herefishiefishie

the good old nor wester :lol: more trouble there with the cold over your way?? no need for heaters in summer, just when its hot here its muggy too. I wonder how people in Cairns & darwin go???definatley need air conditioning. I feel sorry for family friends that were here last 2 weeks , first the heat then went back to a southery change(CHCH) brr cold. Frenchy

I managed to pick myself up 4 Peppermint Catfish, I am just wondering if anyone has breed these & is willing to pass on any tips. Are they any different to breeding Bristle nose"s???? Cheers in advance, Frenchy

I remember buying my first 2 footer, :roll: 2 electric blues & 2 electric yellows. & now to have M.T.S.. The misses still hasnt got the virus yet, boy Im going to miss her. :lol: Frenchy

You might want to buy more, as 4 is too small a colony for tropheus,you will find you could end up with just 1!! Should have 10 to 20 for a colony as males get very agro towards others so the more the better. :evil: Give them a high vegie diet as in the wild they are algae eaters. Spirilina flakes & the like..... no red meat, they will get bloat. The movement on the glass is more than likely them eating at the algae growing on it. Sexing them is by vent sexing only, or wait & see whos holding(f), whos the most agro(m). Yes they are mouth brooders. Frenchy

Love saying wee, the aussies pay me out every time... Needed some room as some of the americans need there own tank(breeding ) so I had to clear out some africans, but then went stuff it & cleared out the lot. So the plan was to go all American, with an empty tank I went for a Discus set up, saw a well known breeder in brisbane with good links to an importer & I now have a medium sized, Red Melon, Dickson Gold, Red Spotted Green, Blue Snakeskin, Golden Pigeon Blood, Red Turquoise & German Cobalt. I just got 1 of each but the plan is when I sell all the african fry in 4 footer, few weeks, I will go for 2 different varieties & try my luck breeding them. I did keep cuckoos, (some peacocks for the cuckoos) a fronie & calvus(sentiment), but we had 40 degree temps on the weekend (tanks at 35 loaded up airation) but alias the third day of heat was 1 to many for the calvus & fronie , I am lucky compaired to alot of other people here. Good in a way to go american, they can handly the heat better. Frenchy

You could get away with 5 or 6 in a 4 footer. You dont need to many plants,(use large leafed plants) discus can hide behind them yes, but you do want to look at them. Temp 26 to 30 degrees, if breeding28-30. ph anywhere from 6.3 to 7.5 but if breeding the lower the better.Constant water changes is the trick, at least every other day. Try & make all the discus the same size, little ones get picked on & miss out at feeding time. This here is a good site full of good info, especially tips on buying & the like; http://www.dph.nl/ & this one, note h2ohhh,Rod(discus guru) he has been breeding discus here for years; http://pub5.ezboard.com/fqldchiclidsfrm30 hope these help. Frenchy

Welcome John, Convincing the better half is a mission sometimes. Taken me years to find what tickles her fancy :oops: Discus in this case. Good luck with the fish room. Frenchy

Welcome from across the ditch, Frenchy

Yeah I have read a few different theories, Marine fish have been known for changing sexes for a while; eg; clown fish are all male, except for the largest, a female. so in finding nemo when his mum died, marlin should of then turned into a girl, :lol: & inturn look to mate with nemo :oops: with cichlids they are new species still been discovered, & most scientist alone study one field, either marine or freshwater; so most come accross plastic sexing by mistake, or dont know what happened.eg; Barlow though has studied both...anyway one of his stories... had a few orange chromides & the male died, he placed his 2 girls that were left in the same tank, no room :roll: both had mated with male. He noticed a while later eggs in the tank & then fry, not the normal size batch, but it showed 1 girl carried enough of the male bits & bobs Frenchy

just remember in the wild they can only eat when they catch something, so sometimes they dont eat for a few days. 1 or 2 feeds a day is heaps. Cichlids will eat all day if you let them, just like cats,humans...... You will find feeding them that often will polute your water alot quicker, and like over feeding any animal , health problems could occur. Frenchy

mixed diet is best, beef heart isnt as popular here, fish dont get to eat red meat in the wild. Frenchy

