David R

Maybe a little specific? A cichlid club/society/register might be more successful.

Being old and childless with a bigger disposable income is even better (or so I keep telling the other half anyway!)

Great fish and photos, as usual. Any zebras in there?? :lol:

They're hard to photograph eh! Should just make a video of mine...

Just give it a few years until the loaches are bigger, I'd hate to add up how much money is swimming around in my loach tank based on LFS prices.....

Define cheap? IMO most bottom dwellers are cheap (under $50) except for most "fancy" plecos and large clown loaches...

The bigger ones do, but there's no reason you couldn't keep one or a few smaller ones. Hypancistrus like chocolate zebras (L270) or king tigers (L066), starlight ancistrus flash pleco L204, pretty pekoltia, clowns, are all fairly readily available and all stay under ~15cm IIRC, so should be fine in that tank. Could probably keep 2-3 in a tank that size if you provide them wil plenty of spots to hide.

Giant gourami's can be pretty nasty, and they're butt ugly when larger. There's a good reason Helen at HFF is only in with fast silver fish like tinfoils or silver dollars. Is it 75cm wide or tall??

Might have to take you up on that one weekend Si...

West coast between New Plymouth and Raglan towards the end of winter. Probably not that much around Auckland because of the lack of forests and high population...

My first tank was about 70x30x30cm, and I remember looking at a friends 3'x15x15" and thinking how massive it was and dreaming of having a tank that big. And now I look at my 800L+ 6' and think its too small...

I chucked about 30 lemon tetras and a few other random tetras in a 5' tank to help it cycle, it was empty aside from a couple of pieces of wood and within minutes the different species had formed schools and were swimming around together. From the videos I've seen on youtube they don't always hand around in tight schools, so don't expect it to always happen in the aquarium, but in a large tank with a big group of one species you'll certainly see more natural behaviour.

Length isn't everything, I'd consider evil_elmo's 6x3x2' tank much "bigger" than a standard 8x2x2. As someone else said, its all relative, I get pissed off with people on trademe using things like "huge fish tank" for the description/title of a 2' tank, but then there's people on MFK who say "tank cleaning should require a wetsuit", who would look at my tanks as tiny...

Its not really a good idea to cross breed them eh, they are being bred here (pure rotkeil, not rotkeil X gold) so with a bit of luck you should be able to find a male if you want to bred it.

Male rotkeil/redheads??

Skippy I'd be pretty confident in saying yours is a female based on the colouration of my two breeding pairs of Rotkeil. And on the subject of severums, check out this thread with pics of the true Heros severus; link. They're beautiful fish, and their mouthbrooding behaviour would be interesting to watch. I've suggested Hollywood try track some down from their German supplier, would anyone else be interested in them??

Oh well, I didn't know they were that common...

Nice fish Al, I'm tempted to get one now!!

Well is all these morphs pop up in leopard geckos, why wouldn't the happen to natives? Would be interesting to get it and do some selective breeding to see what you could get...

There are four described species of the genus Heros, H. efasciatus, H. notatus, H. severus, and H. spurius. Given the wide distribution of the genus there are also many other fish that are yet to be described which could be new species, subspecies or just regional variants. Rotkeil/redheads are a wild variety from around Iquitos, Peru. Rotkeil is German for Red Shoulder. The name Heros Sp. 'Rotkeil' tells us that they are a member of the genus Heros but are yet to be classified so have been given the handle Rotkeil in the mean time, rather than a collection number or locality. The current thinking is that they are a subspecies or regional variant of H. efasciatus, although they have not yet been classified so they may yet be made a new species. The red/super red severums are a selectively bred line of the gold, which AFAIK is also a selectively bred line. Unfortunately people seem to have a habit of undoing selective breeding, be it mans or natures, by crossing different strains together even when the outcome is obviously going to be inferior to either of the parents. Here is an interesting article on the genus, and it shows why it is important for hobbyists to learn Latin names and correctly identify their fish, especially those who are breeding them. As the author mentions, fish of the genus Heros have been bred in captivity in Germany for close to a hundred years. Most of the fish we see here (probably the only exception being the rotkeils) are most likely hybrids of H. efasciatus. The true H. severus is a much more attractive fish and is actually a mouth brooder!

Looks like a leucistic native gecko of some description. Who's going to try track the guy down before the authorities do... *edit* link

Could well be a "rotkeil" then, although what exactly constitutes one I'm not sure. Many in the trade [overseas] have questionable lineage, possibly hybridised somewhere along the line, and rotkeil isn't a valid species, just a handle given to a group of fish collected from a particular location in south america. Simply translated it mean 'red shoulder'.

What size are you going to upgrade to for the dats?

I haven't seen what the goldXrotkeil mutts look like at a large size yet, so can't be 100%. Looks like one to me though. My two girls (which are for sale right now too!) are a bit darker, but it could just be the substrate and environment.

A tall narrow tank like the aquaone isn't really ideal for cichlids as they need floor space for territories, especially if kept in pairs. Its not the end of the world, but I'd seriously look into getting a glass tank made that is at last as wide as it is high (preferrably wider). IMO they look much nicer as well as being better suited to most fish.