vegemite

I've been staying away on purpose. Every time I spend time here I end up with MTS - so many fish, so much water, so little money. My tank is going great guns though - baby demasoni everywhere, and Eric (the fire eel) is a good 40+ cm now.

Thanks for the PM Georgeous, I'd love to come but I won't be around on the 17th. Bugger cos I live just up the road. If there is a second one (of course there will be), I'll definitely be there. 8)

Does anyone on this forum keep these fish? If so, could you put a pic up. I'd like to see how red the top is on our NZ fish. I've seen plenty of pics in books etc but I have a feeling I'll be disappointed with what's available here. Seriously thinking of a new purchase. Thanks in advance.

Hi Smidey, That's a Peach Zebra (Red Zebra) - Maylandia Estherae And it's holding too! at least it was for a while.

Hi Callum Within a week 2 of the peaches were holding which blew me away. They only held for a few days and I was lucky to get some pics. Of course they have no hope of raising fry in there and that's ok with me. The Demasoni are behaving very well, not bolshy but not taking any crap either (including the smallest one that's about 2cm long) The Cobalt thats pictured is the boss man - he's doing a great job of keeping order.

Running in the mid 8's. He had his own 4ft tank for about two weeks while I brought the PH up from neutral by adding coral sand. I haven't seen any signs of distress at all.

Well it's pretty much done - my fish wish list is now in the tank and looking good... 13 Demasoni (thanks Callum) 5 Callainos (thanks Johannes) 8 Estherae (thanks Callum) 6 Caeruleus 1 Fire Eel Here are a couple of pics of the outcome.

Beautiful stuff. How do you go at feeding time with the mixed tanks.

I'm sure the guy that wrote the article would disagree but what it pointed out to me was that there is no point trying to concoct home made recipes to supplement their natural diet when the top line laboratories have created food that is better than their natural diet. It's us humans that need to add variety to the fishies diet not because they need it but because we get bored feeding them the same thing all the time. It's like dog food with veges and gravy and duck liver etc - it's packaged to appeal to the owner more than the dog cos the owner has the money. As for Red Sea, I've used it and found it great. It seems that NLS is the best but fact is you can't get it here. I've just stocked up on SERA products for my mbuna - Flora Flake, Granugreen pellets and Spirulina tabs. They get a pretty good rap. You get what you pay for.

As I understood it, Fire Eels and Tyre Track Eels are both considered Spiny Eels from the Mastacambelidae family. They aren't eels at all but unusual tropical fish. I have a 35cm fire eel and until recently had a Peacock eel as well. They got on ok. Your greatest challenges will be water temp (Native eels need much cooler water) and diet as the Spinys like worms and shrimp but would probably get pushed aside at meal time by the piggy natives.

So Mark - I guess you don't hand feed the aro then...

Whoever is doing the maintenance gets to decide what goes in the tank imo. Stand your ground - go for the colours of Africa if that's what you're leaning towards. He'll come around. Show him some pictures of big Malawi eye biters - the name alone will sway him. :lol:

Hey Smidey, from what I've heard the guy Richard bought them off is very careful with his breeding tanks. Time will tell but I wouldn't worry too much at this stage. If you need reassuring ask Richard for his email.

I've been told that if you turn the room lights off at night and hold a lit cigarette over the tank, they'll spit it out. Great party trick if it's true. :lol:

It pays to have your camera ready at all times - great pic.

I've read a few articles with recipes for Mbuna - one even from Ad Konings himself, so I decided to give it a go. I went browsing through a few sites for recipes and stumbled upon the article below. I know it's hardly an impartial view - but it convinced me enough to leave the spirulina and gelatin in the pantry for now. It's a long read but it has some great points that make a lot of sense. I'd love some opinions after you have read it. http://www.newlife.ipbhost.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=328

I guess 50% water changes are easy enough

Just browsing through the aquahobby website when I came across this.. I thought it was pretty cool -http://www.aquahobby.com/tanks/e_tank0603.php :lol:

Curious to know - how many of you do these large water changes with water straight from town supply without using any form of chlorine remover?

the intakes are behind the background and a long way from the substrate- no sand getting in there! A big chunk of dead coral.. won't it be full of dead polyps or something, I thought it would make the ammonia spike.

I have recently set up a 120cm malawi tank with a mountain of rock and used coral sand as substrate. I didn't like the look (too bright) so added beach sand from West Coast. Because of the different particle sizes they dont mix and it looks no better. Think I'll stick to sand only. Question 1. The beach sand is very fine - are there any inherent problems using it as a substrate. Question 2. To buffer the water I have a huge piece of coral rock. I am going to break it into chunks and put it in the canister. It's never been in a tank before so what do I need to do to make it aquarium safe. Should I soak it in a weak bleach solution for a few days??. Should it go in a stocking or will that create bacterial problems. Cheers for your thoughts

6 residents now. At a HUGE 5cm this guy thinks he's the king of the tank... At 3cm I'm pretty sure these little fella's see the future a little differently For now though, they're the best of mates :bounce:

my personal favourite - http://www.malawicichlidhomepage.com these guys are hardcore purists with a passion for mbuna

Fortunately (or more accurately unfortunately), since we have such a small variety of malawis on offer in N.Z you don't really have that much to learn.

congratulations smidey sounds like this is potentially your first batch?? best of luck with it do you have another tank? :bounce: :bounce: