Diary of a Cichlidiot

Betta-mania

2011-02-21T10:09:00.000-08:00

Uh oh, I think I have become unhealthily obsessed with bettas again. I am growing out a spawn from my multicolor HM male and green HM female at the moment and so far they are all doing fine. Only problem is they grow so damn slowly, despite the fact I am chucking in microworms in their thousands.

Anyway, in a bid to do some good in the world I just designed the new header logo for Steve Bell's www.bettasplendens.co.uk website.

What do you think?:

Can't wait to put my next pair together. I think it's going to have to be my male copper HM and the same green Hm female, as if my genetics research is correct I should get a spawn containing both green and copper HMs, which would be great.

Things are getting worse on the EBJD front, as I think I realistically only have two youngsters worth saving from the 30 or so EBJDs I originally kept from the brood. The rest are belly-crawlers or deformed. Will be interesting to see if I can get more from the parents' new spawn - currently living next door to their sibliings.

I sold on my pair of Jack Dempseys and my male Paratilapia polleni on Thursday morning, plus 5 Ancistrus. Made £40 which will go straight back into TetraPrima. This is great news as I now have a spare tank.

My pair of gold marble angels spawned and are now looking after fry, which will be free swimming tomorrow or the day after I guess. It wasn't a big spawn, but they look strong. Need to put another angel pair together, but want to get my next pair of BGJDs going first.

Lookig forward to the EACG auction on Friday.

Wow - been so busy

2011-02-15T12:14:00.001-08:00

So things have moved on quite a bit since the last post, which is hardly a surprise given that was 4.5 months ago!!!

Finally got rid of the Nicaraguans (took them to Maidenhead Aquatics in the end). The Pantosctictus went in an auction (I concluded they were both male). I sold all 20 bristlenoses at the same auction.

I've had some horrible losses. I was snowboarding over Christmas and came back to find all the synspila dead along with my remaining male istlanum. Then I lost my male Rotkeil severum to pop-eye, closely followed by my male cutteri (who was, quite frankly, murdered). Then a couple of days ago one of my gold marble angels jumped out of their tank and snuffed it! Talk about an unlucky few months. To cap it all I nearly lost my stunning blushing paraiba angelfish male because the female I paired him up with got seriously nasty and tried to end him. Luckily he has made a full recovery.

So, is there any good news to report? Why yes, yes there is. Most importantly: I AM GROWING OUT MY FIRST EVER EBJDS!!!! When their parents spawned I was pretty sceptical that any of the fry would be EBJD, but lo and behold the genetics worked and I now have growouts. Unfortunately a lot of them will end up being culled as they have not developed their swim bladders properly, but I would say I have 5 that swim normally and given some more time should turn out rather well. All very exciting.

I also managed to get some amazing halfmoon bettas from a chap called Steve Bell. his website is www.bettasplendens.co.uk and I can't recommend it enough. Truly stunning fish and if you buy his home bred stock the prices aren't too bad either. I've only had my four a short while and already I've had four spawns. I have an additional two plakat bettas I bought at PetPaks in Hardwick for peanuts - they were a lucky spot and the male is gorgeous. the difficulty now is getting any of the fry I have to adulthood - they are TINY!

In other news, I am trying to sell off a lot of my stock to make room to put more BGJD pairs together and also breed my angelfish. I finally managed to sex a pair of gold marbles, so I'm expecting to have more angelfish eggs (this time in a tank to themselves where other fish won't eat them!). I'll be putting the blushing paraiba and his violent ex back together in the next couple of week too as they were outstandig parents - the only reason I don't have growouts is that they spawned in a divided section of my BGJD growout tank and the fry sadly all became food for the ravenous horde.

Right, I am starving, so time to go find some grub.

September...already?

2010-09-12T13:40:00.000-07:00

Where has the year gone?! I can't keep up!

First off, let me reassure you that the cutteri arrived at their destination fine, so yet another happy customer and yet another successful delivery by Royal Mail. Nice work chaps.

Also, the two guys who picked up all those fish from the 6' tank also took the two P. melanurus I got from Don Conkel all those months ago. I forgot to mention that in my last post.

Right. So what's happening now?

Bad news first: Sadly I have lost two of my beautiful wild-type Angelfish. I'm not sure what the cause was, they just wasted away. I treated for both white spot ( one of the symptoms) and hole-in-the-head disease, but sadly neither made any difference.

Another slight downer is that the 'pair' of istlanum turned out to be two (admittedly stunning) males. So I'm now short on females. Needless to say, I feel another trip to see Ross coming on.

Now for the good news:

My koi angels are doing REALLY well. One of them is practically adult sized already. Twice the size of his siblings.

Noel has taken away all his fish, so no more worrying about their survival. I have to admit to being quite relieved.

I have a massive brood of lovely marble convicts growing out - I separated them from their parents this week and they are already 0.5" long and fat as anything. I know I shouldn't be that proud to have a massive spawn of convicts, but you don't see marbles that often, and the parents are really quality fish. Hopefully I can pass the fry on cheap. Either way I'm hoping to take a few bags to the BCA auction on the 26th.

The two remaining pantostictus are still alive and well. They are cohabiting in a divided 30" tank right now, putting on weight. Sadly I still can't tell what sex they are. I had a hunch they were male and female, but now I'm not so sure. They certainly don't weem very interested in each other thus far.

The bifasciatus pair have spawned again! This time I really must try to save some fry.

The Mayan pair are also looking like they might spawn soon.

I caught around 20 Ancistus youngsters earlier tonight. Very healthy they look two. They've gone into one of my small cube tanks for easy netting. These will also be going to the BCA auction.

Once again, the circle of life has come round again to make up for the losses. Even the Jaguar cichlids look like they might spawn this week. Things are on the up.

If only I could move on my young Nicaraguan cichlids - for someone reason no-one wants to buy them!

What's goin' awn in August? Read on...

2010-08-18T02:02:00.000-07:00

So, some action has finally taken place. Noel has collected his pair of Kribs, group of five African butterfly cichlids and the white-tip Synodontis, which leaves the shark (Labeo frenatus) and the neon tetras to go. As a result I have set up another pair of Kribs (another pair that I bred myself - the male is the brother of the one I currently have looking after a healthy brood of free-swimming fry, both lovely 'super reds'). I've sadly forgotten the history of the two females...

Yesterday I posted a couple of spare cutteri to London. Still waiting to hear if they arrived okay - always a bit nerve wracking! Hopefully it will all be fine, as Royal Mail are surprisingly reliable.

Okay...I wrote the above on Tuesday, it's now Sunday and much has happened since then....

First of all, the cutteri arrives safe and sound, so I can add another success with Royal Mail to my untarnished record.

On Friday morning I finally met Ross Evans, of Oddball Express fame. Amazingly it has taken me nearly 2 years to work out that the Oddball Express unit is literally 6 minutes from my work office!!! I couldn't believe it when I put the postcode into Google maps.

The set up is amazing. Stunning rare cichlids galore. As usual I was like a kid in a candy shop and despite meeting Ross at 8:15am, I was still trying to work out what I was going to take home with me at 9:00! There was so much I wanted, but in the end common sense prevailed and it came down to how much space I could provide. I came away very happy with a stunning pair of exCichlasoma istlanum, who spent the whole day in the boot of my car until I got them back to Cambridge from Stafford. They went into the dining room tank, which started off a whole chain of events that have made this weekend a bit stressful!

First off, I decided that the Istlanum pair were too precious to be left alone with my horrible F2 hybrid convct/HRPs, so I promptly caught them all up and removed them from the tank. They were unceremoniously deposited in the 6' tank in the fishroom.

On Saturday morning I went in to the fishroom to find all the fish in the 6' tank gasping for breath and looking genereally miserable - too many fish sharing too little oxygen. Crap. So in I went with the net, this time to catch all but two of the big F1 convict/HRP males. Their time had come to be culled and removing them would drop the stocking levels on the tank and hence improve the situation for the rest of the tank inhabitants.

I was really undecided about the cull, as I find culling adult fish pretty traumatic, but I decided that seeing as I have no intention of spreading hybrid convicts throughout the UK, I should just get on with it. I dispatched them promptly and humanely and the bodies went back into the 6' tank as a large meal for the other fish. In retrospect this was a dumb move.

Switch to this morning, when I enter the fishroom to find it stinking of rotting fish, all four dead bodies left untouched by the other fish and all of the latter looking miserable. Big problem. Quickly I removed the offending bodies and disposed of them. I had already started down the path of culling fish and getting rid of the extras, so I put an ad in two places online offering the following fish for free if picked up today:

- Piar of Brown acaras Male 7" Female 5"
- 2 x Vieja melanurus 7"
- Paratheraps bifasciatus (unsexed) 10"
- 2 x Rotkeil severum 5"

Within an hour I had someone offer to takle the lot!

When they arrived things were going from bad to worse in the 6' tank, but all the listed fish were doing okay and the guys who came to pick them up were very happy. To be honest they got an amazing deal, I reckon they got well over £100 worth of fish for diddley squat!

Then fish started dying. I lost the loach that has been terrorising that tank since the day I got it (sad about that even though I hated his guts for abusing my other fish). Then some of the small hybrids started dying - they went straight into my Jaguar cichlid tank. But then my male Blockhead was lying on his side, followed by two of the Paratheraps synspiuls from Rusty Wessel. Oh....MY....GOD! I went into panic mode. The Blockhead went straight into a spare cube tank, as did the two synspilus (both held upright by a stone each). Then I started a huge water change and crossed my fingers.

The end result? Well, thankfully I think the 2 synspilus have pulled through, as has the Blockhead, so all in all I lost one loach and two hybrids convict/HRPs. It could have been sooooo much worse. I just hope the fish I gave away have all made it safe and sound.

What a day! Seriously, sometimes I wonder how I cope with the stress of it all...

Oh the misery of this hobby sometimes!

2010-07-26T15:31:00.000-07:00

Another long overdue update. I keep saying to myself that should do more writing; that somehow this might open the door to new things; that I should finish off that damn book about EBJDs...somehow life gets in the way - or more accurately I get in my own way.

There has been an EACG auction since I last posted. It was a bit of a let down, to be honest. Great to see friends and listen to a wonderful (if excessively long) talk from Juan Miguel Artigas on the cichlids of Mexico, but the auction was depressing - not enough people and too many lovely fish going back from whence they came. I put it down to bad timing, rather than poor promotion of the event.

Anyway, I came home with a bag of 'super-red' Kribensis grow-outs, a lovely pair of marble convicts (now with free-swimming fry) and three Herichthys pantostictus which I obtained for the princely sum of just £6!

My joy has been short lived. I have been losing precious fish over the last few weeks. Just before the auction I lost my female Amphilophus cotrinellus 'Costa Rican Red Head' after the male beat her up (post spawning). Then I lost one of the pantostictus (turns out they really can't stand large water changes). Finally today I found my stunning male Green Terror lying dead on the tank floor having been very obviously beaten up. That's a real tragedy as he was beautiful.

On the plus side, I have my spawn of marble Convicts, my healthy colony of Israeli bred guppies, a seething mass of baby bristlenoses and the latest bifasciatum spawn to contend with. Two of my Rotkeil Severums have also finally paired up and I have plans to breed my two remaining pantostictus (if they do indeed turn out to be a pair, as I suspect they are).

I have been fish-sitting for my buddy Noel for several months now and will be giving the fish back soon, so hopefully I'll have a bit more space soon.

I wil undoubtedly have baby kribs in a few weeks' time and probably another spawn from my Jaguars and Fliers. However I've got so many busy weekends for the rest of the year that I don't know when I'm going to do all the necessary water changes.

So much to think about. I do way to much of that. Less thought and more action required!

Happy hybrids

2010-05-10T14:55:00.000-07:00

A quick photo of one of my pairs of F1 convict x HRP and their fry. They are merrily defending them against a 6' tank full of other Central American cichlids as if it was child's play.

I was in the fish room with a torch just now and it looks like I have even more fry: the new guppies have already started giving birth and, best of all, I was wrong about the bristlenoses - I shone the torch into a pot and it was full of baby Ancistrus!

Sad news and good news

2010-05-10T05:48:00.001-07:00

First off, the sad news: my breeding male EBJD died about a week ago. I started treatment too late and he was gone in days. Absolutely devastating to lose such a beautiful fish.

However, my other fish have cheered me up by breeding away merrily. I never got those baby suckers I mentioned in my last post, nothing came of the eggs, but currently in my tanks I have:

- Mayan cichlid wrigglers

- Flier cichlid fry

- Nicaraguan youngsters (1.5") (I sold the breeding pair on eBay, posted last Friday)

- Paratheraps bifasciatus fertile eggs!!!

Also I have pairs of Kribensis, CRRH midas and Cutter's cichlid getting ready to spawn.

So much new life!

My shoal of BGJDs is also still doing well, growing at a good rate and keeping their bellies fat.

Recently bought some Israeli bred guppies from Swallow Aquatics - they are lovely green cobra tails, so I'm looking forward to breeding them en masse if I can.

Nics a plenty!

2010-02-15T04:06:00.000-08:00

The mighty brood of Nicaraguan cichlids is growing like stink!

Mom and dad are still very shy, but attentive.

In other news:

- finally switched on the Fluval FX 5
- about 30 BGJDs all growing well
- sold the tinfoils, firemouths and spare HRPs weekend before last
- the Ancistrus trio have spawned, so hopefully I'll have baby suckers soon

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Lost and found

2009-12-18T10:33:00.000-08:00

Sadly I lost my female Chocolate cichlid this week. She got the same awful body rot that her sister died from and there was nothing I could do but watch her die. I went for a combination of salt and Protozin in my attempts to fix her, but to no avail. Makes me wonder at the intelligence of whoever it was who came up with making it illegal to sell fish antibiotics in pet shops. I'm sure I could have saved her with antibiotics, but finding a vet in Cambridgeshire who treats fish and wouldn't charge the earth to do so is a none-starter. All very sad.

Yesterday I parted with my pair of Honduran Red Points. I was fed up with them to be honest. Beautiful fish, but not enjoying their tank and certainly not intending to pair up with one another. I have replaced them with a lovely little pair of African Btterflies who I am very much looking forward to spawning. Here's the closest internet image I could fins that does these little gems justice:

They are the Guinea race, and very smart they are too!

Back from holiday and all is well.

2009-12-06T03:54:00.001-08:00

Got back from a week in The Gambia yesterday. Nothing too exciting on the aquatic front, the only fish I saw were some form of Tilapia and of course, several fish steaming away on my dinner plate (all with funny names: ladyfish, butterfish, captainfish...).

Plenty of other wildlife though. Hundreds of beautiful birds, lots of monkeys (Red colobus and Vervet) and my first 'wild' acquaintance with Nile Monitors (Varanus niloticus), one of my favourite lizards of all time. I was lens-to-mouth with one by the hotel swimming pool and got this great photo (among others)...

There's always a feeling of dread when you know that at some point you're going to have to check the fish tanks for casualties. I left everything in very capable hands though, my good friend Noel is a fellow enthusiast and takes great care of my wards when I'm away. To my immense relief there have been no casualties. Instead I have several pairs forming who should, over the next month or so, keep me busy with thousands of fry. Needless to say, I have some remedial water changes to accomplish, but that in itself should get things moving on the spawning front.

The only bad news is that my male Kribensis is probably going to lose his left eye, which will cause him all sorts of problems (and probably put a stop to his breeding activities). It's a real shame.

My list of potential pairs to isolate is as follows:

- Mayan cichlids
- Blockheads
- Red-shouldered severums
- Nicaraguan cichlids
- Jack Dempseys

Plus I'm expecting to get fry from my EBJD/JD pair and also the Jags.

Everything looks set for a productive festive season in the fish room!

Perhaps the happiest sight is my 4 lovely new angelfish that I bought a week before leaving on holiday. I've missed having angels in my life and they're still a species I haven't managed to raise fry from, so it's nice to have a challenge to look froward to. In the past week they have grown visibly and are looking fantastic...

November update

2009-11-22T11:48:00.000-08:00

Wow, I can't believe how incredibly slack I've been on the blog front.

It's amazing to see that I was complaining about having issues with my new Kribensis, given that I recently off-loaded around thirty 1" fry from a subsequent pair of Kribensis to Simon P. I also passed him around fifty 0.5-1" Flier cichlids, so currently the only youngsters in the fish room are my lovely Blue-gene Jack Dempseys. They're all doing great, but growing at very different rates, so at some point I will have to separate the sizes out into different tank.

What else is new:

- I had a good run at the October EACG meeting, selling around £80 worth of fish and coming back with 6 genuine P. synspilus that Rusty Wessell had kindly donated to the auction. They are only 2" long and already I can see that they're going to be really special.

- The outcome of all the sales was that I no longer have the pair of F1 Festae, the wild Blackbelts or the lone female Rainbow cichlid. To my amazement I have failed to sell my pair of Firemouths at two auctions now (this and the BCA, which Simon M. kindly took my fish to for me). Don't know why they haven't shifted, but they are looking great right now.

- The best purchase I made was 10 x H. nicaraguense was just £10 - all 2-4" long! I already sold off 4 of them, so 6 stunners left and there are easily two pairs in there.

- Also, my pair of Port cichlids spawned and had fry, but I didn't have space to raise them, so that will have to wait until they do it again.

What's new?

2009-06-27T02:35:00.000-07:00

Well, I got my Kribs and it all went predictably wrong. I bought two pairs and put them in a tank together to acclimatise. One pair formed very quickly and killed the other male, so I got a replacement male and separated the pairs. The replacementmale was then killed by the female I put him with!

On the plus side, the remaining pair (which I have now promised to a friend) are guarding a huge swarm of fry, so I have two Krib broods on the go from two pairs. One lot are ready to separate from their parents already!

I bought a stunning pair of urophthalmus, but unfortunately instead of spawning, the male attacked the female, so I had to shift her to the 6' tank. Typical.

All my other fry are doing great. The F2 generation from my HRP/Convict line is very interesting. Now they have grown a bit you can see that a good percentage of the spawn are platinum in colour, and look like they will express the HRP phenotype. The rest are 'convict-type'. Very interesting that the colouration genes should separate in the this generation, but not the previous one. I'm probably going to keep just the platinum fry to grow out.

The Flier cichlid fry are doing great with mom and dad. The parents are doing an amazing job, happily flaring at the urophthalmus next door!

Unsurprisingly, the latest jag fry are doing fantastically well, but I don't know if I'm going to keep them or not, as I doubt I'll find homes for them.

Only other news is that I got my old Paratilapia sp. Fiamanga male back from Ian A. along with two fish that I brought up from Brighton for him when I picked the original group up. All three fish had body rot of some decription (which explains why they were free), so I've been treating with Myxazin. Unfortunately, the Myxazin worked too well and the male regained his need to kill things, so I promptly lost the medium sized fish and went into the fishroom this morning to find that the male had had a good attempt at skinning the smallest fish (which I am hoping is female). She has now been moved to a different tank, so I'm hoping she won't a) die, or b) pass the disease on to my Saddle cichlids.

Babies, babies, everywhere!

2009-05-27T08:51:00.000-07:00

I've got baby Jags, baby Kribs, baby Convict/HRPs and I'm pretty certain my new pair of Fliers has spawned too, so I'll get to meet their babies soon too.

Upsettingly, my female Red Terror took it upon herself to lay a bunch of eggs in her plant pot without the male being present (he was on the other side of the divider, so didn't get a look in!). Problem is, she doesn't want to spawn with him, but she certainly can't spawn without him!

I moved all the growouts into the middle 4' tank the other day (the female Green Terror is in the 6' tank with her mate now). Basically this was all the young Jags, Pearls and unidentified Vieja.

Just found a source for adult Kribensis, some of which are 'Super Red', in a local shop. They're on sale tomorrow, so I might have to head over and snap the best pairs up quick. Very exciting to be getting such nice adults.

...and then it was May!

2009-05-12T09:21:00.000-07:00

How time flies. It has been three months since my last post and there have been a lot of changes in the fishroom.

