Fee

You may be right, my male as three spots, but all me definate females have gone, so I have nothing to really compare him to.

Aquascope (a wholesaler in Tuaranga) where selling a fish that they where calling an "Electric Blue African Cichlid" I bought a few thinking they may be Haps, they however are definatlely not Haps. If we are talking about the same fish here then in my opinion they COULD be Pseudotropheus socolofi. Whilst these fish are a bit duller in colour than other socolofi I have owned, their fin markings are definately in keeping with what I have come to expect. If they are socolofi I have found that sexing can be a bit tough- both males and females can have egg spots, though the males tend to be brighter. The males also seem to be chunkier. I do have a definate adult male- he is not from the same stock, and has spawned in the past- has fantastic colouration. If you want more info just let me know.

one major difference between cheap and more expensive brands of food are the levels of ash and phosphate. Cheaper food contains more of these and less protein and vitamins and therefore whilst not being as nutritionally valuable, they also create more waste and phosphate creates more algae growth. As most of our water supplies are already pre-loaded with pretty high levels of phosphate (from cleaning products- dish washing liquid etc) it is a good idea to try not to contribute to this problem.

They don't try to breed Parrots with Parrots, they just continue to create them using the origional method, Devils and Severums. This is not a species that could continue to exist without mans continuing creation of it. Parrots will endevour to breed, they will lay eggs, the males will act as if to fertilise them, however, just like as a mule (a Donkey Horse Cross) is infertile, so is the Parrot. The eggs, unfertlised, contract fungus and therefore get eaten.

I mentioned that they are man-made. Ie artificially- in a dish, the eggs and sperm are mixed together, fertilised and the fry raised. A Devil will not breed with a Severum therefore man did it for them. They cannot occur in nature, whereas a Balloon molly could in theory be produced in the wild.

I'm a bit confused by this cruelty thing. I can see why colour dying fish is cruel, due to the pain and significantly shortened life. However (and I may be greatly mistaken) Balloon mollys and Gouramis are the product of selective breeding(much the same as lyretails), and as far as I have ever experienced do not live shortened lives or appear to be in pain. Red Parrots are man-made hybrids which are created by humans fertilizing the eggs of the appropriate fish (Devils and Severums). They are clearly a bit of a "hot" subject, and I can certainly see the arguments against man-made hybrids. They cannot however soil natural fish populations as they are usually infertile. As for their appearance it is a matter of personal taste, I would not judge people for either loving or hating them for that!! Their "deformaties" do not hurt them in anyway, they can eat well, swin well and mine have lived long lives and grown to huge sizes. If any of this is incorrect I would appreciate to be corrected.

Am I a Redhump Geophagus?

I know Siamese Algae Eaters as Black Line Flying Foxes- other shops also use this common name.

Our largest Aquarium is keyhole shaped, between 3000 and 3500ltrs, total length of 3700mm, widest point being 1700mm with a depth of 800mm. It is unsupported (other than silicone). Constructed from 15mm glass. And when built cost about $13,000. Filtration runs at 9,000ltrs P/hour (0.5Kw), primarily a biological wet/dry filter, just a bit of filter wool (0.5 m2) for water polishing and about 1/4m2 of biological media. The tank is currently shut down, with inhabitants in a 2000ltr holding tank (using the filter sysyem). We are planning on selling the tank, as we currently have no space.

I find that most appropriately sized catfish get ignored by the cichlids, In normal circumstances a Black Line Flying Fox is a really good fish for cleaning up, however it would be hard to find one of a good size. A large Pleco is probably your best option- size "Usually" intimidates Mbuna cichlids.

This is normal, this behaviour can be the result of territorial disputes- used to intimidate and/or a breeding "dance" used to seduce the females. During spawing it is quite normal to see him continue with this display whilst he fertilises the eggs.

