ryanjury

Its what they call a balloon ram some sort of deformed version of a ram.. balloon ram (these are exceptionally good ones) http://www.geocities.com/yutaka_loo/index.html Normal ram http://www.aquariumadvice.com/profiles/6_16_en.html Personally im not a fan of the balloon ones but each to their own..

If you do get fish off me I can send bristlenoses too they're awesome in african tanks I just took about 70 babies out of my big display tonight

They most likely wont eat off the surface unless you stick a heap of confident fish in there and they have to compete for food.. Some fish just don't get confident enough to goto the top and get food..

lol take the syno! I would they're awesome fish something different to add a bit of character to your tank

I kept them a few years ago in a community tank and had no problems however they were very young, I also had a breeding pair of firemouths int he same community tank and they were fine also but very small.. I would take on the advice here and if you still want them bear in mind you will have to dedicate a tank just to them as for where to get them from I would just wait until they get on the list again and buy them, unfortunately when they're not on the list people think they're rare and hard to get and try to charge big money for them..

A good flow rate is as much as you can afford without making your tank into a washing machine or sucking up all the inhabitants.. Have you had any luck with any of the suggestions?

just diffuse it against something. Put a rock in front aim it from front to back in your tank etc, it will slow as the media clogs and it wears anyway.. You can even point it up at the surface of your tank or something like that so the plants dont get wasted.

Its looking good.. Marble peacocks are also know as OB peacock (orange blotch) they are awesome fish, but it is said they are hybrids produced much the same way as dragons bloods and the like noone knows what exactly crossed, and I swear somewhere I saw a video from the lake with ob peacocks swimming around so who knows a very cool fish in my books especially when the males colour up

lol I moved all my tanks and fish from Auckland Now that is a mission hope I don't have to move again at any stage although it is inevitable with my job and the fact were renting.. Glad to hear about everyones new fish though! Hope the pictus work out for you this time shadow they're cool fish!

Do you like them?

Yeah I was surprised how lax mine where when breeding in a mixed tank.. However once they had fry and I had them divided out one of the other jullies jumped the divider, I found it almost dead floating around the tank it died but they must have hammered it, it was quite funny when they bred in the mixed tank they didn't really care about others coming near their babies.. As soon as they got by themselves they got pretty protective.. Very cool little fish though

Limestone doesn't need to be expensive you should be able to find it at places that sell rock or land scaping supplies etc.. But I wouldn't bother with it if its already 7.5, if it has no fish however it may drop when fish are added, just keep an eye on it.

I was considering filling a tank with rocks and just letting them go from it stripping the tank down every 2 months and selling off the babies to save hassle, but I dont really want the females to get too run down holding that long with the agro males..

If its stable at 7.5 I wouldn't stress all the tank bred africans in nz will happily adjust to that.. Unless your doing something specialized like tropheus or fronts but im sure even they will adjust and be happy.. If you did want to bump it up a bit find some limestone or coral sand and add a bit in a stocking or somehow.. Have you got fish yet?

lol yeah it was a long night when I stripped 4 of them at the same time.. I took a few breaks because they just wouldn't get go of the last few babies really frustrating.. And I gave up on catching them went to the warehouse and brought a fishing net that blocked off half my tank and chased all the fish into it.. I should really take them out of the 540 litre fully rocked tank as it makes it so hard to catch them they seem to be able to find the smallest gaps!

It doesn't actually do much I used to use it buffer my tanks and mixed up baking soda and salt and started adding it with my water changes... Now I just use the coral sand and argonite I think its like anything else just do it gradually and figure out how to make your water change water the same and you'll be fine Are you aiming to increase your ph for africans or just because?

Nice looking tank johannes.. The jullies I was talking about that im breeding are the marlieri http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/j_marlieri.php I had 6 in half a 4ft tank with peacocks yellow's and other randoms and then seperated a pair out to breed they spawned and didn't actually get that agro when they were in the mixed tank.. Cool looking little fish!

If your up this way call in and say hi after keeping them I think you could do some jullie Maileri with demasoni and other mbuna they are pretty laid back..

Agreed with demasoni cant beat the colour of them... Especially when contrasted against yellows.. Demasoni cobalts and some nice yellow's would also be cool

Easy to breed a dammed bugger to strip because they're soooo tiny, most of mine held full term first time holding 10-20 babies each time.. Really really hard to strip and catch though..

Im off half way through Jan.. My wife has made noises about maybe keeping the demasoni going while im over there, only time will tell on that one.. Im undecided on the whole inbreeding thing have done a bit of research and some have suggested that it makes no difference.... However my dominant male is a survivor from my first attempt at demasoni (brought 6 had him left) and is unrelated to the females.. And I have 2 unrelated females in the mix too one I can tell but the other who knows.. Imagine how many dem's you will have once they start breeding

Another 18 That will be an awesome tank.. Did you want ones from a different gene pull or more off me?

Yeah a tank full of demasoni would be awesome im pretty happy with how my 12 look in with the other fish.. Have considered growing out a heap of babies lol but don't have the time/energy at the moment and have to cut back to one tank soonish. Evil - the tanks looking good I bet you cant wait to get the fish in there!

Yeah depends on breeding how they were brought up how they stand int he tank etc etc etc.. I dont think anyone can put a time frame or size on it.. As mentioned blue dolphins are supposed to take ages to mature and its been true for me and others we've had them for years and had no luck got them to a huge size but some are breeding them at like 7-8cm's half the size of mine and mine have only just started to breed..

You could only really do a pair in there anyway I will have some baby jullies coming up for sale soonish but your against shipping so maybe someone in Chch has them?