- I have a new male Green Terror (the old one went to Simon P. to see if he could get it back in shape). I've had two spawns out of the pair now, but only one very tough fry remaining (I wasn't really trying to rear them up).
- The female marble convict now lives with Ian A. as does one of the male HRPs.
- The male wild con died (but I was never really convinced he was a true convict).
- The wild male cutteri went to Simon P. alongside a trio of wild Blackbelts.
- My sajica '24ct gold' died. Gutted.
- I sold all 6 of the Mozzies, the remaining 3 Aequidens (tetramerus) sp. 'Peru' and the female Egyptian mouthbrooder at the EACG auction in Moulton on the 3rd May. Woohoo!
- I have a new female Krib, as the old one has gone rapidly downhill (face falling apart). The male is super shy, but still a lovely fish for breeding purposes.
- I have 4 Blockheads remaining (3 males and a female)
- I bought what I believe is a pair of Aequidens tetramerus 'Ecuador' from Tranquility in Brighton (mistakenly sent as Blue Acaras). Very rare in the UK and a snip at just £10 the pair.
- I have just two melanurus left that I am hoping are a pair. Both have the bizarre blue 'wash' to their scales. I think they will be something special when they 'grow up'.
- I bought about 100 baby F1 convicts from Ian A. at the EACG auction, who are all doing well in the hall tank with no heating.
- I have culled a large number of jags and hybrid convict/HRPs as there is no real market for them. Some of the hybid fish are stunning, so I have put the two best together to see if I can get another generation out of them.
- The Festae are now alone in the display tank. The male is still 1/3 the size of the female, but has started to show mature colouration. He's got high hopes!
- All the Midas youngsters are now playing 'survival of the fittest' in the 6' tank along with quite a few hrid convict/HRPs that I chucked in there in the hope they'd be eaten.

Not sure how I'm going to move things around in the near future. I want to have a go at breeding from one of my various pairs, but not sure which fish to try next.

Update

2009-02-08T03:05:00.000-08:00

So, I sent 4 of the Red-head Midas off to Nev in Newquay successfully despite the cold, cold weather. I was really glad that they arrived okay and that the heat pad did its job properly. The package only just came in under the 2kg limit.

I'm now trying to shift even more stock. I spent yesterday separating one batch of jag youngsters from the cutteri they've been growing on with. I also did a 100% water change for my red male betta, who has been looking miserable for a while now. I added some Endler's livebearer fry to his jar to perk him up a bit and he seems to be responding well to having something to hunt.

Hoping to sell another two melanurus (leaving me with a pair) and also the male wild cutteri and the female calico convict (to Simon P.).

I've also got interest in some of the jag youngsters and possibly some of the Blackbelts (which will hopefully reduce the strain on the filters in the 6' tank).

The brasiliensis in the hall tank have been having a great time in the cool water. THey were stuffing teir faces with bloodworm yesterday and are growing well.

I had to remove my male Green Terror from the tank he was in as he's really been missing out on food and the female was being really nasty with him. He's now in with my female Egyptian moutbrooder in the hope I can fatten him up again.

I put the krib pair back together again. I shifted the decor around, so hopefully tha male won't be too mean to the female.

It's been a while...

2009-01-26T13:16:00.000-08:00

Bad Blogger!

I have been rubbish. I admit it. Life got in the way a bit.

Anyway, here we are in a new year and here is an update to kick 2009 (the Year of the Ox) off:

- My lovely Jags have another massive swarm of free swimming fry
- I have only one Super-red krib fry left! (Wrong size tank, bad management etc.)
- Some of the fish in the 6' tank have HITH disease. I'm working on it.
- I've had great success with my livebearers: guppies; platies; and Limias.
- Transferred my G. brasiliensis youngsters into the hall tank.
- Two of my hybrid cons paired up today!
- Lost all my female fighters. All to the same dropsy/ body-eating disease. Gutted.

I have too many fish growing on! Hoping to shift quite a lot in the early part of the year so I can get some decent breeding projects running.

December update

2008-12-02T01:02:00.000-08:00

Recently swapped a pair of mealnurus, the male salvini and the pair of Paratilapia sp. 'Fiamanga' for six wild Blackbelts and six Tinfoil barbs from m mate Ian. I'm really happy with the swap as my 6' tank now has something worth watching in it!

Hopefully we're going to swap my male HRP for his male Rainbow (to go with my female) in the near future, at which point I should be all set in terms of my fish collection for a while.

Happy days!

In other news:

- The jags have spawned again (woop! woop!)
- The baby kribs are growing well

Sadly I lost the following last week:
- My adult female Humpbacked limias
- The female salvini
- A male Blockhead from the dining room tank

New arrivals, tragic losses (again)

2008-11-10T09:00:00.001-08:00

Sadly I lost a whole group of baby jags after moving their parents to the 4' tank. They all got either fungus or Lympho. Horrible having to watch them die one by one each day. The tank they were in now holds a supply of live river shrimp and a coupld of female Bettas who are in recovery.

To add to this, the jag pair had a big bust up, so I had to divide them. I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the temperature in their tank being higher than they're used to.

On the positive side, I have over 10 baby guppies from the red-tailed females I bought (from Ely Aquatics) a couple of weeks ago. The females don;t appear to be eating their offspring, so hopefully the babies will turn out to be 'pure strain' and I can establish a pure breeding colony.

Even better news is that the pair of super red kribs I picked up at the CDAS meeting have just brought out their first spawn (hence the recovering Bettas!).

Things are ticking over nicely in the fish room. My biggest challenge at the moment is working out how to overcome the problem that many of the tanks have suspended matter in the water as a result of having no substrate. Makes for some pretty nasty photos.

BCA, FoF...recents changes

2008-10-25T02:24:00.001-07:00

Much has happened since I last posted. The BCA meeting was great fun. Some lovely fish for sale (I was extremely hard pushed to hold back and only spend £3.00!). I sold some Jags, Cutter's, G. brasiliensis and my pair of Bangui. My only pick up was a bag of six juvenile Aequidens sp. Peru, which I am now convinced are a geographical variant of A. tetramerus. Lovely little fish from Andrew Wood.

The Festival of Fishkeeping was really interesting. Some very informative displays and some great fish.

The meeting worked well from the point of view of attracting new members, but I do feel the location (Hayling Island) meant that many established members were put off and didn't show. As a result the auctions followed a recurring theme of being fantastic for buyers, but pretty rubbish for sellers as most lots went for very close to their reserve.

What else has happened?

Bullets:

- the Firemouths lost their eggs (I think the Bristlenoses finally had them);
- the crowntail fry never made it (temperature too cold or perhaps eaten by snails - they did hatch);
- Amber and I moved the 30" tank from upstairs into the fishroom (it now holds the Ports, female Paratilapia and female BGJD);
- I set up a 24" tank underneath it for the larger baby Jags;
- I have moved the Jag pair into the lower 4' tank (they're not too happy!) and all the fish from that tank into the 6' tank;
- the salvini pair are also now in the 6' tank;
- I still have six baby Vieja hybrids doing well;
- I separated the hybrid cons from the Redhead Midas yesterday. Both species are so fat!
- I now have Humpbacked Limia fry from one female, they have grown incredibly fast;
- I also have baby platies!

I now have an external flash for my camera. I'm so pleased with it, it has made such a difference to my fish photography:

I think that's about it for now, other than the fact that I successfully sent some Jags to Newquay (to Nev) and they arrived safely.

Happy days

2008-10-11T02:34:00.000-07:00

Looking forward to the BCA meeting tomorrow. Should be a really good road trip with two Simons and two Martins in the same vehicle!

Have more good news today as the salvini are getting ready to spawn and my crowntail bettas are spawning as I type. Mum is visiting at the moment and she was really impressed by them! Lovely fish.

The Firemouths still have their eggs too, which is amazing given that there are two Ancistrus in the tank. The parents look amazing right now.