We run all our tropical tanks on one system, but we will be putting in another system some time this year, so we can separate high range from low range. All the fish seem to thrive (from Mono's to Discus to African Cichlids), even though it is kept at neutral To start with we had a few loses, but now we have good biological filtration up and running everyone is happy. The tanks are about 1m long and are separated into three by glass panels. Each panel has a gap underneath, with a small sheet of U/G plate. Water enters through a tap in the first tank and leaves through an outlet in the last. There are 9 of the 1m long tanks altogether. The water then travels through chambers (Life Guard Series) of Mechanical, Heat (Jager 300w), Chemical and Fluidised Bed before entering a wet/dry with sponge, filter wool, Bio Balls and ehfi substrate (there is another Jager in this filter). It then travels through a UV sterilizer before returning to the tanks. Because of the UV we find that bacteria etc. does not spread from one tank to another. Obviously if a problem begins in the first tank in a line of three it can spread through its 2 neighbours, but this has as of yet not posed a problem. We have had no serious outbreaks since the UV was installed (Before hand we had Dropsy spread like wildfire, and couldn't sell any fish for weeks!!!). Obviously this is probably not the best system in the world but maybe you can take some ideas from it. It spent hours of trial and error on the behalf of my Husband, my Mother and Myself, so hopefully someone can benefit. The hardest part was the "plumbing" ie the pipes travelling to and from the tanks. Water often behaves in ways you least expect!

I've got 3 H. abdominalis in a small aquarium at the moment, I've only had them a week so I'm interested to see how everything goes, at present the Temp is 23c (72F) which according to my book; "Seahorses" by Tracy Warland from the South Austrailian Seahorse Marine Services; is a bit high as she recommends 19-22c. My Temp. is due to the ambiant temp. of the room & I'm just going to leave it alone & see what happens! They seem to be eating OK- Liquid food and Brine shrimp flakes.

I keep a few myself and also sell them in my shop. They get very big- I've got two that are about dinner plate size. Because they can't actually shut their mouths they can't really nip fins etc. but they will lip lock with each other and can cause a bit of damage. As far as smaller fish are concerned they are good with them until they either grow big enough to fit them in their mouths or go into spawning (at which point their obsesive guarding etc. can cause problems)

My family have always had fish, my first was a Red Comet named Black Peter and he was closely followed by a lionhead (Prince Caspian!!). Because we always had fish I never really took too much notice of them and it wasn't until I met my husband Mark that I became really involved. He has also always had fish (the first gift he every bought me was an eel!) and got me really involved in the hobby.We began manufacturing custom built aquariums just over 3 years ago, when Mark couldn't find an interesting enough tank for himself. We now have a fish shop in Tirau which we opened in September last year. My main interest is Cichlids and at the moment I only have 2 tanks at home as we are currently renovating. One tank is a 140ltr Bowfront containing an odd mix of plant destroying Cichlids living very happily and peacefully in a tank packed with plants! The other "Tank" is a 2500ltr water tank holding about 15 Green Severums, 2 Huge Plecos (the biggest is 2ft long), 4 Silver Sharks, 1 Clown Loach and 3 Red Parrot Cichlids. This is their temporary home as we saved them from a medical centre in Hamilton, from whom we purchased them and their 3000ltr aquarium (which is currently in pieces). They were being fed a handfull of supermarket Koi food once a fortnight, their filter had stopped working and they had no heater!! The new owners of the centre wanted to put a wall were their home was and had no idea what to do with them. Once our house is finished I planning to set up a couple of large display tanks including a Reef Aquarium.

Well, the spawning wasn't a success they ate all the eggs which had contracted fungus- most likely due to them not being fertilised. It's a pity as parrots are one of my favorite fish and it would have been great to have bred my own. Oh well, they'll probably have another go next month; I'll have to wait and see.

The only dwarfs i've got in stock are Kribs and Convicts, but I can get hold of; Blue Rams Bolivian Butterfly Rams Dwarf Flags Pearl Spotted Chromides Keyholes As for the checkerboard ( Crenicara maculatus) sorry havn't seen or heard of any around.

I try and keep a good selecton of Malawi cichlids, at present i've got: Blue Lumpheads Yellow Stripes Pseudotropheus Barlowi " Zebra (Ice Blue & OB) Katanga Peacocks Royal Blue Peacocks Electric Yellows Pseudotropheus Socolofi Red Topped Trewavesae Yellow Nyassa Peacock My shop's: Tropical Blues 34 Main Rd Tirau (Just South of Cambridge)

I have a pair of Red Parrot cichlids in my shop who have spawned, however I been reading up and apparently, due to the fact they are hybrids, the male is supposed to be sterile. Further searching on the internet has shown a few people claiming to have sucessfully bred these fish. I was wondering if anyone in NZ had any info on weather this is possible? or if anyone has had a similar experience. I should know tommorrow if this spawing has been a success as the eggs will either have fungus or not. [ This Message was edited by: fee on 2002-03-11 19:43 ]