ryanjury

lol yeah im pretty sure they're very very hardy probably live and breed in with everything But very cool fish!

Yeah fish are all good.. Trying not to get too many because im due to go to Timor in Jan for 3 months and have to downsize to 2 tanks inside so my wife can handle looking after them lol cant expect her to look after 15 tanks in my fish room plus the tanks inside and a newborn baby.. Its really hard not to go nuts now ive fully lined some of the garage and have a heap of empty tanks out there Just sitting in my lounge making a huge mess fixing up tanks lol Mmmmm the smell of silicon and the gas heater..

LOL Wicked nothing better than him to help fix it Wish I was still in Auckland! haha

I would definatly fix it But thats just me, ive got glass here for fixing all my tanks upto 5ft I had to get that cut though.. But at the moment im fixing all my tanks cutting glass etc got a heap of glass and a heap of tanks that were given to me broken.. But in saying that reef's comment is a valid one you can spent alot of time repairing it and also money if you have to get glass cut etc, and then most likely you wont be able to silicon it as well as a new one, or when your prying the old glass off you may damage the bits you want to keep.. But I still do it

Its all relative really, I would classify neon's as easy to breed, but hard to raise the babies, the fry are very hard to feed the therefore raise.. Well I guess they're not that hard to raise if you follow the instructions and have green water etc but to me its alot of effort.. To me african cichlids are very easy to breed and raise and sell, the mother looks after the babies until they can swim and eat they come out big and can if you want them too eat flake straight away! They dont require alot of water changes when they're young and they're certainly not fussy or sensitive (have stripped week old egg's and bagged them and sent them away and not one of them died) Thats easy in my books! I think its relative really, best best is to decide what fish suit your sizes and numbers of tanks and give some a go if you dont find them easy..

Yeah private breeders defiantly have the best fish and the best prices and the best advice its win win win really After your post im sure they will all contact you with what they have for sale.. Otherwise check trademe.

Yeah personally id get rid of it, take it back to where you got it from and get a refund! lol Or bounce it..

I dont know how big your tank is etc.. You could try and have both the trewvassae and the sacoloffi in the same tank but it may not work.. Its upto you really give it a go and see what happens I had a big red top once and he was real nasty so got rid of him but yeah can only see what happens. Bacteria should be the same would hold off adding more fish if you haven't cycled your tank properly though you might loose them all if you do..

Pic one is a red top trewvassae. Second is a sacoloffi, they can be hard to sex, usually a male will be bigger and have more black in his fins maybe more solid egg spots. Third looks to be dominant male demasoni, I also found these hard to sex but generally females were smaller and slightly less colourful. Last pic just looks like a poor quality yellow, could be hybrid but shape looks alright, if it breeds it will pass poor colouration onto any offspring if it breeds.. Hope thats some help to you and the pics look awesome very easy to see what your looking at

Id say it looks more melanochromis than zebra but not like any pure fish ive seen.. Not that ive seen much, going through profiles and trying to id fish can have some results (if you know pretty much what you've got already and just want to clarify it a little). Your really on the back foot because all you knew was "was sold as Melanochromis or Electric Blues" and unless its blatantly obvious to people who've seen a few fish you usually wont get you very far, sorry ive been there too when I first started with fish and its not your fault but it just happens theres alot of hybrid/incorrectly labeled fish around everywhere they seem to get everyone every now and then unfortunately. Comes down to whoever bred the fish and sold it to the pet shop (if they were locally bred) or whoever imported/sold the fish in nz..

Does the one with the stripe have a slightly pink belly? Kinda looks like it in the pic, if it does it could be a female..

Man thats an awesome looking tank congratulations! I would be proud of that you have some really nice fish.. I would try something like this.. http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/fish_trap.php Or else you can just chuck some nets in and see if you get lucky and they swim into them sometimes i just leave the nets in there for a few hours and keep checking seeing whats around them they get used to them and sometimes jump into them.. Depends how patient I am.. Good luck

I always use an eftpos card and that works sweet for me, mind you im am careful and its really bendy etc.

Yeah ive had no luck with rams havent' managed to figure out what's wrong with them hopefully someone can help..

Awesome they're a cool fish good luck Cant see much hope of them surviving in your tank, but maybe some will and you can siphon them out or even move the parents to another tank now you know they're a good pair

You cant force feed a fish.. Best bet is to give him something that he really really wants to eat ie daphnia, or white worms or something like that.. Otherwise (im taking a wild educated stab in the dark here) he's probably like alot of rams that ive brought and kept they are full of internal parasites and seem to just fade away no matter what you do.. Ive brought heaps and had no luck that is my theory anyway...

Awesome man, looking good.. Do you have any other tropheus species?

Id say forgetting to plug the heater back in after water changes.. Then wondering why your fish were all slow. Ill second the not letting people who know what they're doing feed your fish.. And add always make sure your filter pipes and stuff and in your tank securely and don't fall out overnight and flood your lounge! lol

I think there was a case of what appeared to be a fusco x giraffe that someone put a pic up of on here definitely wasn't a fusco and definitely wasn't a giraffe!

Heaters in big tanks take ages to setup I struggled with getting the temp stable in mine.. And its only 540litres! Id suggest just bumping one or both down a bit and seeing what happens, I usually make sure the tanks at the temp I want and then adjust the heaters so they've just turned off and sometimes that works... On another note is the 8ft tank the one that Glenn was building the stand for?

Wow thats good news hopefully she goes the distance for you Alex

Damn a 6cm electra that is a big mouth! Haha that was my next question I knew it was an empress was hoping you had a girl (or some babies) lying around

You seem to have a impressive list of fish there! And you take awesome pic's.. Hope you can breed these guys, im pretty sure they will fill out and look awesome!

lol yeah think they aren't that messy, and also people setting up african tanks tend to use larger tanks therefore the waste etc is diluted by heaps of water.. Sounds like every things going well for you though kezza remember to resist the urge and let things get going before adding anymore fish!

Nice pics Very awesome fish how big are they.. Good luck for someone breeding these! They look like they have huge mouths though.. Firenz is that a red empress in the bottom photo