Not looking forward to getting up at 4:30am tomorrow to bag fish...

Snakehead tragedy....again :(

2008-10-10T03:04:00.001-07:00

No more snakeheads for me. They were looking unhappy two days ago so I decided to up the heat. BAD IDEA! They were all dead yesterday morning. I think I have a long way to go in my fishkeeping abilities before I take on dwarf Channa spp. again.

On the plus side, my Firemouths have spawned in the mixed community tank in the fishroom.

CDAS, new fish, more fry!

2008-10-08T03:11:00.000-07:00

Went to the Corby and District Aquarist Society (CDAS) meeting on Sunday 5th. I was really impressed with how well organised the whole thing was. It was such a shame that the horrible weather put most people off coming. The talks were excellent, particularly Uli's talk on keeping and breeding snakeheads. The talk was so good in fact that I had to part with some money and buy six of his young Channa sp. Turquoise! I also picked up a pair of super red P. pulcher for a few quid.

I managed to sell about £12 of fish too, which offset my expenditure nicely and confirmed that it is indeed possible to sell the fry from the xanthic carrier Jag brood. Simon did much better, coming away with a profit after buying four pairs of dwarf cichlids and six Corydoras.

Talking of Corydoras, I spent my £40 credit at Maidenhead Aquatics (Coton) on five Corydoras sodalis, which I hope to breed at some point, and three very gravid blue/silver Platys (for fun).

A good thing happened yesterday evening: I separated my most gravid Humpbacked Limia into her own spawning tank and she produced around ten huge fry! They are super cute and eating well, so hopefully my shoal will increase from five to fifteen in the near future. I'm so chuffed about this, as I was sure something would go wrong.

At the CDAS meet I was hoping to sell my pair of Hemichromis sp. Bangui and some spare Blockheads, but in the end I had to bring them back home. I stuck the Blockheads in my Central American community tank and it seems like they're having a great time. I think two of them are a pair! Typical that I nearly sold off a matched pair of fish. It's funny because the other fish really don't know what to make of these clowns.

More Ancistrus and other news

2008-09-30T02:22:00.000-07:00

Picked up another pair of Ancistrus temminckii yesterday for £15. Seemed reasonable to me and they are nice fish. Hopefully they'll pay for themselves in the future by producing more babies. I put them in the melanurus tank in the hope they'll clean up the algae for me.

Submitted my lots for the BCA auction last week, but now having second thoughts about taking some of the fish as I might want to hang onto them!

Hopefully going to the Corby and District Aquarist Society auction on Sunday with Simon M. I'll be taking a few lots with me in the hope of shifting yet more fish.

More fun and games

2008-09-26T01:12:00.000-07:00

Turned out the Vieja spawn did survive. Hundreds of free-swimming fry. The parents were fantastic this time thanks to the mirror I put in with them.

Unfortunately when they were both in breeding dress it was clear that they weren't true synspilus or melanurus, so yesterday I removed the fry to their own tank and took the parents back to Maidenhead Aquatics in exchange for a £40 credit note. I'm going to keep the fry as 'Vieja Hybrids' and see what they turn into. I reckon they'll be stunning if the parents are anything to go by.

Last week I went to Terry's (Telboy) to pick up two 2' tanks, two Platydoras, a pair of marble cons, a huge pair of salvini, a plec and a Tiger loach. Lovely bloke. Gave me a very good price for everything.

I also stopped at Wildwoods on the way and bought what is supposedly a BGJD female! Time will tell. She's only small, but I hope to breed her to my male EBJD once she's big enough.

The salvini are amazing. The male is over 8" long - a real monster! I'm hoping that the two mirrors I stuck on the tank will stop hiom beating the female and convince them to breed for me.

Picked up a pair of Gold Saums on Wednesday on the way back from Hastings (for the last time!). They had fry in the tank, so I know they are a proven pair. A steal at just £8 the pair. They are looking great in place of the Viejas.

Had to fence off the big Port today as he won't stop killing the other fish. He's already killed two other Ports and a female cutteri, so I'm not taking any more chances.

Treated my marble cons with AZOO tabs today to try and perk the male back up. He's been lying on the floor looking miserable since I got him home from Terry's.

Culled the deformed Paratilapia female. Obi was very happy!

Sold £20 of fish on Wednesday: 3 Tinfoils, 3 Ancistrus, 2 Angels and a small group of Endlers. Not bad.

Ah shucks.

2008-09-17T05:57:00.001-07:00

Sounds like both the EBJD x JD pair and the Vieja pair have eaten their spawns.

How frustrating.

Jag attack!

2008-09-16T02:49:00.001-07:00

Amber had me in hysterics this morning. Apparently when she went to feed the Jag fry, the female leapt out of the water a couple of times to try and attack her. On the second attempt the Jag ended up on the fishroom floor!

Amazingly, Amber managed to wrestle the fish back into the tank with her bare hands.

I'm so impressed! Not even sure that I would be massively keen on grabbing an angry female Jag!

EBJD x JD spawn 2

2008-09-15T05:54:00.001-07:00

The pair spawned again the day after the Vieja pair. Determined not to lose the fry this time, but something awful could easily happen midweek while I'm away. Hope not though!

Egg-tastic Viejas

2008-09-14T02:23:00.000-07:00

I predicted, on Friday, that my pair of mystery Vieja would spawn, and yesterday they did! It's a huge spawn too. This time the male is preoccupied with the mirror I stuck in their tank, so hopefully he won't be such a rubbish mate this time around. Just hoping he fertilised more eggs this time, as last time he wasn't exactly on the mark.

I think my female con is coming to the end of her life. She's had these white growths on her gill covers and in her mouth (still unidentified - definitely not Lympho) on and off since I first got her and now the mouth growths are so bad she looks like she's wearing comedy dentures. It's a real shame as she is an awesome fish. I always find it so difficult waiting for fish to die as it's such an awful process to be a part of.

Killer Paratilapia

2008-09-09T01:51:00.001-07:00

My male Paratilapia skinned my second largest Port acara today. Very, very annoyed as I don't think it will pull through. The culprit's been put into solitary confinement, which sadly means that my remaining sajica 24ct Gold has had to go in with my melanurus youngsters. Hopefully she'll be ok.

Apparently one of my blockheads has HITH. Obviously something missing in the water care program, so I'll have to look into that at the weekend.

Took some sweet photos of my melanurus pair kicking off at their reflection in a mirror. I'm hoping this will help them to improve their pair bond as the male has a habit of beating the female up!

Misidentification and other weirdness

2008-09-06T03:21:00.001-07:00

Bullets for the week:

- male CT fighter ate his fry
- lost one P. multicolor, possibly the male!
- lost the male striatum killi
- put male HM RT blue fighter in with female PK super red
- removed divider from EBJD x JD tank
- Firemouths due to spawn again

Turns out my Blackbelts weren't Blackbelts after all. It had been bugging me for ages that they didn't look right, but I assumed Maidenhead Aquatics would have their labelling correct. Turns out they're probably melanurus after all that, so I now have 8 melanurus!!! Not that I mind, of course, as they're much rarer in the hobby than maculicauda.

