ryanjury

Id always go with you can never have too much filtration, IMO your getting away with it if your only doing water changes every 2 weeks so its a pretty low maintenance system id be happy if you change stuff you will probably have to do more water changes and keep an eye on stuff

Yeah I realised that.. Glad to hear hes ok Vets aren't cheap, but its the things we do when we keep animals, if you want to make me look like an idiot you can edit your post an option should appear in the top right hand corner of the box its posted in...

Sounds good, if your buying them small you could always just chuck in more and thin them out as they grow because if you only stick 10-12 2-3cm fish in a 4ft you will be waiting a long long time for it to look good

Yeah africans are awesome we have a couple and theres quite a few people on here that have them.... Must have been a pretty big cat to hit your cat and do damage

Yeah I know the feeling.. What africans have you got?

LOL yeah but having extra tanks just sitting there is impossible they end up filled with fish!

Yeah I just know ive seen 20 full grown africans in a 4ft... Hard to picture because we have a big 5ft too and have probably 30-40 fish in it (alot are younger smaller ones to thin out as they get bigger and if we hit any problems).. Im sure someone with a 4ft will reply and let you know what they recommend.

I always take them out and stick meth blue directly on the fungus and then put them back in.. I think people use melafix as well? But im unsure id go with the meth blue to start with (be careful it will stain everything and anything it touches and soak into the silicon in your tank) theres probably something better these days but haven't had to treat it for ages.. Good luck let me know how you get on.

I have seen alot mentioned about them on cichlid forum im unsure exactly what they are and if they are avaliable in NZ would also be keen to hear about them from what ive heard they are very similair to electric yellows in the fact they aren't very aggressive etc..

Anyone else think his stocking list is a little light for a 4ft tank?

So it was you I was keen but someone bet me too it

I think I saw a lone male on trademe I got offered him for $14 and someone took it.. The person in the auction said their were some in some of the shops around the place but dont know where?

I always wondered if I had that problem if I could strip a female that wants to pick up her eggs again (like a zebra or something I had 100's of) that was already holding and stick the eggs I wanted to in there and let her pick them up and raise them lol.. I guess it would take some planning to have everything holding at once but would be a laugh.. What fish is not holding right? Is it still young or done it for a few batches? Is it possible your males shooting blanks and thats why shes eating them? As far as I can tell you might have to make something and even then it seems the unfertilised ones kill the rest pretty quick..

Yeah go for all of the above, lots of yellow looks good as for number of fish provided you have really good filtration and do regular water changes its definately recommended to overstock with africans. We have Johanni in our tank and they can be a bit nasty, I think our male is a bit softer than most because we only have one female and shes fine shes even holding atm and not being wasted by him. Also try and avoid fish that can cross breed given the chance (if you plan to keep any babies out of the tank). And also watch out for fish that get too nasty for your tank when grown, just do your research or buy them young so you can rehome them as soon as they start becoming a problem. I hear a rumour theres one of the best african breeders down there but have no idea how to contact him and dont even know if he sells to the public? heres a site http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/q ... e_list.php Have a look through here (and the cookie cutter for the 55gal) to get some idea maybe the profiles and forum on there is of some help to you.. Good luck!

We stick them in a guppy trap with an airstone just low enough to keep them moving, but have never tried with eggs alone just fish that we've stripped too early and have to keep moving. Tried with eggs once and had no luck at all, there are a few designs around cichlid forum and other places ive seen.

Cant really help with much of that.. If you want your fish to grow faster feed more good food and do alot of water changes so that sounds spot on.. I dont think you can desex fish best bet is to have only one sex in one tank.. And with you Kenyi the only way I can think about sexing them is venting them.. I haven't had kenyi but would think at 6cm there should be some indication in size/aggression/colour if one was a male and the other a female.

Yeah is there any more details on your tank? Im curious as to how big it is.. It looks like an intesting design being a corner tank and all..

Yeah man it looks awesome

Id hate to think how old our male is.. We got him from Mooloo and think he came out of the jansen botony downs display tank hes pretty huge and has some awesome colour though.

Yeah I guess I forgot about the whole "this fish is for sale..." we strip at 2 weeks because we leave the fish in the tank to hold and then put them straight back into the tank with stripping them at 2 weeks the babies still live and the fish doesn't get too run down so can still hold its own when its back in the tank. I know on the flip side were training the fish to only hold 2 weeks but it doesn't concern us.

Ive just started shyphoning the water out the window and chucking the garden hose in the tank.. Have been doing about 25% water changes and there haven't been any problems. I think there must be something in the water atm, we have a few breeds nothing exciting thou. Just yellows OB zebra ice blue it looks like the 2 red zebras are going to breed in the next day or so same with the johanni.. So might have to setup some more tanks in the future

They were good I think we've moved all of them on now as we found bigger breeders to breed from. Atm we have (I think) 5 big males and 5 females so didn't really need to grow any more on..

I think they were on trademe?

She might but with her first lot she may just spit or eat them early.. If you really want them id strip at 2 weeks but if she holds that long chances are she may just keep on going and spit naturally.. Hopefully shes not so hungry she just turns around and eats them lol.

Haven't heard that one before I would have thought that the breeding would determine how they colour no matter what you feed them? I mean a person is as dark or light as they are no matter what you feed them.. lol Where did you hear that Dan? Females will generally have less black on their top fin and no (or almost none) black on their anal fins whereas males will have lots of black on all their fins..