Ktttk

Mine have silver bodies and the males have fins that are jet black and they have a deep golden line along the top of their heads (from their dorsal fin to the tip of their mouth). The dorsal fin at the top is also a little red in colour. The The colours really come through when they start displaying against each other. I think the pic I posted is a little overexposed and the fins have a lot of yellow which mine doesn't have. This pic below is a better representation of the thread fins I have...

How about threadfin rainbows? They don't get very big. I've got a small group of them in a 3 foot planted tank and they are very fun to watch. The males are always displaying against each other and trying to woo the females.

Nice pics and cool tank! The birchir in the first pic looks mighty filled-up!

I got the baenschi male from Callum - I'm not sure if it was bred by him or if he purchased it as an import. But I guess its just a matter of time and patience to see how he colours up in the end.

I find that the aggression is dispersed and very short-lived. A few dominant males have claimed the front area of the tank but there are always other fish swimming through it. The dominant males do their best to chase them away but the chase is very short. So rather than claiming many caves, they tend to claim the area in front or above the bricks. All the fish seem to have their own cave they go to when they are chased or threatened.

They are already showing schooling behavior in the tub at the moment. I guess I'll start feeding them when their egg sac has disappeared..

He's coloured up a little more - his face is getting more blue. His body is quite a dark orangey yellow in colour - hopefully this will turn a light bright yellow as he matures.

An update on the tank... Remember the female peacock that was holding (post on page 4)... well its been a little over two weeks since I spotted her holding. I had a closer look at her tonight and saw that her throat (buccal cavity) is very distended and every now and then when she turns to face me, I can make out little eyes staring out from the small gap in her mouth. So I decided to have my first ever attempt at stripping fry from a cichlid!! The first part, which proved to be the hardest part, was to catch the fish!! :-? She eluded me for the best part of half an hour by swimming under the bricks, over the bricks, through the bricks and continually past my net... :evil: So I stood back, had a think and came up with an idea. I waited till she swam into one of the holes in the bricks and then quickly plugged both ends of the hole using some filter sponge. This ended up working a treat!! :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: Once she was trapped, I removed the entire brick, took out one of the filter sponges and emptied her into a bucket where I then proceeded to strip her following the video posted on cichlid-forum. I counted 30+ fry. They are now swimming happily inside a floating container in the tank. And here are some pics of the fry... The floating container is about the size of a 2L ice cream tub. How long can I keep them in there for? I am not too keen on setting up another tank at the moment.. I wonder if I can keep them in the container till they are big enough to be released into the tank with the others.. But there are already 40+ fish in the tank.. :-?

That'll depend on how many I raise to sale-able size..

Yes they can indeed hybridise but after doing some reading and posting on planetcatfish - the conclusion appears to be that if you have a large enough group of one species (and havng both males and females), then hybridisation is quite rare - although one person posted that they had a panda-sterbai cross in their tank. Anywhooo, it'll be interesting to see what happens - if hybridisation does occur, I'll just make sure they don't leave my tank

I'm looking at adding a group of 6 Sterbai to my Panda breeding tank and see if I can spawn two species in one setup. One of sterbai appears to have burnt part of its head on the heater well it looks like a burn anyway - when it recovers, I'll move the group across. They are currently in a community tank.

An update on the panda fry - they now have their own little tank and are growing fairly quickly.. This one I think is the oldest of the lot..

Great looking tank - well done!! One question - how is a baenschi different from a jacob? I thought your jacob was a baenschi at first till I saw the caption.

Congrats on the babies! Good luck with them :bounce:

They don't seem to say which country they are from.. maybe the regulations regarding the release of fish there are non-existent or aren't as strict?

Thats awesome! Well done!!

I have added more fish to the African tank! I picked up 5 young electras from Johannes yesterday. My reason for adding these fish is that they will hopefully give the yellows and dems more confidence to swim about. And I'm happy to say that it seems to be working! The electras like to swim out in the open just above the sand and don't hide in the brick work at all - i guess thats because they are an open water fish. I know they can get quite big but I'll deal with that when the time comes.. 8)

You might want to have 'Outcomes' before 'Limitations'. That way you can present your results first and then talk about any limitations or factors you need to keep in mind when interpreting the results. What conference is this for if you don't mind me asking?

Here are some pics of the fry.. And here's one where he/she is playing dead!

Moving the tank will be a last resort.. :-? I'm gna play with the idea of rearranging some of the brick around first.. and maybe have something thats automated to move back and forth in front of the tank so they can get use to the movement..

From a quick count there's between 50-70 at the moment. But I'm pulling out about 70 eggs a week if I put in the effort and go hunting for the eggs! I use a floating mop luke - like the killifish breeders use and the pandas deposit their eggs in the mop. If I have time, I'll go through them once or twice a week and pick out the eggs which I put into a little container for hatching.

So I guess I just have to be patient then and hope that they become more confident with maturity.

Good stuff tinytawnykitten!! Interesting choice of fish.. looking forward to seeing how the tank develops!! Can you show us a full tank shot?

Well the tank is facing the door so they will dart about when you enter the room - but there is no way of moving the tank at this stage. I find that its the yellows to tend who initiate the panic - the peacocks are the most confident and the demasonis aren't too bad at all. Maybe I should take out a few yellows.. I was planning to anyway cos I have too many of them..

There's no direct sunlight on the tank. Maybe I should remove some bricks and see what happens. I think there are a couple of yellows in there who are very skittish. It only takes one of them to suddenly dart off for no apparent reason for the rest to follow suit. I posted a pic of the baenschi male a few posts back.. his colour is building nicely. I don't plan to strip the females - instead I have made a little mobile rock pile that allows me to remove the baby fish - it'll be cool if it works - I'll most of pics of it later.