The pair are looking in breeding condition again, so I stuck a mirror in with them today to try and cement the pair bond a bit better.

So incredibly annoyed with myself!

2008-09-02T11:15:00.001-07:00

OMFG. The BGJD fry were free-swimming today, but the male ate them. So annoyed that I didn't move him to another tank at the weekend. Grrr. Now I have to wait another two weeks to recondition the female and get them to spawn again.

I could kill something right now!

Mixed news

2008-09-01T01:46:00.001-07:00

The Bangui pair ate their fry again. Very odd for what were such good parents. I think they are upset about no having enough space or something.

The BGJD eggs hatched on Friday, so I know my male EBJD isn't firing blanks. Bizarrely he went psycho on Friday night when I was showing my mate Dan the fish room. He was trying to kill the female, so I had to rush in with a divider. Thankfully the female didn't abandon her fry and things are still looking good today.

I bought 4 new bettas on Friday: a male red veiltail; a male red and blue (metallic) crowntail (World of Water, Kent); a male fuchsia and blue butterfly veiltail (PetPaks, Hardwick) and a red plakat female (PetPaks, Hardwick).

Spawned the new crowntail to my copper over red female crowntail on Saturday. The male is currently guarding eggs.

Sold my pair of kribs (to Simon M.)and a pair of P. multicolor to George Milner off the OBE Forum.

In other news: the jag pair look like they want to spawn again, so I removed half the fry in case the parents do spawn and decide to eat their last batch!

Final bit of good news: my male sp. Fiamanga has perked up no end and is now swimming about the tank very happily indeed. Annoyingly one of the females I have has a misshapen mouth, so I think she'll have to be culled.

More BGJD eggs

2008-08-28T00:34:00.001-07:00

The EBJD and his mate have spawned yet again (yesterday)! Hopefully they'll not eat the eggs this time.

The Bangui pair also have free-swimming fry again. Thie time they'll be getting ZM000, which should be small enough for their little mouths.

Bank holiday weekend

2008-08-25T15:52:00.001-07:00

Picked up two adult Ptychochromis grandidieri and six juvi Paratilapia sp. Fiamanga from Tom (in Hove) on Thursday. Went with Chris as he was taking Tom's pair of Blackbelts. All good fun, especially parking near Tom's place.

We went in a couple of shops along the way: Eastbourne Aquarium Centre and Tranquility. Sadly not much of interest in stock in either place.

Brought the fish up to Cambridge on Friday and then made a fatal mistake with the Ptychochromis, which was leaving them in their bags in the tank overnight. Normally this works out fine, but I guess a combination of stress, ammonia poisoning and being harrassed by the Vieja contingent already in the tank sent them to meet thier maker. Was really gutted all Saturday as a result, especially as they were for Ian.

On Saturday I managed a trip to some shops to stock up on fish food and bits of equipment. Bought a sweet little copper-over-red crowntail plakat female. To my annoyance, the dragon male wasn't into her at all and promptly proceeded to shred her fins. She's fine though, now that I've rescued her!

Ian brought me the last three of Rick's F1 Festae this evening. Defnitely at least one male (the biggest). The smaller male HRP took an instant displike to him and they have been sparring non-stop all night. Hopefully they'll establish a pecking order before one of them is killed.

I gave Ian the pick of the Paratilapia. The male I kept is poorly, so I'm hoping he doesn't snuff it this week.

Bad Blackbelt

2008-08-20T02:54:00.001-07:00

Amber tells me the male Blackbelt is being thoroughly horrible to the female now, so she's been in hiding this week behind a piece of slate. Seems a bit unfair on her given it was he who messed up the spawn. No idea if there are any babies left. I reckon they probably will have been eaten by now.

Looking forward to picking up the Madagascan cichlids tomorrow or day after. Should be really cool to see Tom's fish house.

Planetcatfish.com

2008-08-19T14:56:00.000-07:00

Been on the above website trying to ID the Ancistrus again and it seems they are actually Ancistrus cf. cirrhosus, the name given to the common bristlenose and all its various morphs.

More joy?

2008-08-18T13:01:00.000-07:00

After a thoroughly enjoyable weekend at V Festival in Chelmsford, I discovered that one of the mouthbrooders has released her fry. I estimate that there are about 20 of them, which is amazing given how small the parents are. A few died off, but the rest seem pretty strong. I should end up with around 50 once the other two females have released.

Better yet, it turns out the male Blackbelt wasn't totally off the mark. I have around 30 Blackbelt wrigglers now being heavily guarded by a very irate looking female. The fry are very big, which you'd expect from such large eggs. Hopefully they will get to the free-swimming stage okay and go for the ZM food.

The other bit of potentially exciting news is that I think my rams are about to spawn. The female definitely had a very distended spawning tube this morning.

Fingers crossed.

The road to BGJDs

2008-08-15T09:31:00.000-07:00

I was expecting spawns this week and the fish haven't let me down.

The Blackbelts spawned, but sadly the male didn't do his job properly so the eggs are infertile. What's surprising is how big the eggs are. They're huge.

More exciting is the fact that, as predicted, the EBJD x JD pair have spawned and the eggs look to be fertilised. I'm really pleased because it's nearly a year since I last had a similar spawn and this time I feel really good about being able to raise the young.

The mouthbrooder females look hilarious because the eggs have all become fry and each female has a gob full of wriggling babies which they can barely contain.

Amber has been doing wondrous things with the feeding regime, so the baby jags and baby cutteri are all looking like little porkers.

Going to pick up some Polleni next week with Chris. They shouldn't be too big, so I think they'll go in with the angels and acaras for a little while at least. Ultimately they'll get their own tank.

Just had some news today that I might be able to get hold of the Parachromis sp. mentioned in the last post. Watch this space.

Good news all round!

2008-08-10T02:17:00.000-07:00

I am totally psyched today because my EBJD, which turned out to be male, has paired up with a sweet little female I got for him last weekend. I'm expecting eggs in the next week. So pleased!

In other news, last weekend was a bit of a blip in my 'no-more-fish' policy. I went a little overboard and splashed out on a female HRP, a pair of 4" Blackbelts (V. maculicauda), the aforementioned female Jack Dempsey and a pair of Rams. Oops!

Other than the fish being stunning, the pairs were all looking like they were going to breed very soon, so I couldn't resist. God knows if I'll be able to keep the Blackbelt pair long-term (they hit the 14" mark), but if the jags will put up with them (once I've removed their fry) then there's hope.

All the fry are growing well still. I now have three female multicolor with mouths full of eggs! Those guys are really precocious, as they've got to be only 1.5" long.

Other good news is that my Firemouth pair have come back from the brink of death and fought off their Lymphocystis infection. The male was looking amazing yesterday as he has a black border to his anal and caudal fins, which I've never noticed on other Firemouths before. I think they might breed again soon too, which would be fantastic.

I sold some fish: the male Channa sp. Assam and a couple of male multicolor. I'm also taking a few Port acaras and angelfish down to Hastings for my friends Chris and Jenny tomorrow morning. Nice to finally be making some space in the fishroom for the impending quantities of fry.

