malawiman

Hope I get pics on here, here we go. http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k61/malawiman_bucket/DSCF0521.jpg

I bought a pair from African a while back. They male is about a third bigger than the female. I also have two more in my community African tank, male is about 12 cm and the other 7 cm. My breeding pair the male has a bigger lump than the female. They have around 30-40 fry at the moment and I just sold the last of the previous batch. They are stunning and full of character. Hope you get them sorted.

Great job with the setup of the tank. Good to see the end product of your labour, it is worth the time and effort.

Looking good African!!

Sounds like you have one male, 5 females. The males are larger than the females. My males are nearly twice the size of the females. How old are your fish? They take a while to start breeding. Mine took nearly two years, but now breed every couple of months. I leave the fry in with them to slow them down. They seem to slow down in doing that. Good luck, they are worth the wait.

Yep, that is the one, but there are lots of different ones. I have the Chilumba. Found the same ones in Ad Konings book and they are the same as my " Johanni" I bought. :evil:

Is Mel Maingano on the list? If Tropheops are imported they should try and get the correct name. There are heaps of different Tropheops out there. I'm not blaming anyone, I personally think they probably came in as Johanni, when small they look similar to Tropheops. I did talk to owner at the shop I bought them from and he got it from supplier as Johanni. He did not have any Tropheops at that stage. They sold the Maingano as Johanni, if someone bought those later buy some Tropheops or real Johanni and mix them we will have hybrids soon. My point is to warn people to make sure they got what they bought and not mix them.

I bought some juvenile Johanni from a reputable shop. They were orange/yellow in colour and not sexable at that size. They looked like Johanni and within a month some started colouring up to blue. It soon became apparent the barring on the males were vertical and not horizontal. These fish are breeding true and after heaps of investigation I found them to be Tropheus Chilumba. There must have been a mix up when shipped to NZ and now we have a new species. Please take care not to mix these fish with Johanni or Maingano as they will interbreed. Last year more "Johanni" was sold and male and females were blue, which is not the case with Johanni. As most of us know it is not Johanni, but Melanochromis Maingano. I have seen some bright orange "Johanni" in shops lately. I don't have any of the Maingano or Johanni. Did anyone buy some of the latest Johanni and is so do they look like the real thing. Have the males changed colour and have vertical barring? A lot of confusion is caused by human error, but if we take put some effort in to ID our fish we might find we have far more species than we think. Not all fish we think might be hybrids are. Please take some time and Google the 3 different species. Johanni males and Maingano male/ females look similar. Johanni and Tropheops Chilumba juveniles look similar.

Lynn Looking good, he must be feeling like Poena !!!!! :oops:

Hi Here is an update on my fish room. Busy setting up more tanks and having larger room. http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k61/m ... CF0297.jpg http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k61/m ... CF0299.jpg http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k61/m ... CF0311.jpg http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k61/m ... CF0317.jpg http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k61/m ... CF0329.jpg http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k61/m ... CF0329.jpg http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k61/m ... CF0335.jpg http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k61/m ... CF0367.jpg http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k61/m ... CF0368.jpg http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k61/m ... CF0379.jpg http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k61/m ... 0_0813.jpg

First two looks like the blue zebra and pretty sure they are. Third one does not look like anything I ever saw, might be hybrid and most possibly is. Also chance slipped through the system as imported juvinile and is something we don't know. Treat it as unknown/ hybrid and don't breed from it. Will be interesting to know the mix though, like Ryan said you can see dolphin in there.

Looking real good. You should be sweet with four of them in there, as long as the males don't fight to much later when they breed. The breeders have them in 4 foot tanks, one male to 3 females, so you should be sweet.

Have and breeding Apistogramma Eunotus, Cockatoo and Veijita.

Congrats! They are good looking fish and I hope they breed soon.

IMO get rid of them. They prefer pH of 7 and with Africans you would want it around 8 or 9. They grow large and will eat small fish, up to 3 inches.

Heaps of Mbuna and other Malawis, Tangs and Dwarf cichlids.( cockatoo, viejita, eunotus and panduro)

Cheers for that Jewelz. Never to old to learn something new. Will give it a go.

Henward Started out with a couple tanks and grew to what I've got now. Used to breed fish in SA and got back into now. I keep them and if they happy they breed. Added bonus to sell some of the fish to pay for food etc.

Ryan Used 25 mm poly to insulate walls, basement build with concrete blocks so that serves as insulation as well. Nothing on floor yet, will put rubber mats on floor when done. Have 3 tanks on shelve running back to sump and one 200 watt heater in each sump. This gives me option to change water parameters for different fish when breeding them. Have some tanks setup separate without heating and temp is around 24 deg Celsius without heating it. When done both rooms will be heated by heat pump and heaters will be backup in case heat pump goes down.

Almost done setting up first part of new fish room. Will have 16 tanks running when completed. 3 x 4 foot, 1 x 3 foot and 12 x 2 foot. Bigger room will have 1 x 8 foot, 4 x 4 foot , 2 x 5 foot and some random ones if I have enough room. Here is some pictures of what I've done so far: http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k61/m ... 0_0813.jpg http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k61/m ... 0_0810.jpg http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k61/m ... 0_0814.jpg http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k61/m ... 0_0819.jpg http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k61/m ... 0_0817.jpg http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k61/m ... 0_0816.jpg http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k61/m ... 0_0819.jpg

It looks awesome and are good PH buffer. You get some bits with heaps of holes and cracks for the fry to hide in and the survival rate in community tank is good. If you find some or place where to get it let me know, will look good in show tank.

Might be pumice, is that a local tank? Used to get limestone from the beach in Cape Town which look like that. Might be some around here somewhere. The pumice will float and you have to weigh it down and silicon together. Might have a few bits here if you want some? Will have a look tomorrow. Good to use in sump to.

Cheers, will try that.

Hope you all had a good Christmas. Busy setting up new fish room and have 16 new tanks to fill. I'm after the not so common African cichlids, so if anyone has fry, juveniles or breeders for sale please PM me with details and price. Thanks

Good one Paul, see you still got the magic water down your way. Mine spawned heaps but keep on eating the eggs. Tried everything from new male with female and leaving them to it, but no luck. :oops: