fishy-fish

yeah, he was getting a wee bit picked on in his previous tank. He's now is in my 200L with his girls and 15 borleyi fry and 1 tawian reef hap fry. Definitely much happier. He has only begun to colour up in the past couple months according to the previous owner, so more colour to come.

My friend bought some of these aulonocara a while back from a breeder who gave them the species name etc. but it went in one ear and out the other! I have recently taken them off their hands and was hoping you legend genius smarty pants experts could assist with identifying him. Thanks in advance!

OK so I lost a few eggs due to lack of tumble then a few more from over tumbling them and getting sucked against the top mesh guard. Getting the right tumble is tricky! But I removed the bad eggs and now I have a bunch of eggs at head and tails stage! Stoked!

I lost my two golden algae eaters the same way along with 5 GBA's that were around 4cm. My golden spot plec is in an african tank without drama, but he's a big boy and I always make sure I scape in a good hidey hole for him Plecs and africans together is a toughy. Regardless of whether the plec survives the water conditions are not ideal and the addition of wood which the plec needs can drop PH. Hard to find a happy medium to keep all happy. For algae, I use a inline UV lamp and regular water changes/cleaning. No dramas.

or you could throw some warm water in a bucket and test the canny that way? Or if you're worried about your bacteria colony, you could siphon some tank water into a bucket. Saves rigging it up to tank...

I could put him in my 60L cory tank? :sick:

When it went was it noisy? I would pull out the impeller and check the shaft doesn't wobble. Often the shaft holes can enlarge causing the problems with the impeller balance. (talking from personal experience!)

Good news, the injured region has almost completely healed. Phew...

:tears: sorry to hear that mate

I have johannii and aurora in with my yellows, dems and ice blues. I also have temporarily housed a breeding group of cobolt zebras while I cycle their new tank which I was pretty nervous about - I thought there might be carnage with the ice blues - but no dramas yet touch wood. I have similiar numbers without any problems but having said that, my tank is twice your size. Getting the M:F ratios per species is crucial IMO as most conflict and aggression is con-specific. As far as thinning down your yellows, this will be inevitable as your males develop to keep ratios balanced. You might even be able to get an idea of M:F numbers now to see where you're at. I do see a bigger tank on you horizon... :spop:

:spop:

I made it on impulse the other night with what I had lying around. The clear tube is an old gravel vacc I cut up but the internal diameter was larger than the 40mm PVC I had. To overcome this I built up the edges with electrical tape (the red tape in pics) so I could get a tight fit. Ideally, the PVC pieces should be larger than the clear so that there is no "dead" spots in the tumbler part due to a lack of air flow. Also I used garden netting but mosquito netting would be better as you can mould it into a small bowl shape so the eggs are always rolling to the centre then tumbling etc. The other thing I would add is a piece of foam to the bottom to act as a mini filter as I can already see a sediment build up on the netting which could contaminate the eggs. All a good learning curve!

was it successful at bring eggs to free swimmers? Any attrition? I think I need more tumble. I have a few eggs starting to go pale around the outside that aren't getting enough movement.

That cut me deep shrek :slfg:

I vote africans! :thup:

oops. Had a mans look! :oops: (I blame the photos! They distracted me immediately!)

Thought I would give building an egg tumbler a go. It seems there are mixed reviews on using these but I have a couple of electric yellows that keep holding for a week then either eating the eggs or spitting them so I thought I'd test my new project out with their latest holds. Doing this made me realise the attrition rate you get from spawning to free swimming as I would normally get 20-30 fry from these girls but stripping them early gave me 100 eggs! All going well, it may be worth building a few of these and stripping the eggs early. I realise there are pros and cons to this but less stress on the female and more fry seems like a winning combo to me. I'll still let younger females hold their first few spawnings until full term but once they are away, this could be a good option. Anyway, time will tell. It seems getting a successful design is not that easy. It's all about the right amount of tumble! I already see a couple of design flaws which will get ironed out on version 2.0

That is very impressive! !drool: What is the width of the tank. The photos give the impression it's quite narrow.

How about selling them... :dunno:

BY THE BEARD OF ZEUS!! BLASPHEMY!! Actually it is a wee bit tacky

yeah I agree Lynda, they are beautiful fish. Shame the don't mix in a Malawi community. I have just procured a breeding group of Cobolt Blue Zebras (Metriaclima Callainos) and Psuedotropheus Aurora. Some aurora would look great in your tank!

It's only a 75L tank and made of 5mm so I'm confident it will be OK. I just added a breeding group of 6 Metriaclima callainos (Cobolt Blue Zebras) to the 200L. I'm super stoked at the quality of these fish! Can't wait for my first batch of fry!

thats two more than you began with :thup: hope next hold is more lucrative!

website?

Addition can be complex at times. Don't worry, I'm here to help. After all, I was a mathlete... but that was 18 years, 3mths, 10days, 4hrs and 30mins ago :slfg: