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Post by 8 in the Corner on Sept 24, 2008 19:38:30 GMT -5
 He is a feisty one and attacks the turkey baster that I feed his babies with. 8 |
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Post by Carl on Sept 24, 2008 19:51:04 GMT -5
Beautiful picture of a beautiful Fish!!!!  The Daffodils have been a personal favorite the Lake Tanganyika cichlids I have kept. Carl |
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Post by brenda on Sept 24, 2008 20:23:30 GMT -5
He is beautiful...I too have a Daffodil. Is there a way besides venting to tell male from female?
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Post by 8 in the Corner on Sept 24, 2008 20:34:37 GMT -5
He is beautiful...I too have a Daffodil. Is there a way besides venting to tell male from female? Thank you both for your compliments, I agree, he is a handsome fellow. His mate is quite a looker too. Here is a shot of them together, not quite as good a pic as the first one, though.  Yes, you can tell them apart without venting, the males will develop a slight bump on their forehead (not really apparent in these photos because they were taken before they started breeding). The bump is nothing like the frontosas, but you can see a definite hump when they are sexually mature. The females are typically a little smaller and not as bulky as the males. Both will develop the long extensions on the dorsal, caudal and anal fins, though. 8 |
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Post by eve on Sept 24, 2008 22:00:19 GMT -5
gorgeous  |
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Post by jonv on Sept 24, 2008 22:46:37 GMT -5
Very fine looking tank you got there John
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Post by goldenpuon on Sept 25, 2008 4:05:14 GMT -5
What a pretty cichlid! He's very very beautiful. You should be honored to have such nice fish!
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Post by demfish on Sept 25, 2008 10:37:36 GMT -5
 I like the looks of those fish, are they hard to keep? Still wondering what to put in my 30 gal, when I get ready. |
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Post by 8 in the Corner on Sept 25, 2008 12:50:39 GMT -5
I like the looks of those fish, are they hard to keep? Still wondering what to put in my 30 gal, when I get ready. Ending up with a pair is the hard part, once you have a pair that has bonded, it is as easy as pie. I started with 7 fish that were about 1-2". One at a time, they got beat up and ended up in a corner of the tank trying to escape whoever was becoming dominant. I would remove them to save their lives and ended up with 3 adult fish and a clutch of eggs. Not knowing which 2 were the parents, I left them all together. They were all getting along fine at this point. Once the eggs hatched, one of the adults started looking a little rugged. Fin extensions nipped off, a scale or two missing and hiding out in the back of the tank by the filter. He was the odd man out, so to speak. Once I removed him, the other two have spawned 3 times in the space of 2 months. I have fry of all sizes in there now. The beauty of these fish is that once the first batch of fry is free swimming and fending for themselves, they start another batch of eggs. Their family groups in the wild (Lake Tanganyika) number in the thousands. But there will only be one breeding pair in it. If one dies, a non-breeding adult will move up to take its' place in the family group. This is a good beginner cichlid because of the ease of breeding and the extra parental care given by both the parents and the larger brothers and sisters in the group. They would do very welll in a 30 gallon tank, providing you with many fish to take to the fish store and trade for food or supplies. If you have a fish club (or better yet, a cichlid club) in or near your town, join up and start networking with the oldtimers who have lots of tanks and fish. Maybe they even have auctions where you can pick up quality fish at or below wholesale prices. 8 |
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Post by murdock6701 on Sept 25, 2008 22:53:31 GMT -5
sounds like the're a bit on the agressive side - check your PM! - John
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Post by brenda on Sept 26, 2008 22:21:26 GMT -5
I had read that they were very aggressive too, John. When I saw them at the LFS I asked the guy his opinion on them because of what I had read. He said usually that was just to each other and he said if I just got 1 he should be fine..So far he was right. John8 what is your opinion on this?
Also, would love for you to post all your tank and stock info. I would like to see what all you have.
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Post by 8 in the Corner on Sept 27, 2008 20:55:49 GMT -5
I had read that they were very aggressive too, John. When I saw them at the LFS I asked the guy his opinion on them because of what I had read. He said usually that was just to each other and he said if I just got 1 he should be fine..So far he was right. John8 what is your opinion on this? Also, would love for you to post all your tank and stock info. I would like to see what all you have. There is a common misconception that all Tanganyikans are very agressive, this is not true, IMO. It is true that while they sort out and form pairs the odd males are chased away. In a tank that is too small, there is nowhere for the sub-dominant males to escape to. Thus they are killed or beaten severly. In the wild, they would simple leave the area (much like male bettas when they meet up). Single fish of "most" species are fine by themselves, they typically only are agressive to conspecifics (their own species or fish that look similar to them). There are, however, quite a number of species that are agressive in groups or as single fish. Brenda, I have 25 tanks up and running at the moment, I would probably have to go and stand in front of a lot them to actually remember what fish are in what tanks. One rack of 8 tanks has: 10g - 12 red claw shrimp, one female with eggs 10g - 5 lyretail brevis 10g - approx. 25 otopharynx lithobates fry growing up 10g - breeding pair of bushy nose plecos (male is albino, female is common brown) and about 50 fry (none of the fry are albino) 10g - breeding pair of masked brichardi (they haven't yet, but the guy I got them from says they are a proven pair) 10g - about 50 pink convict fry growing up with dad, who killed his mate 20g - 8 adult gold ocellatus and about 10 fry 20g - 8 julidochromis dickfeldi (just getting to breeding size) and 6 hi-fin paleatus corys These are my first pair of paleatus, not hi-fins though. These spawned for me about a year ago and haven't since....   In the cory species, the males are typically the smaller of the two. |
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Post by goldenpuon on Sept 28, 2008 12:07:23 GMT -5
Aww, those paleatus are so cute 8. Are they husband and wife... errr, I mean mates? XD
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Post by 8 in the Corner on Sept 28, 2008 14:23:06 GMT -5
Aww, those paleatus are so cute 8. Are they husband and wife... errr, I mean mates? XD Yes, they are a mated pair. They produced about 200 eggs a year ago. At the time, I was unaware that corys will eat their own eggs if left in the tank with them. I ended up with only about 50-60 fry.  |
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Post by goldenpuon on Sept 28, 2008 16:30:59 GMT -5
That's actaully pretty good. I'm really bad with the amount of fry i end up with, at least fro betta spawns. Trying to fix that and improve my care for them even though soem of it is caused by some kind of cottony infection that infects the tanks killing most of the fry when they're around 2 1/2 to 5 weeks old.
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Post by 8 in the Corner on Sept 28, 2008 18:40:14 GMT -5
I'm really bad with the amount of fry i end up with, at least fro betta spawns. Trying to fix that and improve my care for them even though some of it is caused by some kind of cottony infection that infects the tanks killing most of the fry when they're around 2 1/2 to 5 weeks old. Next time you set up to spawn them, try using a bare bottom tank (no gravel). Makes it easy to siphon uneaten food and fish poo out with a short length of air line tubing. Also, as soon as you get eggs in the nest, dose the tank with an anti-fungal agent. Once they are free swimming, dose it again and then again at two weeks. Fry need multiple feedings a day and partial water changes at least every other day. I put a piece of fine mesh cloth over the siphon tube to keep fry from getting sucked up. I have spawned bettas (in my youth) and found that the fry are extremely delicate during the first 3 weeks and especially while they are developing their anabantoid chamber. Any scum on the surface of the water will kill them right away as they try to start using this breathing organ for the first few times. John |
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Post by goldenpuon on Sept 29, 2008 15:28:33 GMT -5
Thank you. How can I get scum off the surface? I already do water changes once a day and feed a few times a day. I also always use bare bottom tanks. I also use airline tubing to suck up debris daily with fry.
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Post by Carl on Sept 29, 2008 16:28:40 GMT -5
Thank you. How can I get scum off the surface? I already do water changes once a day and feed a few times a day. I also always use bare bottom tanks. I also use airline tubing to suck up debris daily with fry. Sometimes organic scum can be soaked off the top by gentley "floating" a paper towell on the surface and then removing it arter it soaks up the scum. This does not work for all causes for scum, but it does work for certain organic surface scum. Carl |
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Post by 8 in the Corner on Sept 29, 2008 18:46:52 GMT -5
Thank you. How can I get scum off the surface? I already do water changes once a day and feed a few times a day. I also always use bare bottom tanks. I also use airline tubing to suck up debris daily with fry. Sometimes organic scum can be soaked off the top by gentley "floating" a paper towell on the surface and then removing it arter it soaks up the scum. This does not work for all causes for scum, but it does work for certain organic surface scum. Carl That's what I have always used, a paper towel. ;D Just laying it on the surface for a few seconds and then pulling it across to one end, as you lift it out by the leading edge, will pick up most if not all surface scum. It takes practice but it works. John |
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Post by goldenpuon on Sept 30, 2008 15:21:41 GMT -5
Thanks! I'll be sure to do that once I get in spawn or in this case once my male Critique who has always been slow with spawns decides to get together withh his mate. I have had them together fior 3 days and have conditioned them better than usual. But Critique being Critique, he has decided to be slow and take time with mating.
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