antwan

Most cichlids will get aggressive when spawning, but if not breeding, they can be quite docile. I guess I have been lucky, I've heard lots of stories about people with bad rams, I found mine easy to keep. There are some very poor looking ones out there I must admit. I know there are wild ones that have been imported recently, so the quality is getting better. Like caserole said, raising ram fry can be tricky, it's no problem if you keep up with the water changes and pump food into them

Is this the place that's real close to Goat Island? We went snorkelling there for a bio trip last year and it was awesome. If my memory serves, that little damsel is called a Spottyback

Ta, that was quite a while ago though, this is what it looks like now :

Fair enough. Yea, I had a nice school of 20 and they just look stunning. I think the only way you could do it if you're worried about the price is as southerngirl says, just slowly build the school up. I'm sure it'd be worth the extra money in the end.

When rams breed they're not too bad, but like most cichlid's they will get defensive (if they're decent parents). Personally, I would go with rams. You will be able to sell the fry off easier with them, as there are a lot of people that breed kribs, and they have a hard time selling the fry. If you go with rams, the fry will need microworms to start off with as they're too small for bbs. With krib fry they can go straight onto crushed flake (not even that really). Also, ram fry are a LOT more sensitive to water conditions than kribs. It's up to you really, what fish do you like the look of more?

I would go with the cardinals; they're bigger, longer lived and can tolerate higher heats. They're also quite hard to breed so will be a nice challenge

When you assume, you make an ass of you and me I'd say they'd just bag them for ease later on when selling.

That's really bad, six months and they're almost gone. Some people are just too money hungry.

Judging by the model number, sounds like an Aqua One. Parts could be ordered in couldn't they?

So that's not including the one in your shoe Wok Truely was great fun, and that cafe made a nice steak sandwich!

your Hemianthus micranthemoides will be sweet with the erythromycin, I had it in my tank when I used it and it was fine.

Wow, that's cool, how does that work?

Looks good, why fake plants?

Looks like I was wrong :lol: I would try keep that divider in as the more dominant one will hassle the less dominant. They can get rather vicious for such wee fish.

Me too

Yay, get bitten by that dwarf cichlid bug hard, it's a goody You could keep two maybe even three pairs in a tank that size since you'll have so many hiding spaces. Sounds like a nice tank, make sure you show us pics

They should become sexable pretty soon. A lot of people just buy 5-6 young ones and grow them up.

Just go with the BBS, they will take them straight away. Some may only eat the very newly hatched ones, but they will still take them Congrats on the spawn, got any pics?

Yep, Alan, I am well aware that what you have said is your own opinion, and I was simply stating mine, along with a fact or two.

Not necessarily Alan, younger male Apistogramma's still possess black markings This was my male when I first got him (although he does look blue, it was a very lucky shot, and most of the time he looked the typical "stressed" colour. Anyway, you can see there he has black ventral fins, and a small black patch on his tummy, these all disappeared with age.

Looks like a male and female to me...the third pic is what does it for me. But hey, they can be tricky to sex. If they are two females, and you add a male later, make sure you have lots of hiding spaces, like driftwood, rocks or plants. The peat is a good idea, they will appreciate it.

http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2 ... w-showcase I personally loved hairgrass when I used it as a carpet, there is also E. tenellus that I think Plantman sells on trademe, which is nice. No matter what plant you use, most carpets look really nice when they've filled out.

Yes, with Apistogramma's the temp does affect the sex ratio. At about 26*C the fry are usually 50/50 male/female. If the temp is raised to about 29*C the ratio swings to about 90/10 male/female and vise versa if the temp is lowered. I don't know what it is that does it, but it's quite amazing.

I had mine grow from 3-4cm to 10ish cm's in nine months with water changes every day. So I would say around 14months? at a guess. Should be around 14ish cm's after about a year if everything goes well