herefishiefishie

Here's a site form A Gold Caost shop. Different breeder to the one I have the information from. http://www.gnsaquarium.com.au/html/bgk.html Frenchy

I had a couple of replies of interest, so I thought I would add what works for a couple of people I know. First of all you need a compatible pair. Males head shape is that more of a horse, than the female. His eyes are more towards the top of the head. Female's more slender & its eyes are lower & to the front of its head close to it's mouth. Tanks have been set up with bare bottoms, with bottoms with pot plants filled with large pebbles, the bottom fully covered in large pebbles(black works best) or anything that allows the eggs to fall through, so the parents cant get them. One breeder here his male rips out the filter wool of the box filter & the female drops eggs in that. ( I haven't seen this to confirm) The prefered way is to use chinese egg containers with the large smooth black pebbles, the clear eggs contarst well against the black. If you miss the laying you can still see the heap of eggs, eggs will go white if bad, if good they go dark in colour. The filtration should be used to stimulate waterflow & rainfall. Being a tropical, riverine animal. Aqua Clear hang on filters, internal filters used with a spray bar...... as for water quality, my mates set up worked well, he uses a blue globe for lighting, is lazy on the waterchanges,(tank is overfiltered anyway) The tank has a lovely growth of algae too. Dosen't use a heater either, his room is warm. Some others use a heater, tank set at 27 degrees. Then again here is sub tropical. Breeding, seems to work the same as with American cichlids. Weather changes(storms) a large water change eg;50% but where you add 10-20% water per day for 3 days, seem to spark them on. The ritual looks more like a wrestling match, males & females get red flashes in their tails, males flash is brighter. They twind there bodies around each other, while swimming/rolling around the tank. The female lays her eggs just above the rocks, looks like she is feeding fromm the rocks. The eggs are located just behind her head. The female swims up & away & then the male goes to the rocks & fertilisers the eggs. They then repeat the process again..... at the end the poor buggers look like they have died, but they are stuffed after such a long time at it. The eggs take about 4 to 7 days to hatch. As they mature first they grow a little tail, they are brown in colour, the more they grow the morethey form the slender shape & get darker in colour. Remove the fry once they start to venture out of the safety of the rocks. About 2 to 3 weeks. I'd personally take them out at 2 weeks as the parents don't care for their young & the young can end up a food source. Daphnia, fry powder, feshly hatch baby brine shrimp are used to feed the young. I think that covers it, any questions? Frenchy

I am talking about little bobs back & forth like they aren't moving anywhere & the feelers arent searching/moving or doing anything. I had this pointed out to me buy a guy who I've mentioned before. You can tell the difference between this bobbing & normal movements. Frenchy

Neons are great, nice & bright, small... I wouldn't have neons & goldies together. When Goldies get bigger they will eat anything that fits in there mouth. frenchy

If its a tropical fish,(& still alive but no good) I usually just freeze them. Then throw them into the bin on rubbish day. frenchy

wow thats a high death rate. :evil: Shelley, what you said to look for is about all you can do. Oh & make sure water isn't blue or green. Only buy from a reliable source, healthy fish are well nourished not plump bellied. they like to swim & eat eagerly.(so you could ask for shop person to feed fish so you observe) look out for deformities. Frenchy

I used to have to get up for work just on sunrise, the buggers used to run ramphant. The first thing i did in the morning was to feed them. A blue light works well to. Frenchy

It wasn't me, but I have seen 2 seperate succesful setups. Its a bit of a hush hush topic here. 1 guy breed them once in Brisbane, killed the fry, yet offered to sell the information. :lol: A mate of mine who had a pair setup, breed them by accident the first time. Turns out how he had the tank setup was the way to go. There are 2 others I know of, 1 is tight lipped too :evil: & the other works for a wholesaler who was keen to bounce ideas. A guy on a forum I am on over here is also keen to try & breed these(hasnt yet) & found more information. It is documented that somewhere else breed these, 3rd world country, they stopped as of not as much money as the drug trade. :roll: I have another friend who has a pair, shows the signs just a little young still we think. :oops: I will post story of tips & breeding set ups in a couple of days. Its a bit of a story. Frenchy

I used to work for a guy who is on his 10th LFS(20 years) been keeping fish for longer than I have been alive. The sad thing is not only does he know all the cichlids, tropical fish by scientific names but also all the diseases. I remember seeing these white marks on discus in the store & asked what they were as they arent whitespot, :-? I think he said its like a break in the lines,(more delicate in discus) but don't quote me because as soon as he said it was harmless it all sort of went in one ear & out the other :roll: Frenchy

Jack Dempsey's look more like this. http://www.adaniels.com.ar/enciclopedia ... empsey.jpg they are longer bodied & rounder in the head, coloured body. It is an American Cichlid of some sort but what??? It has the Texas spots. Yet the body shape of a red devil juvie/female. Sorry i'm not as good with my American cichlid ID. :-? Looks like you'll have to do a Google search unless someone else has an idea. Frenchy

