volume of water and the filter would sort it out.

Like Jaxxnz has suggested the fish will eat live foods only if you spoil them with them, if that is the case they will eat whatever you stick in the tank if you get them hungry enough. Typically I would expect a jag to eat anything that hits the tank without asking questions..

Has the male not eaten for 2-3months and it's not dead?

You could always keep your existing light and add a small blue light you should be able to source one cheaply off trademe.. Yellows/brichardi/blue zebras should be relatively confident fish in all lighting so maybe their tank is in the wrong place or they just need to get used to it?

The various species are separated by features like rocky outcrops or large stretches of open water patrolled by haps which they wont cross.. Many of the species have evolved from other species over millions of years - yes they used to be the same fish but they are now scientifically described as different species so they are different. It is a very interesting thing to start researching and learning about there is plenty of info on google or on cichlid-forum. Just for comparison this is the lake http://www.questconnect.org/images/malawi_map.gif as you can see it is huge, some of these fish will exist in only one place sometimes only a few hundred square meters in size, so there is plenty of room for them to exist without ever seeing each other.

All mbuna will cross - if you plan on breeding and selling and want to know your producing pure fry setup species tanks or tanks where you can have 2 different groups that are less likely to cross in them (ie peacocks and mbuna). What is likely to cross in your tank depends on so many things, tank layout, age/dominace of fish, ratio of sexes and the biggest one luck and how you hold your tongue on the day and what way the wind is blowing. Your Dems should breed true, but dem males may have a crack at the Afra females, the rusties and Afra are both zebras so will do as they please with each others girls. Rusties are probably the most likely to have a crack with the yellow females. Good luck!

Pulchers would be nice in there, I would get 6 or so and let them grow out and hope that they all get along and breed or you at least get a pair, get a breeding net or spare tank as well so that if any are getting a hard time then you can remove them. My only other advice would be to goto a good source to get some descent ones because they can and will cross with brichardi there are tons of dodgy ones around. I am currently trying to get some good pulchers off a guy I know for myself and a mate so hopefully that works out. You can use the silica sand if you want just chuck some coral rock or limestone rock or any of the various other buffering things in the tank to keep things stable. I tried silica sand once and it went brown and was just hard work, I gave up on it eventually but every tank is different so can't confirm if this will happen to you.

Zdoda did find the cause of his fish deaths and unfortunately it was all his fault, I will let him full everyone in

It was a really good day out thanks to everyone who came and everyone who let us visit, saw some awesome fish and tanks and had a good laugh and awesome food at the malthouse for lunch Someone had a camera so no doubt there will be some pics emerge, I think someone will put together an article or just submit the pics for the AW for Caryl.

I don't know details of where they came from or how they got here, I do know they were obtained legally (quarantined etc) and the real deal from a reputable source in Germany but I don't know any more than that sorry.. Maybe more details will come out later but until then we just have to be grateful they are here and there is a chance we can have them one day.

If you do it right then an internal patch can work well. I would make it most of the bottom and in 10mm to repair that sized tank.

I agree that tank is awesome!

I agree, these and some of the other fish that he has wont be given away but they will be the best quality africans in NZ so people who are keen on them should definitely start saving there are exciting things on the way. In saying that some of the prices that I have heard being thrown around are less than most of the other tropheus were retailing for a few years back so pretty reasonable considering the costs involved in getting them.