ryanjury

I had 2 male chilumba's in the tank and they got to about 7-8cm's and they were both defiantly males they didn't fight either, one had heaps of colour the other not so much but you could definitely tell it was 2 males But yes alot of fish do hide coloration if theres a bigger bossier fish in the tank

Sweet well good luck... LOL hope the 3 smaller ones are all female and you can spare me one Keep in touch! And Smidey sorry to hijack your thread, good luck with venting your fish, if you have fully coloured fryeri in the tank you may have a male that is sub dominant..

Yeah I got maleri and red shoulders and fryeri off him.. I had no reason to believe he would do that always been nice always talking to him on msn etc been around to his house a fair few times (we used to live down the road too) and now im outta Auckland guess its easy for him to ignore me! Myself and my wife actually considered them friends until all of this.. Anyway I hope you've got females im really keen for a female or some babies keep in touch let me know maybe we can sort something out for some dragons bloods down the line

LOL Yeah as you can tell its a bit of a sore point.. Im pretty generous and trusting gave them a heap of fish and really thought we were friends so it sucks when you get let down! GRRRR Unfortunately we didn't buy them off trademe I knew he had them so went over to get them off him.. If anyone has a spare female let me know lol

Dont get me started on chilumba's :evil: I brought a pair before I left auckland and kept in touch with the breeder who assured me that he would sort it out if they were 2 males... Sure enough they turn out to be 2 males and when I contact him to sort it out no reply to emails he black lists me on trademe.. Hes content on making sure hes the only one with females so pretty much guaranteed he deliberately sells males, so that he can be the only one breeding and selling them and keep selling them for heaps on trade me, I did think I had 2 males to begin with but he assured me they were a pair and he would fix it if not and I trusted him because I thought we got on really well with him and didn't think he would turn around and shaft me. lol thats my rant out of the way I hope you get a female or 2 jasmine id love to get a hold of some babies or a female at some stage!

Looks like 2 females to me.. should expect to see some sort of colour even if it is just a hint by 5cm's.. I wouldn't worry if you have 2 females though its a beter ratio now you just have to convince one of the many on here who have a heap of spare males to sell you one

Are you replacing the pads and that? Who told you to pour all that stress zyme and stress coat into your tank? Thats just $$ down the drain..

Your tank is probably a little small for africans if it is only 100 litres.. Do you have any pics of the blue-white Lab's? And how are your filters costing you money? You should only be needing to rinse your existing media in tank water and add some tap water once a week, shouldn't cost you anything except food and maybe dechorinator if your that way inclined..

I tried 6 ended up with 3 big males Kept the biggest one and then put it in with a heap of smaller ones to mix up the gene's a bit started off with 14 bigger ones down to 12 now they're pretty mean!

People recommend keeping lots of demasoni because they wipe each other out, Id say a pair would be a bad idea as the male may just kill the female.. However im sure there are exceptions the only thing you can do is give it a go I guess.. I keep 12 demasoni and they are nasty buggers to each other always chasing each other and thats in a 540litre tank.. There are people in Auckland selling them cheap as I think janine on here has a heap so getting 10 shouldn't be an expensive undertaking..

What size tanks do you have? And what do you have in them What type of cichlids?

Hey Jasmine, I have looked at your pics I have no idea what they are, a common ploy for selling fish when people don't know what they are is to guess the genus ie melanochromis and then not name an exact species.. The pics of the dominant male resemble what is commonly sold in nz as johanni but I don't really know what they are, I dont think they are pure and somehow got into the country as something random. Is it possible for you to get any better pics? I know its hard but you cant tell much from the small pics and when you enlarge them they are all blurry and you still cant tell much. Have a look through here and see if you can find some that match up http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/r ... ?genus=122 Also what colour is your holding female? Sorry I cant be of more help im sure someone can

Have heard a few of the more knowledgeable african keepers on here say they have kept or seen pure maingano's around the place, does anyone know this trademe seller? Even though they aren't on the current allowed list doesn't mean they aren't floating around nz having already made it in before the list was cut down..

The first problem here is you dont know what they are or who bred with her (assuming she was in a mixed malawi tank when they bred) so you potentially have hybrid babies which are a bad thing to keep.. Brichardi will most likely eat the fry if you want to keep them wait till she's held for 2 weeks then strip her into a guppy trap with an airstone to keep them moving so they dont get fungused. First place I would start is get up some pics of the fish and id them, and then also question if something else bred with her, because if she's a hybrid or her partner didn't breed with her then its best just to strip the egg's out into a community save her and you the stress of raising hybrid babies.. That is just my opinion though either way good luck and let us know what you do

Yeah man your tanks looking good Will only get better as the fish size and colour up more I have exactly the same types of rocks in my african tanks and haven't noticed any negative effects I dont measure water parameters unless something goes wrong so dont know what it did to the water but fish are happy and breeding..

I have a couple of female bristlenoses with my male and they all seem to breed with him as he always seems to have a batch of egg's.. As for the rams they are pair forming, so if your 2 aren't a pair already maybe add some more females but once a pair is formed they will beat up any other females so unless you have a big tank they may get injured..

lol id happily do it for you, unfortunately were not planning a trip down those ways, what sort of time frame are we talking about? Why dont you just come down for a visit? lol Theres bound to be some nice people in wellington (who like beer) who will happily help you out.. I know you would do it for anyone up there

Hey just noticed this http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/can-ta ... 23074.html It might be some help to you?

Generally you put neons into a tank with a grate under them so their egg's can fall to safety, I dont know how easy this would be to do in a breeding net, and the fish may get to stressed to breed in a net anyway.. I think when you breed them (I haven't done it myself) that the tank has to be completely black ie all the sides blacked out and covered not just lights off..

These bacteria confuse me! lol some people say they will die out real fast but I have had filters disconnected and turned off for upto 24 hours plugged them back in and they're been fine.. But others haven't been so lucky so who knows? If it were me id fill (or even half fill the tank and gradually fill it) with cold water and bucket in a few buckets of warm water and chuck some dechlorinator in before I turned the filter back on just to be safe, but im unsure how much effect it would have on the bacteria, I know the chlorine will be bad but unsure on the temp so just would take it easy.

Giraffe looks good I cant say ive seen any giraffes I would really call rubbish ones, I guess they're not like the majority of other africans that get crossed etc I guess it would be obvious if they were to be crossed anyway..

Id just start from scratch, keeping any filters etc running, then give it a few days to settle before adding the fish you will be fine There really is no point in trying to keep the old water etc as long as you have cycled filters you will be sweet.. Make sure you put some pics up

Sounds like it could be white spot no need to stress about it though africans get over it pretty quickly. I usually use a half dose of white spot cure by wonder and salt, or if I dont have any white spot cure just salt by itself to clear it up..

The fry will most likely be eaten, best thing to do is leave them to it this time and move the parents for future spawnings. I also wouldn't think there is an issue with crossed strains as I think all discus are just colour strains line bred to give certain traits..

lol but a convict is likely to survive being eaten and then escape and evade and grow up!