herefishiefishie

oops, my bad Aaron. I was told a reason why it was bad :roll: I thought it was what I typed. :oops: Wonder if they meant that water isn't really h2o, with chlorine & chloramines.... in the water. Or if the water to ice to water holds there state, its a different water make up going in compared to the tank water. My bad, there was a reason. :lol: Now I will have to find the bugger that told me. :lol: Frenchy

Very nicely set out. Looking good. Frenchy

I wouldn't suggest the use of pairs either. The poor male when his only female is holding. Then it will become poor female, because the male has nothing else to harass. Suggest as above trios or more. As for mixing & matching species, well that depends on varying factors. How about you list a few species that you are keen on, then some of us can give you our 2 cents. Also tank size would be good too. Frenchy

So I've noticed. So Jacko where were you at the start of the post :roll: :lol: & You could of backed me up on the if it works in sub tropical Gold Coast it will work in New Zealand. :lol: Let me guess the heat wave over now. 8) Frenchy

What about the sport or socialise. You would think everyone would at least have friends. :lol: Run errands.....Even low life scum have to make deals... My answer about the use of fans over ice & time was directed towards the majority. As in most people still have lives to lead & sadly can't be with there fish all day. Frenchy

Firstly ice is free, rebutted nicely by others. Now its, time frame on heat, wtf??? Now who is nit picky :lol: Lets run the ice theory for lets say 2-3 days heat..... So for just a couple of days of real heat, I have to go buy 4-6 x 2litre bottles of coke & drink the contents.{with bourban of course }Full up the empty bottles with water & freeze them. Then rotate these in the tanks, during whatever time is left. Now this will only work if I caught the weather report in time. Yep I see where you come from. As I said before, if I have to go to work or have a life, sport, socialise... I am stuffed. Most people have one or the other. {I am also a tidy person so coke bottles are not laying around everywhere} My way of thinking is alot harder though, so please bear with me.... Grab the family fan in the lounge room, {most people have a fan} place it next to the tank, take the lids off the tank & turn the fan on. Wow, that was hard. We aren't always 30 degrees here too. Been that once this week & maybe again on Saturday. So it's a case here of fans on one day, then not again to maybe Saturday. We might get a run of hot days. Once or twice a summer. Gold Coast isn't too bad. But, get this...... Over here I know it will get hot, therefore I could store frozen coke bottles, blows your theory out of the water so to speak there too. Wow Brad, I will have to start calling you Nostro.... & on this note Perfect. Could of added multiple tanks too Brad. Ira gave a good example too. The thing is Mystic, me & Brad, Ira have tried the ice theory. No good for us at all. The fan is perfect for long term too, I store the fly screen mesh away in winter, it’s always there. You never know, if the global warming theory is true, you may need to find a long term solution too. {hope not} Frenchy

I have kept a few different species of victorians & had the same problem with aggression. I had a case of plastic sexing, but thats another issue. If you want to keep & breed these guys, a tank set up in divisions. I used slate, with plenty of rock work, hidey holes. 1 male to as many girls as you can. Even the girls can pick on each other. Frenchy

Yep they sure know how to pump them out :lol: Nice pics.. Frenchy

I would say the person said brownae, well should of. Haplochromis sp. "brownae" Frenchy

Didn't you notice the mesh on top of my tank in the photo. I have cichlids of which alto's are expensive, sensetive & good jumpers If your tank is full inclosed & its hot, be prepared to have 10 bottles in frezzer & alot of walking. Frenchy

The more air that passes over the tank the quicker the tank will drop in temp. Surface agitation is important, ie; set the internals high up in the tank, add an air stone... Frenchy

Have a read of the thread, entertaining :lol: The fan method is great. If it works for me in Sub Tropical Qld, I am sure it will do ok for the kiwis back home like... 8) Frenchy

:lol: I know which is easy & for the sake of a few cents, I mean really...{yawns} For a start, how much do you value your time? My time is worth more than a few cents, having to run back & forth from the fish tank. Then there is work, which I sort of need to do. On my days off, turn the fan on & enjoy the day. Nice & hot, 8) off to the beach for some eye candy :lol: With the fan going on the tank, circulates the air in the room too The thought of having a frozen bottle circulating in the tank, banging into the glass isn't the greatest of ideas either...:roll: Frenchy

Some very nice lists there. Frenchy

Are you talking about the fan method. If you are, then you are wrong. As I said before, I am in Queensland, sub tropical Aussie......it isn't a dry heat here either. :roll: Unless the 3 years of me doing this has been a total fluke.:lol: You have to be careful with ice cubes too. When you freeze water, you change the composition of it. Therefore to many ice cubes will change the water parameters. If you want to use ice, freeze coke bottles filled with water or similar. Frenchy

That really sucks, sorry to hear/read.. Frenchy

Haven't lost a fish in 3 summers. And I have lake Tangy's too. They hate the water over 29 & as I said I am in Qld. Sub tropical here. We can get a few 30 plus days in a row in summer. I can't remember which scientific law/principle it uses, but there is one. :lol: What happens is heat rises, the fan is blowing away the heat energy. I also have the filters set so surface agitation is high too. Frenchy

Do I have to Brad :lol: We just had this chat over here online. i have been doing this for years. Have to here in sunny Queensland.. Frenchy

I would say she isn't mature enough then. It is common, best described as practising I guess. lol @ Afrikan too. :lol: Frenchy

Nice pic dogmatix, good luck with the breeding to everyone. These are a cool little cichlid. 8) Frenchy

Ooopppps forgot I posted this up here :lol: The Demasoni are miles in front which is a suprise seeing as they are the smallest of the mbuna. Then when I thought about that, maybe in the wild they need to reach maturity quickly because of their small size. The mbambas are 2nd, Acei & yellows seem to be the same. These have the highest difference in size. Some being close to the mbambas, the others, really tiny. Acei's are the biggest of the lot when fully grown. In the pic is a demasoni, yellow & mbamba. You may be able to make out a white calvus baby, looks like a smudge though lol. Frenchy

Good luck, let us know how you go. Frenchy

This is what Luke should of added at the start when he said 90% Otherwise the average Joe adding 90% of new water straight from a tap or bucket would do way more harm than good. The water differences will kill the bacteria. I can see where Rogan came from on his reply. Therefore Luke, in replying to your first post Rogan wasn't wrong. May I suggest that if you are going to tell someone to do a water change higher than 30% explain why & how you do it. People can't read minds. Frenchy

Substract as mentioned above is good. If you have a canister filter, having a small bag of crushed coral in the filter is great. Here is a simple recipe to use when doing water changes, http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/buffer_recipe.php NB; Always remember.... always do a water change when raising the ph of your water. Frenchy

Electric yellows are prone to this too. Some people here will debate over it being a parasite or bacterial. The best medicine you can get & your vet mate will have it, is Metronidazole. {also known as Flagyl} The joys of metro is that it is also very good against anaerobic bacteria. Dose rate is 500-750mg/100lt for 2 or 3 days followed by a water change. {I would repeat the following week too.} Good luck, I tend to have only had this problem with yellows. Some recovered others didn't. The fish stilll eat, swim around but just don't put on the weight. They keep getting slimmer, swim less actively...eventually death. My believe is this is more to do with parasites, as I have had trouble in the past with one yellow passing to another. Funny thing is that it didn't get passed onto other species. :-? Frenchy