Just fell in love with another fish species I heard about on the MFK forum: Parachromis sp. La Ceiba 'Yellow Head'.

P. multicolor spawn

2008-08-01T10:52:00.000-07:00

One of my female multicolor is holding today, which is great news.

Just bought a lovely pair of rams. They were just about to spawn in the shop, so I couldn't resist buying them in the hope that they'll spawn here instead.

Also picked up another female Goldeneye in the hope the male will find her more appealing than his sister!

Lymphocystis? WTF?!!!

2008-07-26T11:13:00.000-07:00

Been on holiday this week, so Noel was looking after the fish for a few days.

Got back home on Thursday to find free swimming Bangui fry, which was good, and the dried body of one of my male Jack Dempseys under the 4' rack, which was bad. Really gutted about that actually. Guess he must've jumped out unnoticed. Oh well, at least I still have Mojo (my other male).

Also discovered that somehow my Firemouth pair both have Lymphocystis, of all things. I imagine the wild male con I got off Simon P. was carrying it (he's had fish die from it recently) and passed it on to the Firemouths. They've been isolated, but they don't look good. The female JD, female con and female Rainbow all look like they have it too. Apparently under good water conditions it heals itself, so I guess I have some water changes to do tomorrow morning! I'm just grateful that the HRP males are fine. They both look awesome.

All the fry are doing well. Did a water change on the jag tank today as I noticed that a few fry have started to die off (although there are still hundreds left). I was really worried I'd suck some fry into the pump, but luckily the parents did a grand job of herding them out of harm's way.

To be honest I think it's going to be a while yet before all my tanks have settled down and I stop getting sick fish. Sometimes I think it would be easier to cull any stock showing signs of illness in order to wipe the slate clean (a method recommended in the fish diseases book I have!). Sadly I'm a bit too attached to some of the fish to give up on them just yet.

Better Days

2008-07-12T16:10:00.000-07:00

Wahey! Only lost one fish this week: one of the two remaining sajicas. The other is back to full health.

The antibiotics certainly haven't worked a miracle, but at the same time things in the two 4' tanks are getting better. The Chocolate cichlids have regained their zest for life (or at least food!) and two of the Festae look like they might pull through. I suspect that the male Festae might be on borrowed time though. Very sad.

Simon P. came to take another cube tank today. As predicted his only major objection to the fish was that it was too small and didn't have enough tanks crammed into it!

To summarise some points: the jags still have their wrigglers (thousands of them); the cutteri young are growing well; I counted sixteen baby bristlenoses - the pair have spawned for a second time this week; and the Goldeneyes appear to be getting ready to breed.

It's all looking hopeful for having a decent amount of fish ready in time for the BCA auction on the 12th October. Might finally get to go to an cution and cover my costs with fish sales!

I have a cunning plan...

2008-07-06T13:53:00.000-07:00

Went out to Amwell Aquatics and bought shed loads of these antibiotic tablets produced by an Asian company called 'AZOO'. I plan to treat both 4' tanks this week. If this can't fix the fish then nothing will. The main ingredient is chloramphenicol.

While I was there I saw some stunning marble long-fin Ancistrus, but luckily managed to stop myself buying any. Went for an amazing Dragon plakat male fighter instead, as their male fighters were reduced to £9.90. Hopefully he will make a perfect mate for my yellow half-giant plakat female.

Fingers crossed for healthy fish by next weekend!

More bad news...

2008-07-06T00:00:00.001-07:00

Aaaargh! This is killing me! Lost the female HRP yesterday. Spent most of the day doing large water changes and medicating tanks. Unfortunately, the remaining Festaes and Chocolates look thoroughly miserable. I think they have a fungal infection, but could easily be bacterial. If anything treatment with Myxazin has made everything worse, so I've hit a brick wall in terms of progress. Also looks like I'm going to lose the female Nigerian Red krib, but she has been a bit ropey since I got her.

This is not fun.

A Wave of Disaster

2008-07-05T00:42:00.000-07:00

The last fortnight has been nothing short of a nightmare in the fishroom. Over the last two weeks I lost:

- All ten Congo tetras
- The four small Tinfoil barbs
- All four Fundulopanchax gardneri
- The male Rainbow cichlid
- One Festae
- One '24ct Gold' T-bar cichlid
- One Blockhead
- One Golden-eye cichlid

The Congos were dispatched by my pair of cutteri and the rest went to either illness, lack of oxygen or the middle 4' tank overheating (this week I stupidly put a heater into the tank which stays permanently on). All in all a very sorry state of affairs. Needless to say I feel terrible, particularly about the male Rainbow cichlid.

It's not as if my problems are finished with either, as I now have a female Festae, female HRP and the remaining two T-bar's to treat as they are all sick with an illness I can't identify.

Last week both 4' tanks were treated with Protozin. This week I am treating with salt. Big water changes all round today.

Thankfully I moved on some stock before all the bad news came along. Rick took the remaining two female cutteri, a guy called Darren took the four Boucourti and Simon P. took the pair of T-bars (who have since spawned for him and fallen out after he accidentaly syphoned off their fry!)

It's not all terrible news. The cutteri fry are doing very well, as are the bristlenose and hybrid HRP/Convict fry. The jags spawned again this week, which is awesome news (although now I fear for the lives of the Tinfoils in with them).

Yesterday evening I went to Simon P.'s place to swap four 18" cube tanks plus pipes and sump for a few bits and pieces. Came away with a male wild Convict (very odd looking fish!), a male HRP, three bags of fry of various sizes (G. brasiliensis, A. portalegrense and Amphilophus sp. 'Red Isletas'). Plus I got a few more peices of fake (resin) Tufa rock. Not bad considering I really wanted to shift those tanks out of the garden. Those fry will all be great once their grown on. For the moment they have been unceremoniously emptied in with half the hybrid HRP/Convict fry in a 20" tank. We'll see what I'm left with in the end!

Spent last night redecorating the 4' tank in the dining room to make it look more like a show tank (and provide more hidign spaces). This tank now contains:

- female Convict
- male wild Convict
- male HRP x 2 (one large, one small)
- female Rainbow
- female Jack Dempsey (much happier fish now she has lots of company)
- pair of Firemouths

Admittedly a rather unholy mix of fish, but I'll be watching carefully over the next couple of days for any extreme violence.

New fish galore!

2008-06-09T13:43:00.000-07:00

Wow! What a weekend! On Friday I went to visit the (amazing) fishroom of Nigel Roberts, who is perhaps the most successful hobbyist breeder of tropical fish I have met to date. He's breeding red veiltail fighters, marble angels, kribs, a number of killies, ruby barbs, congo tetras, golden-eye dwarf cichlids and a whole bunch of others. And all in a space the size of a bathroom!

It was, admittedly, a bit of a trek to drive out to Worthing to see the fish, but it was well worth it. I came away with six medium-sized angels, a shoal of ten large congo tetras, an adult pair of kribs and a trio of golden-eyes. And the price of all these fish? Well, let's just say I definitely got my money's worth.

