Afrikan

Just had another look and even lifted the male and female up on bog wood under light, they have lines on them not spots.

I have been having a good look at mine the last few days while feeding out and with what we bought, they definately don't look like your ones pictured above blue. It's a shame I don't at this stage have a good enough camera to take a real close up shot like your ones.

Yeap they will definately take out small fish, the BGK's mouth is almost hinge like so their mouth opens VERY wide... and they will consume anything that will fit and keep in mind they will grow up to 40-45cm fully mature. They are quick to. As mine grew his appetite grew to, and when he was hungry he would snap at anything that moved.. so even tho he may not have consumed larger fish, he would and could damage fins and tails etc.

Yeap definately a balance, mine have both, meat and vege

BGK will knock off your tetras eventually, how big are they now? LFS = Local Fish Store

Heya mr pleco mine mosey on out at anytime.. they love courgette but they mainly love meaty products, they get frozen cichlid mix, pleco tabs they seem to mow down, but I do notice they go nuts on mysis shrimp cubes, will hoe down any flake or spirulina that hits the bottom. But they frenzy out on the frozen cichlid mix the most which has krill base, spinach, etc

I have 2 males and 2 females, love them.. and they are real chow hounds Wanting to breed them sometime this year... we have been doing a fair bit of reading up.

I use the Flukers range.

Nice pics Reef. Well we don't own these boys anymore, they have gone to discus breeders now.. and have been successfully bred from. But these were 3 of our Discus that we used to keep... 3 males. The two pictured were big beefy boys who were raised together. Those two were about 15cm in body. Found these pictures stashed away in a fish pics folder so thought I would share... actually miss them a fair bit after I see their pics. Sorry about the bad quality of the pics but it was the best I could do with a not so fancy digital camera. Two Boys side by side as usual.. Blue Diamond Boy

It's funny.. my first introduction to Africans were some horrible big ugly Blue Zebras.. actually were rather mongrely looking, and they came with a tank that I purchased and I didn't like them at all... the fish were donated to the National Aquarium for their big Mbuna set up so they are quite happily living in there now I never thought for one minute that I would ever be majorly hooked on the creatures (African species) after that... well yeah .. thought.. thought huh :lol: I would never part with Africans, they are here to stay. That info above is awesome Thanks for sharing.

Yeah it might be a case of "go Afrikan's hubby" when I snaffle another tank for nursery... D for Divorce :lol: :lol:

Oh cool 8) Crypts are a good one to and easy care imo Ummm they are going into a pretty big tank huh? I would have a reasonable amount of rainbows... Are you sticking with one species or more than one? The higher percentage that get imported in are males with the Bosemani, Red Rainbows etc but the odd female comes in aswell from time to time

Yeah well considering you want plants, the pooing machine would be a bad option :lol: I keep Flash and Iquito Plecs and they don't touch my plants, infact, they seem to prefer meat based foods I have found. Cochilodon Plecs (Rusty or Bruno Plec common name) are nice and slow growing but they would possibly munch your plants. I have one in a non planted tank simply for that reason. There are a few Plecs out there (fancy ones) so shop around Yellow Rainbows are nice, Macculloch's Rainbows are stunning when they mature. Blue Rainbows are nice to. Here is a good link: http://members.optushome.com.au/chelmon/Contents.htm

The kid suddenly stumbled upon more Albino Frogs??? What's the chances? And if so, they certainly won't be saying where they are found, they seem to be sitting on a gold mine :lol:

Now have another holding, so that is 2 :roll: Hubby will be happy when I claim one of his empty catfish tanks for a nursery... :roll: :lol: Arrgh nursery tank space.... :-?

Ooo yes snookie go flash :lol: Yeah the Dwarf Neons might be a rather tasty meal for your fire eel... I wouldn't risk it. The Bosemani etc get quite big, the ones that are in the Croc tank at the National Aquarium are very deep bodied and rather large. Real beauties.

Oooo I love that umbrellla like tree on the front of the lawn

So what is your suggestion then? Don't want to go down that same old road of naming them a certain variant when they didn't come in with one..

In the past I have got two lots of Maleri (both lots from seperate consignments that came into suppliers)... I have kept them seperate, no good mixing them as the fact that there could always be a chance that lots coming in could be different variants. I have noticed that the difference might infact be right. I have a display male who is totally different to the usual sunshine looking peacock colouring. My guy has a fair bit of lilac in the body as well as the yellow. I swear by keeping them seperate, no good mixing. Definately pays to keep the lines clean incase there is a chance that exporters are sending different variants, without having variant names sent one will never know what infact we do have, but it has been noticed that there seems to be two different colours. Still just label A. stuartgranti "maleri" (but sure we don't need to go there again) :lol: Whispering Echos male in the Private Trade and Exchange section is definately different from my male that I mentioned above. So if you buy a whole heap of Maleri on a new shipment, and see a few months down the track they are on the list again, I wouldn't recommend buying some more to add to your colony. I would play it safe. And if you buy keep them a seperate colony. JMO 8)

Welcome Kiwi Girl, sounds like you have already been effected with the MTS

We have 4, haven't been trying to breed them as yet, but definately studying the breeding of them to put to use sometime this year, when I can give it my full attention.

There are different variants of the A. stuartgranti "maleri".. the ones that have come here are not listed as any particular variant. Here is a link to cichlid forum species profile. But because they came in as no such variant, all we should label them as is A. stuartgranti "maleri" http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/category.php?cat=3

He didn't look skinny in the movie The Transporter *drool*... And Vin Diesel BLEH :-? Plastic Yeah the trio have let some much younger and smaller Dafs in to help raise them and watch them while the bigger ones take off to feed at feeding time, it is amazing to watch and they are stunning, I like Brichardi, but the Daffodils are just that much nicer 8)

My other all time fav is Jason Stratham... Won't go into anymore before you really start grossing you out :lol: The trio really love raising those young together huh?

:lol: He gives me butterflies, so does Nicholas Cage... I don't like plastic fantastics :lol: Even Julian McMahon isn't perfect, he has a scar on his face, real enough for me 8) *drool* No photos as yet fishy_t, will get some tho