fishy-fish

Some photos... The eggs on the rock which I flipped over A close up of one of the wrigglers immediately after siphoning them off the rock Daddy

How long is the journey for the fish? I did a similiar shift when I picked up my 6ft african tank plus stock and split 40 adult fish between 5 x 25L buckets. They spent around 4hrs in the buckets which were half filled with water to allow for oxygen, but I still ended up losing a few fish. In hind sight, I should have bagged the fish individually, but I just wasn't organised. Foolish really! If the trip is a decent one, you could bag the fish with large, thick bags that allow plenty of oxygen space. Your local LFS should have some they could sell you. Obviously if it's just across town then the bucket idea should be fine. Good luck! :thup:

Shifted the electric yellow fry to a grow out tank and the final count was 36. Started with 100 eggs, so that's a 36% ROI I think I will attempt Egg Tumbler 2.0 and see if I can improve on this. Still, 36 fry from two yellow lab females isn't the worst outcome in the world. I wonder how many I would have got had I stripped them at free swimming stage? I reckon there is definitely an attrition rate that goes on while the female holds from eggs to free swimming. Anyway, to be continued...

Sorry to hear about your male BN Lynda &c:ry Mine might end up being common BN too :an!gry , I'll try and get some photos of mum & dad and post them here for confirmation. My the parents are in a heavily landscaped tank at my work so I wouldn't be able to get the male until monday. Would that be too late? About 75% are wrigglers now.

They were sold to me as LDA72 so I hope they are!

Oh and they are now in a 60x30x30 tank with two sponge filters and a small power head creating a bit of current (300L/hr) I removed the substrate too. Exciting! :happy1:

So I was cleaning my 400L african mbuna tank which also houses a trio of Ancistrus Triradiatus and I noticed a little orange ball while I was syphoning up poo so I took a look under a large piece of slate and BINGO there is my male LDA72 guarding a HUGE clutch of eggs! :happy2: Upon further inspection most of the eggs were beginning to wriggle so I made the decision to siphon them out and put them in their own tank. There must be close to 150 fry! Could it be possible that both females laid their eggs together for the male to guard? It just seems like a really big spawn! I left the male in the big tank but should I have moved him to the fry tank? There are still a couple of egg clusters stuck together - will they be OK without the male? This is my first time raising pleco fry, so any advice would be greatly appreciated. I will post some pics tomorrow if I get around to it. :thup:

lol, what glass calculator are you using? The tank will be fine. It's completely full and has zero bowing. The saftey factors on glass calcs are normally a huge overkilll... ...unless you live in Christchurch!

Update... I count around 30 survivors now so approx 30% survival rate. Certainly not fantastic, but it would definitely improve with some basic design improvements and maybe having a tank dedicated just for tumblers so there is less waste contamination. The fry are at various stages of developement with the egg sac almost completely gone on some and free swimming, while others still at heads & tails stage. I'm not yet sold on the idea of stripping all my fish early and tumbling their eggs, but a tumbler certainly has its place. One of the frustrations of mouth brooders, especially in large community tanks, is having females at various stages of holding. I have to dismantle my tank to catch the females which is quite an undertaking and it's frustrating when you go to strip a fish to find the fry aren't quite ready. Or there could be a female that has only begun to hold while several others are ready to spit and you don't want to have to dismantle the tank in another week or so for the one female. In both these instances, I would now consider stripping the female and tumbling her eggs. If you can think of other situations where it would come in handy please share. :thup: I'll be shifting the fry to a grow out tank in the next couple of days and I think I might retire Egg Tumbler 1.0 to the "pool room" (any "The Castle" fans out there?) and begin designing E.T.2.0!