Female salvinis are nicer, have more red on there bellies & they keep more of the yellow body colouring. I have a pair breeding here, fry are only 2 cm at the moment, pity I am here in Aussie I have a spare female too.Just in case :evil: You are right about the spot on the gills,(female) females are smaller too; Also females have a blue-edged black blotch on the middle part of the dorsal fin, once a pair is established they are good breeders & good parents too, Mine have a 4 footer to themselves The top pic in photo is a male severum(gold)the bottom pic has me beat,not salvini, post the pic on the cichlid forum here in qlds I am sure someone could ID them for you. Frenchy

tick tick tick :roll: usually first sign is they will clear out gravel, making a hole. But I guess if they are in a castle be hard to tell. With the bristle noses I check for eggs/young by using a torch. The fact they are attacking the syphon is a good sign. Frenchy

Different option, The shop I work at has a disply tank(angels,loaches....),this is connected differently to the others. how about having a small tank above the bigger 1. We have it in a cabinet braced onto the wall. We have a strong internal pump, & it just pumps the water up & over the smaller tank(2 foot). A swinging arm is at the top of the 2 footer with heaps of holes. pressure causes this to swing around like a helicopter blade;so all the filter material comes into play. Let gravity do the rest. Saves drilling a big tank, just need a hole in the middle of the base of the smaller 1. Frenchy

Hi Sue, I bet you have a long week then, waiting & hoping to see what happens. I had a pair few years ago now, b4 the "P.Sex" days, they will defend their young well. Have you found that the male colours up more the longer you have him.... Chris they should go right with what you said, just have to watch the bristles dont get at the eggs. I control the bristles by moving there ceramic logs(home & breeding possie) to opposite end of whatever else may of laid. Also 1;1 ratio. shops here take fish at 3cm plus, to them though the bigger the better. Frenchy

eggs hatch in about 2 days(48 hours), fry free swimming after about 5 days. Frenchy ps; should be plenty of info on these on the net...

If yellows are small, what is the size???they might not be m & f, usually best to buy a colony of 6 to 8, and weed out excess males later. Yellows will go with all mouth brooding africans(except big bullies) & most community fish too. They look good against pseudotrophies aceiis or eletric blues....Electric yellows are the most docile of the cichlids. :roll: Sexing by black markings or lack of is no indication of sex,the males will develop a black mo/smudge on their upper lip. vent sexing is the only other true way of knowing the sex. All the best with them, they are a cool fish. Frenchy ps; plenty of info on the net too....& i personally would do 10-20 % water changes at least every fotnight.

Baking soda is only a short time boost for ph,for those looking at buffering their tanks.The limestone would be the cause for your high ph binkles, either take out (bummer) or go African. geo liquid may help clear your tank, or an extra filter till it clears. Frenchy

What size tank you throwing these beauts into??? Frenchy

do you have any calcium substact or similar in the new tank. amm..& nit.. should be zero too. wood is a natural way of softening the water too, if you dont want to do drown with chemicals. Frenchy ps; set up 4 footer with africans, they like the high ph.

I agree with Rob, loaches can handle themselves, catch a loach & see the blades for yourself, I have mine in with Festaes & the like. They do well. Frenchy keep loaches as a single or group, if 2 or 3 they pick on each other.

What no Festaes I remmeber here 5 to 6 years ago you couldnt even give salvinis away, but now they retail for $20 to $30 each (lfs)at 3 to 4 cm. Glad I kept my pair. Festaes seem to hit the market here for a while then disappear for 6 months. Frenchy ps; whats the damage for salvinis???Gee no fronies there either :evil: yet yous have Flowerhorns & blood parrots :evil: havent seen blood parrots here for ages too!!!

Doc, Get the better half to have a look at Salvinis & or festaes, sure shell like those. do yous have them there, American Cichlids Frenchy

Hello Alan, I'll see what I can find out from this side of the ditch, personally havent heard of them, but I got a couple of good contacts. Frenchy Melanochromis; chipokee, melanopterus, parallelus & perspicax. any of those???

Sweet Sue, let us know how you go I have posted this on a cichlid site over here but the guys here are to far up each other to know what their fish are doing?? or to try theories.... The only reponse I got was the old "colour inhancing food" trick but I know better than that. there was 1 person(lfs owner)out of 893 members, he offered this site, www.cichlidae.com/articles/a091.html makes for good reading,especially the mbuna good on the kiwis!!!! :roll: Frenchy ps; the book I have just read; The Cichlid Fishes, Nature's grand experiment in evolution, by; George W. Barlow.