David R

Great write-up, and beautiful fish too!

As I have now come full circle with this species I thought I would share the journey on here as inspiration to others.
For the record I am not selling these fish privately so please do not pm me about buying some. They are currently being sold exclusively by Hollywoods Fish Farm who also ship country wide I believe.
First some pictures of what the fish look like now a little over 2 years after I bought them. They are fully matured and the male regularly spawns with one of the other females. ie. they do not form lasting pairs. The largest fish are around 15cm in length and are relatively peaceful towards each other. It is important to keep these fish over a fine substrate such as sand to allow them to sift the substrate through their gills when eating.

 
October 2015: I bought 7 newly imported youngsters. These were the first fish ever to be imported into New Zealand:

March 2016: Growing quickly but still not a lot of red on their forehead:

Dec. 2016: The dominant male is now showing full sexual maturity colours and are starting to impress the girls:

May 2017: First couple formed and the female's forehead is as red as the male's. Their spawn on the glass bottom but end up eating the fry:

Sept 2017: The male has now spawned with another female and has been removed from the tank as it was him eating the fry. The fry has just started to swim freely but often seek shelter in their mothers mouth:

A week later and the female has been removed as the fry are now capable of seeking food themselves:

Feb 2018: The young has grown rapidly in an 800L tank with sand substrate, heavy filtration and weekly 50% water changes. The have now reached the same size as the ones I originally bought. Circle completed:

 
 

 

Testudo hermanni
 
 

Hmmm.... little bit jealous of your red tail shark now...

This little guy [the shark] is possibly my favourite fish at the moment! He's had a good growth spurt since being added to the big tank, and filled out and coloured up really nicely. So far he's just cruising around completely ignoring every other fish, long may the relaxed attitude last.
 

Thomas the first time I've seen the angels spawn was about four days ago! Since adding the clowns I've been doing ~200L water changes every other day (just opening the valve on the sump drain and putting the hose into the tank to run for 112-15 minutes) and I think maybe that's kicked them into action.
 
I've had the festivums a few years, around the time I switched from big fish to small fish. TBH their colours are really drab and they've been pretty uninteresting to keep. Not good quality stock I think, there are some beautiful examples of the genus out there.

Two weeks in the big tank and they've already had a bit of a growth spurt!
 

Two weeks in the big tank and they've already had a bit of a growth spurt!
 

Two weeks in the big tank and they've already had a bit of a growth spurt!
 

Got a new batch of fry (A-line) over the last weekend so I now have approximately 200+ new Geophagus orangeheads to grow out.
There are still around 50 juveniles from the first batch; might do a clearance sale soon.

My most recent FTS.

Currently a couple of goldfish until my heaters arrive. Then it's going to house American cichlids.
 

This is my tank 480ltrs,  

The loaches are in!! I think some of them are a little confused, when I opened the curtains this morning there was a group of about a dozen of the smaller ones swimming around mid-level in the water column schooling with the Lemon Tetras (who are a similar size)! The tank is certainly a lot busier now, the loaches are pretty active already, I was a bit worried they'd vanish into the wood pile and never be seen again but that hasn't happened.

The loaches are in!! I think some of them are a little confused, when I opened the curtains this morning there was a group of about a dozen of the smaller ones swimming around mid-level in the water column schooling with the Lemon Tetras (who are a similar size)! The tank is certainly a lot busier now, the loaches are pretty active already, I was a bit worried they'd vanish into the wood pile and never be seen again but that hasn't happened.

The loaches are in!! I think some of them are a little confused, when I opened the curtains this morning there was a group of about a dozen of the smaller ones swimming around mid-level in the water column schooling with the Lemon Tetras (who are a similar size)! The tank is certainly a lot busier now, the loaches are pretty active already, I was a bit worried they'd vanish into the wood pile and never be seen again but that hasn't happened.

The loaches are in!! I think some of them are a little confused, when I opened the curtains this morning there was a group of about a dozen of the smaller ones swimming around mid-level in the water column schooling with the Lemon Tetras (who are a similar size)! The tank is certainly a lot busier now, the loaches are pretty active already, I was a bit worried they'd vanish into the wood pile and never be seen again but that hasn't happened.

They are a year old now
 

My very simple  4ft Barb, rainbow tank.
Substrate is washed sandpit sand, and plants just one type of Hygrophila and then Java moss.
Plenty of filtration so have to admit not much maintenance, recently took out a bucket of moss which had taken over, but had let my cherry barbs hide a couple dozen 'youngins'
Fish are a selection Barbs,  Rainbows of dubious  origins, a couple of confused bolivian ram and 3X L200, each 20cm- refugees from a friends tank that save on glass cleaning.

Ok here's my Chocolate Zebra Hotel. 100L tank, 7 fish in there, all hiding. 
Can you spot 5 of them in the dark photo? 
 

My most recent FTS.

My most recent FTS.

Upgraded the air system in the fishroom.
25mm electrical conduit with screw in air taps.
ahhh so nice and organised 
 

Their parents have spawned a new batch of eggs within the last 24 hours.  Here's a video of them prior to spawning:
The new batch is the third one.  Like hovmoller's, most of the second batch were eaten.  I saved about a dozen of the second batch through separation.  The second batch were spawned around June, about 7-8 weeks after the first one.
For size estimates, that catappa leaf is about 22cm long, which would put the male (at the back) roughly around 12cm at 24 months old.

My B-line juvies are now nearly 4 months old and most are or about 5cm in size; a few are closer to 6cm.  Here is one of the growout tanks:
A number have already been sold through private channels whilst a sale post have been placed recently into one of the local Wellington Facebook groups' page.