I scored another bunch of glass so thought I'd use a couple of sheets to make a new tank. I was governed by the glass sizes so I had the choice of a couple of oddball sizes, but in the end, I decided on extra length over extra width and went with a 1408(L) x 535(W) x 438(H). The bottom sheet is 7mm glass. Front, back and sides are 6mm and the bracing is 5mm. 6mm glass sheet 1930x864 7mm glass sheet 1408x700 Finished tank getting water tested At this stage I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. I have a heavy duty steel frame thats 2.9m long which could fit two tanks this size with room for sumps underneath, so that could be the plan... or I may just sell it. I have a bit more glass at the mo including some 10 and 12mm sheets so I may just have a go at building a decent display tank with that and move my current 540L out to the garage. In the meantime, if anyone is keen on having a tank built, or wants this one, flick me a PM :thup:

Yeah I remember the first time I stripped a fish - man I was sooooo nervous! They are pretty hardy fish and as long as you take your time its a relatively simple thing to do, but a seperate breeding tank should do the trick. Keep us posted. :thup:

Fish don't need light so it's a matter of what makes them display nicely. I agree with all of the above re: LED - if you can afford it, get it. I believe kiwiplymouth got one dirt cheap from http://www.fish-street.com If you wanna go the tube route, I like the power glo/daylight combo. Just make sure the wattage is enough for the depth of your tank which is a beauty by the way! :thup:

:rotf:

Thanks rccon. Much appreciated. I'll post some more photos in a few months and we'll go from there :thup:

cold water change that drops temp around to around 23-24 could do it. Also large flat rocks to spawn on are good, especially at each end of your tank. Your larger ones are at a breedable size :thup:

I just open my fishys mouth with my finger

I think photo IDing fish against reputable websites is a pretty solid way to gain a proper ID. As you pointed out, anyone can say anything about a species being this or that but 50 photos all showing the same characteristics is pretty convincing evidence. Forgetting aulonocara names is easy to do as they don't have common nicknames like a lot of other fish unless you count sunshine peacock! They could certainly remember the names of their cobolts and auroras Some of us just suck at latin! I'll give it a few months and see how he colours up.

Ryan, I understand this, but conversely, just because someone is not fully aware of the full origin of their fish it doesn't discount the fact that it could be a true "fill in the blank". Some constructive help IDing the fish would be appreciated.

I traded some fish with a friend who is getting out of Malawis to focus on tropheus with the exception of dems and yellows. I got these guys along with a bunch of other species. They bought them a while ago at 2cm from a breeder who gave them the correct name etc but they have since forgotten it. If you knew my friends, you would totally understand! :slfg:

Congrats on having your first holding female! Very exciting! :happy1: If you're not too worried about losing a few or all the fry then I'd just leave her in the community tank. Eventually she will spit them out into the big wide world Having some small cracks and crevices for the fry to hide out should ensure some survival. Coral is perfect for this. If you would rather try and keep the fry, then the best option is to catch her and "strip" her. It takes 2-3wks from spawning to free swimming on average for electric yellows. If you're not sure how long she has been holding, the easiest way to tell is the change of colour inside her mouth. When they are eggs, the inside of her mouth will appear yellowish in colour. When the fry are free swimming are ready to be stripped, inside her mouth will appear darker brown/black in colour. With a bit of patience you should be able to get a decent look to observe where she's at. To "strip her" (remove the fry from her mouth) it will require catching her and placing her in a smaller tank or container then while holding her under water, gently pry open her mouth with either your other hand or, if you prefer, a toothpick or cotton bud etc. Hold her mouth open and the fry should swim out. You can gently pump/massage underneath her mouth and gill area to assist in pushing the fry out but be gentle and be careful with her fins. They are hardy fish, but care should still be taken not to damage her (she is far more valuable than her offspring!) For more info google "stripping african cichlids" or try youtube for some videos. good luck and keep us updated! :thup:

Sunshine Kadango... and so evolution continues... :slfg:

OK so they are aulonocara hueseri or midnight peacocks. Can't wait for his full colour! Anyone else have these?

Forgot to say congrats! Well done mate, look forward to an update :thup:

I got some sand from a local beach and washed it thoroughly then added it to one of my new african tanks. I was interested to see what difference it made to the PH so I did a before and after test. The first test was straight tap water added to the tank and the second was after adding the beach sand. I did a 50% water change the next day and tested again (sorry no photo) and the PH was sitting at about 8. I have since done a dozen or more water changes ranging from 30-50% on this tank and the PH is still holding around 8-8.2. I'm interested to know if the buffering the sand gives will reduce over time or not. If anyone has got any longer term hard data please share. This seems like a very simple and cost effective way to buffer your PH and 8-8.2 would be a good range for Tangs.

Aulonocara seem to come up to the glass and they are generally not to skittish. It still takes ages to get a decent pic though with my little $200 point and shoot. Wish I has a fancy SLR!