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An interesting thread re: Breeding Blues with Blues. http://bluejax.14.forumer.com/viewtopic ... highlight=

Hi snookie The Alpha male is just that, the biggest, most red in dorsal and most flared in the dorsal and anal fin , both males more prominent as per cichlid males even at 7-8 cm as per big guy, have actually had him seperated for a month while other male stayed with 2 girls. reunited and big guy has let the tank know the new rules, including his preferred concubine. Ideally would like to have two males for breeding but keen to grow and swap with good male from the other batch brought in.

Doubt any here are big enough to breed with anything yet, need to be 12-14mths from what I've read so I 'd say it'll be another 6 mth before any get to breeding age. I 've put mine into a 4 ft tank and plenty filtration and are growing nicely, mixed diet and some food soaked in garlic extact. As for breeding blue with blue I've yet to find a successful attempt. Spawn and fry but no survivors past wriggler. There is also a gold dempsey but that isn't as cool IMO. But I wish we could get the gold convicts, or the Honduran red point variety here. they are amzing looking. my guys in new home. unfortunately will have to sell at least one as they get bigger. The alpha male is growing much bigger than the other male as is his chosen female.

While the endangered element no doubt comes into play, MAF probably don't have the resource to keep cuurent with this. As you've mentioned fish like the L46 zebra pleco is in danger in its natural habitat in Brazil because of the taking of wild caughts and the afct they decided to build a bloody great power station on their back door step. yet this fish is bred everyday in aquariums around the world. I would say that the Bio security issue is of greater importance to MAF. So how many of the 'topical' fish we wish to keep/import would last one winter here if released into the wild. I don't doubt that there might be some plec that will tough it out for a while but breed?

The problem is that you are talking about A Govt dept. They assume that if there is too much dialogue between us that cronyism(?) is bound to develop and rules will ignored. they seem duty bound to stoop to the lowest common denominator particularly in terms of character and ethics, so common sense is probably not policy. There are undoubtedly better ways of working the system, the list should be drafted with input from all sectors of the indusrties concerned, but at the end of the day we are a tiny percentage of a tiny prcentage of a tiny market.

I many cases the list denotes allowable species or family so i can only assume that as Danios, or Rasboras as they were described back then were already allowable so the celestial were allowable. Interesting point though-Jack Dempsey's and convict cichlids( both common as here) have been re-classified and its likely their new classification doesn't appear on the list.. My understanding is that the list and its workings is under revision. Just as well as it seems to be a bit of a mess.

There are three Gold nugget varieties, but sounds like this is yours as the others dont get as big as yours already is. They are tricky to sex but at least they are relatively easy to find here. http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/sp ... ies_id=153 I've got colonies of L128 blue phantom and L200 green phantom that I would love to breed, but I need that new tank of yours, or similar size to do it so perhaps it's your back you should be watching mate. Ha Cheers!

The cost of this tank goes up exponentially because of its height. 48inches is high It will probably have to be made out of 15mm or even 19mm glass, maybe 19mm base, back and sides with that 15mm starfire glass on front. All the added bracing, not the sort of tank you can get a quote over the phone for. Noones added in the cost of the Hiab to shift the thing- in fact probably need to be built onsite. Imagine the weight of base panel 10x5ft and 19mm thick Emily- please keep us updated through the process, sounds real interesting

The glass itself would run into the thousands, not to mention the right base and adequate floor to put it on. Not the sort of thing you pop across your 600mm joist gaps. Its sounds like an Engineer's delight in terms of stresses and loads. the force 6 tonnes of water would be putting on the top of the tank would be huge. I'm assumminig it would be glass-or is it Acrylic Emily. I think a native rock pool as David B suggested would great- stocked full of live bait.

don't think they're on the list.

Thats amazing- A South American Bio-type tank- Rio Orinoco for me Yeah huge capacity and huge load too, is that 6 tonnes of water. Great project, good luck keen to here about constudtion as it goes I've been watching this thread a bit and thought his tank was big... http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... hp?t=21122

Crikey! lucky for me you don't have terrets- LOL- It was a tongue and cheek statement- No offence meant Ant. Whatever the spellling I'm envious of your 900ltr tank and its possibilties. Actually got my first fish about 32-33 yrs ago. Cheers!

not many options I'd say. Your gibby is about as big as we get apart from other common plecs. There might be some big -ass catfish that might do the job but it would be pretty anti-social. I say flag the sailfin, bulid up a colony of nuggets and with that much water be first to breeed them here. Big tank =big plans. LOL. P.S -hope your water checks are better than your spell-check.

I'm with Ryan. None of your fish require bloodworm. Now and then as something different to help get rid of your stocks is fine.

If you choose the algaefix be on the light side with the dilution rate, be sure to take into account rocks etc and the amount of water they displace so treating the amount of water and not the capacity of the tank. I trust you are thawing and straining the bloodworm. Even stop feeding for a few days, it won't hurt the fish you have in the slightest. I guess it's just a case of trying to halt the cycle that the tank is in.

As Ryan said it's not uncommon in African tanks. Try a few more frequent changes for a couple of weeks, and try and break cycle. I hate adding chemicals to any of tanks but your fish are quite robust so algae fix is a possibility. Longer term- where is the tank situated? is there a lot of ambient/direct light and fluctuations in ambient temp. Also you could consider a UV filter for tank also.

They are probably getting enough food from algae etc in tank, I'd cut back on the tabs if not being eaten

I reckon-lucky you .

Could it also be a Juvi Fusco? Was it from a local breeder?

I have an FX5 and absolutely no worries or complaints. I don't no if you can call your eheim media not working well in your Fluval Filter a flaw or "con". No doubt the Eheim is a awesome piece of kit and if you were doing a comparison without factoring in the costs, the fluval would perhaps be left wanting. But value for money I think it's hard to beat.

You can pretty much count on interbreeding between many if not most Malawis including Mbunas with Hap/Peacocks.

Also watch the rams with the cockatoos.!

Relax- if it is only for 6 hrs. Seems a few people have gone straight to the back page of the phonebook over this one. A water change the night before. Blanket over while the powers out I was out for 36 hrs over winter and Discus tank got down to 17 degrees, started up and after 4 mths no casualties, I might pull through it. At the moment I have the filter off in a breeding tank with a malawi trio for a day now. Water change, and filter on- no worries. Even so, don't go crazy with feeding for a few days afterwards.

Hadn't thought of rainbows, but they would be lovely. Was going to try something like Cloumbian tetras which I thought might be big enough to handle the cichlids, and bit more Bio -type. Tank already has plenty of wood and flat rocks with some big panaques on bottom. The congos and Discus are going. All comes down to the personality of the cichlids i guess. My EBJD's are relatively docile at this stage

Those are two are certainly on my shortlist Snookie, haven't kept either but seems they would be good choices. Have to keep an eye out for the Chocolates as noyt common( are you breeding them?). Also thinking Nicaraguans as their Colours would complement the Blues really well. Torn between putting them in together young and let them grow up or holding off a while and let the blues grow up. Left brain vs right brain. Selling off Discus to make room this week.