Afrikan

Hmmm they can be very aggressive, my mother and others I know have kept them in the past and once maturing they can turn into fair devils in the tank, seriously, what seemed to be a very laid back cichlid at first, turned into very territorial trouble makers :lol:

Awesome Rozski, bet you are rapt and can't wait to see them! 8) I would dread the idea of having to shift house with all our tanks, can imagine what it was like for you :lol: Well new fish... hmmmm... we got a nice size pair of Red Devil, oh and some Borelli dwarf cichlids... 8)

We use robocan, the 100% natural pyretherin.. and that is fine and dandy with having pets in the home, being natural. I hate fly sprays, such as raid and anything potent like that... the robocan works well, flys etc hate pyretherin, hence why some people keep pots of marigolds around their doors outside etc... effective fly deterrent apparently. We used to get pestrol of which was also pyretherin... are they still pyretherin?, haven't used pestrol for years, had to have refills sent and it was easier just having a system that I could go out and buy a refill rather than order and wait for it to arrive via mail.

Wow $30 each... jeepers. There is one for sale down this way, decent size. Have you kept them before?

I don't recall seeing any ugly fish, but if you were referring to the blue fish in the links, then they are Cobalts, rather stunning..

Yeah they are alot more laid back than the transcriptus that is for sure Ryan :lol: We have 6 marlieri in the 8fter and they are showing interest in spawning, staking out their territory and laying down the law :lol:

Julies are Julidochromis family, Lake Tanganyikan family. They can be fair little devils towards each other but well worth keeping. J. marlieri are a fair bit more docile than J. transcriptus. Hoplos probably will go ok with E yellows, however, they both require different water conditions so you may want to look at that factor if you are keeping your water parameters at the required level for african cichlids. I wouldn't push it with more aggressive mbuna tho with hoplos, ie Johanni or anything like that.. E yellows are more of a placid mbuna compared to other species. Val may last a while, but eventually gets hammered (speaking from experience) it is not as tough as anubias, anubias works ok with Africans. They may have the odd tug on it, but it's pretty tough really.

Depends if you want to stick with just mbuna The combos above are nice... especially Dems and Yellows, or Dems and Snow Whites... have kept those combos for display in the past. A couple of nice peacock males would look wicked amongst the lot above... Oh and careful if you do Snow Whites with Dems as they will try to cross breed...

Yeap 8)

Stripping the Dems is a mission... would have to say it is the most fiddly job compared to stripping other african species :lol: They look great btw evil 8)

Wouldn't risk the dwarf gourami with convicts, but you could give the GG a go :lol: The GG can pack some punch when they want to aswell :lol: When convicts are breeding they will more or less take on anything... we had a pair that decided they owned one end of the tank, and all the larger aggressive cichlids were down the other end of the tank, happily in each others space just to get some peace from the convicts

Great looking setup African setups are better than viewing television I reckon (unless Nip/Tuck is on) :lol: Congrats on your tank anyway, can only get better when your fellows pack on some size

Sadly haven't seen them here, someone enquired a while back also asking if they were in NZ.. would be nice to have some here.

Chocolate male and female will lip lock also, the male Chocolate can actually get very nasty with the female, so keep your eyes peeled often, he can literally bash the heck out of her, majorly. They are more aggressive towards each other spawning (often) rather than anything else that is hanging around, especially if the male wants to spawn and she is not quite ready or shows no interest at the same time.

Be careful snookie, the Severum and Chocolates will breed easily together..

:lol: Be careful snookie, Chocolates and Severums will cross if you allow them to :lol:

Mine are really large and in a big school so all going for food at once ends up with the odd splash of water in the chops

Definately a hard case to watch, and not to mention the odd water splash here... especially the silver dollars.

It looks like the ones from suppliers that are called "Blue Blushing" and they do as said above have the redder gill plate.

With oscars it doesn't always mean feed them more.. they are greedy and can gorge themselves silly at times to the point where they can end up with problems, as Warren said, they want to be first to the nosh before anyone else, total survival of the fittest instinct and greed :lol:

Yeap territory and girls for the breeding process

Check out this link posted on You Tube... great footage

We have our beardie on carpet, commercial grade, so easy to clean.. we have a few bits cut to the same size for his tank, and each bit taken out on clean out is so easy to blast with the hose. Of course the carpet is earth tones so doesn't look artificial or out of place :lol: Fine sand looks like a nice idea...

Yeah I wouldn't risk it, with keeping both species together, there would be no 100%, other males can get involved during the spawning process... short of seeing either species breeding with the right mate it would be a bit risky imo, fish can be full of suprises.. I like to keep my species seperate also when breeding.

we never handle ours unless we have to, wouldn't go out of our way to pick them up or handle them unless there is a need. Shifting larger plecos from one tank to another, we never net them, nets are more hassle than good with plecs... we gently cup the body underneath and hold firmly but gently the lower end of the body going down to the tail and the pleco will usually go stiff for a quick easy transfer, bugger trying to untangle a thrashing large pleco from a net... that is far more traumatic for the fish imo 8)