Do you find that these are on the veins in the tail? if so harmless. frenchy

Oh no I have a couple of java ferns in a couple of tanks too. I like the look of Anubias. There is a supplier here who sells driftwood creations with Anubias already attached. Wood is pretty well leached too, so no "tea look" 8) Also it takes a fair bit of wood to soften the water. Plus where I am the water is a little on the soft side :roll: so some bufers are already used. Before I bought some Ps. sp . acei I thought I'd do a bit of reading. This comes from "Enjoying Cichlids" Ad Konings (Editor) They are found in sandy habitat near trunks or branches. Algae & phytoplankton are part of there food source, seems they mainly feed from the algae on the bark of tree stumps & branches that have washed into the lake. This also dispells the other myth that some have that there is no wood in the african rift lakes. Frenchy

I have seen this debated on a few sites. Each of my tanks has at least one piece of driftwood in it. They all have Anubias attached to them. Just want to know if anyone else uses wood, or am I mad. Frenchy

I think you will find that the white sore is a bacterial infection. Dwarf Gouramis are very prone to this. I see this every other order with a couple coming down with what you have in the pic. Treatment, well I haven't seen many survive this, the sore will continue to grow & the fish will get less active. Sorry. Chlor-B500 (used in Asia to wash out holding pens), Oxytetracycline or doxycycline. These drugs though only can get from vets or aquarium stores with good contacts. But with the cost of treating, i'd be more inclined to flush the fish, again sorry. When buying dwarf gouramis really do check the health of them. A tip, if gouramis seem to bob a little back & forth, thats the first signs of a bacterial infection. Hope this helps. frenchy

Shame to hear of your loss, I am with Alan here. water quality more than the cold would of killed them. Speaking of cold, my oldies flew out for Christchurch today, I'd love to see the look on there faces. They had the heater out here last night as it was a little chilly. :lol: Frenchy

I grew 4 of them upto 35cm, but passed them on 2 years ago. I had the tank set up with a 3 hollow logs & about 4 gravel vac tubes, so they all had their own home. 1 used to get picked on every now & then but they were generally fine. I used to hand feed them blood worms, also fed them little feeder fish..... My mate kept 2(males have more of a horse head & females have lower set eyes) they breed for him twice before one died, there is another guy i know of who breeds them consistantly. If anyone wants to know of set ups for breeding drop me a line. I'll post up information. eg:Set up filters to stimulate rain/river current. Frenchy

Vent sex the fish to see if they are m & f. frenchy

They breed very easily & are great parents. Once thay start breeding try & stop them... :lol: Frenchy

Depends if you want to breed the fish or set up as a display tank. Display wise mix & match on colours & species & should be fine. If you have males of the same genus or species they will more & likely fight, as do some fish that are the same colour. Stay away from predatory fish like the Nimbochromis genus, they grow to big & eat others. Be careful with mixing zebras, as some get really agro. If you want to throw lake tangys in there....Fronies go well, they get big though, but usually are placid in tanks. A.calvus & A.compressiceps do well to & so do some of the Neolamprologus genus. If you have zebs stay away from tropheus. As for how many fish, well it all depends on filtration, feeding & how they all get along. I have seen nice malawi setups, with heaps of fish, but they are very well filtered & got regular(weekly) water changes. Its all personal preference anyway. Breeding wise there are a few ways to do it. I'm setting up a 6ft,18in,18in today with 20 electric yellows, 11 Gephyrochromis acei white tails, 6 Albino electric yellows, (excess males to be taken out as they grow, all still only 4 to 6cm) 3 white calvus, 4 pearly calvus. This way the fish chosen males & females both have colour. Hope this helps, just have fun with it, buy what fish tickle your fancy. Frenchy

These guys are a noxious pest in Adelaide, as they are in the waterways there. :-? They are tough little buggers, so if it dosen't get to cold they could do well. If i was to add them to a pond I'd be more inclined to add them in spring, give them a while to get used to the pond before winter hits. Frenchy

The top pic is off either a Labeotropheus fuelleborni or trewavasae, both very similar. Do a search on google & you may be able to find out which one it is & what variant(location) The bottom pic is a type of Aulonocara, maybe a jacobfreibergi. The fact it has no colour makes it difficult to tell what type. Hope this helps. Frenchy

:lol: Good "feng shui" for the person selling them. :roll: I like that, every time I here someone (looks at g/f) :roll: bring up "feng shui", have bed here, picture there... good luck, centuries old traditions, blah blah blah :lol: Frenchy 8)

Moving; Dont feed fish for 2 days before the move. I'd go to a cheap shop & buy one of the containers on wheels. I have one that holds 120 litres. Get a couple of battery air pumps, handy to keep to incase of blackouts or future moves. When u move 1/2 full container with tank water, place in the fish connect air pump. When u are ready too move tank, Put filters in bucket with tank water, run a air pump in that. If its a cannister filter leave it filled with water. Empty tank, but leave just enough water to cover gravel, if you can carry tank this way. if not gravel in buckets with tank water. Being a short trip u should be fine. This is probably the best way to keep alive the bacteria, also the more tank water u can keep the better. Run tank when filled for a few hours to mix everything back in. Use a product like cycle, geo liquid....will help. Make sure the water is neutralised if you can before it goes into the tank if not before filters are placed in the tank. If you have a spare small internal filter, you can run that in the fish container to keep them safe for a longer period of time. Frenchy

Yeah they should be fine, though I have seen alot of cichlid tanks with catfish(upside downs included) in them with no dramas. Just watch the cichlids at the start with agression. Frenchy

As Alan said baby Brine Shrimp. Help them grow better, the cleaner the water the quicker they will grow too. frenchy