As if that wasn't enough, I went to the TA Aquaculture fish auction on Sunday with Simon M. and his mate James, who is a Tanganyikan fanatic. I was like a kid in a candy store all day. Never seen so many gorgeous fish at such insanely cheap prices. I went a little bit OTT, I have to admit! The killifish were outstanding, as were the specially brought in WILD Tanganyikans, which were auctioned for peanuts and still had no takers (most people were there for the killies, bettas and livebearers).

I think I did very well in the end. The only fish I dearly wish I had bid more on were the pairs of Betta simplex and Betta albimarginata. And part of me agrees with Simon's opinion that it would have been worth picking up half a dozen Julidochromis marlieri for £5 each to sell on. Thankfully a lack of tank space prevented me from doing this!

So, what did I come away with? Two pairs of Fundulopanchax gardneri 'P82'; two pairs of Aphyosemion striatum 'Cap Esterias'; five Limia nigrofasciatus; about twenty Pseudocrenilabrus multicolor; a pair of Aplocheilus panchax; and a huge pair of Heterotilapia multispinosa.

I was in a bit of a daze when I got home...

Shame...

2008-06-05T14:33:00.001-07:00

Lost the female cutteri.

Got crazy plans to get hold of all sorts of fish now (mostly for resale). All very 'hush, hush' right now though. If I told you I'd have to kill ya!

Panic sets in...

2008-06-04T15:35:00.000-07:00

So, Amber tells me that she can't see any baby jags anywhere today. This is clearly not good news. I find it hard to believe the parents would simply have eaten them - there were so many! I'll be gutted if they have.

Also, the pair of cutteri fell out big time. The male has battered the female to within and inch of her life. Sadly it doesn't look like she'll make it.

Bad day for the fish room.

Went to visit Chris's fishroom (bruciethefish) this evening. I was keen to get some snaps of his gorgeous Pundamilia nyererei. He has two varieties:

Makobe (I think!)

Python Island

I have found a source for these fish, so I will definitely be getting hold of some soon. They are stunning!

Cutteri Update

2008-06-02T05:22:00.000-07:00

The cutteri eggs didn't make it unfortunately, but the male wasted no time in pairing up with another female, so I switched them into the 10" x 10" x 12" tank that had the male sajica in it. They didn't look too impressed with the move, but now I know they're compatible I can give them a 24" tank to themselves.

Awesome Ancistrus!

2008-05-31T15:18:00.000-07:00

Busy day today. Did a big tour of various fish shops and came home with a gorgeous pair of Ancistrus and a veritable shoal of Endler's livebearers. They're happily ensconced in their own tank now. I'm loving the fact that I have all these primed filters and mature water on hand at the moment.

I'm hoping to try and ID the Ancistrus, but it might turn out way harder than I was expecting as many species look very similar and I forgot to take pictres of them before they disappeared into the castle. So far I think they are A. triradiatus.

I'm totally stoked about both purchases as these are fish I've been meaning to own for a long time. Plus they make the perfect tank mates: the Endler's hang out at the surface and the bristlenoses live near the substrate. I even gave the bristlenoses an old resin castle decoration I have, to use as a breeding site. It's wonderfully kitsch. Looks like Castle Greyskull!

Ian came round to deposit five medium-sized Tinfoil barbs with me (I'm not sure where I want to put them, so they are crammed in with my Jack Dempsey pair. Neither species seems overly keen on the idea!). I'll probably move the JDs out tomorrow. I also got some filter media and a bit of Seachem Safe dechlorinator. I have been wanting to try the latter out for a while, as Ian has been raving about it.

In return Ian got a pair of the cutteri.

And while we're on the subject of cutteri, the male I got from Simon yesterday has paired up with my biggest female and they are spawning right now in the 4' tank, with all those other greedy cichlids swimming around. Not impressed (despite being simultaneously overjoyed). I really hope they can fend them off and raise the babies. I'll be well gutted if I get back from Hastings next weeked and the young have all been scoffed.

The jags are doing a great job with the wrigglers. They move them back to the bowl each night and back into a corner each day. They're so amazingly gentle for such large fish.

My Bangui babies are taking ZM100 with no difficulty, so that's good news.

I moved the festaes back to the middle 4' tank so I could use their tank for my EBJD, who has perked up considerably as a result and even ate some bloodworm to show me she wasn't intent on dying just yet, which was a relief.

Fish swap

2008-05-30T15:17:00.000-07:00

I got back from Hastings tonight and went straight out to swap some fish with my friend Simon (a.k.a. Cichlid Mad). I gave him a pair of cutteri in exchange for a spare wild male cutteri and half a dozen juveniles from his stunning pair of Port Acaras (Aequidens portalegrensis). I'm well pleased. It was a real treat to see Simon's fishroom finally. Very inspirational!

Here's a pic I took of the pair of Acaras:

The juvies I got went into the taeniatus tank and the cutteri went into the same tank as the rest of my shoal.

I was well annoyed when I arrived home because I found out the filter in the EBJD/JD tank wasn't bubbling away and I have no idea how long it was like that. The poor fish were gasping away like mad. Big water change for them tomorrow. I might even stick them in the 4' tank in the house to give them some clean water to breathe.

The Bangui pair is looking stunning right now. I took a few pics, but this is the best - 'Dad and his kids':

Baby Jewels

2008-05-29T14:51:00.000-07:00

As expected, the Banguis have been busy over the last few days. They brought out their free swimming fry for the first time today. Can't wait to meet them!

Hopefully I can syphon them off into a small growout tank. Would be nice to raise more than two, which is all I managed form the last batch (though they are very cute!).

The problem with the last attempt was that I didn't have a fishroom ready, so I had to try and save some fry in a livebearer breeding trap, which turned out to be a useless fry tank. The nice thing about the Bangui is that the fry will eat microworms and ZM100 fry food from day 1.

Must resurrect my microworm cultures!

Xanthic carrier spawn

2008-05-29T14:40:00.000-07:00

Old post from 27/05/08

The xanthic carrier jags spawned today. Just got the confirmation text. Ian tells me that it can take over two weeks before the fry become free swimming, so I won't get too excited just yet. The parents took three days just to clean the spawning site to their satisfaction!

I have decided that the xanthic gene should be labelled 'Y' (for yellow colouration). With this in mind, the Punnet square that predicts how the offspring will turn out should look like this:

Y y
--------------
Y YY Yy

y Yy yy

So, 25% normal, 50% xanthic carriers (which are apparently phenotypically distinct from normals), and 25% xanthic.

This is what Ian seems to have got from the last spawn with the same female, but only time will tell whether or not the fry he believes to be xanthic really are. The same goes for whether or not the carriers will be distinct from the normals. I must remember to ask.

For now I have to start worrying about the best way to feed the fry when they start swimming.

Gold farming!

2008-05-29T14:38:00.000-07:00

24th - 26th June. Bank Holiday Weekend!

Got the six foot tank moved onto the floor in the fishroom and set it up to hold a pair of xanthic carrier jags. My mate Ian is lending me his female to look after while he's away in Africa. As a result, phase one of our xanthic jag breeding program has started. The two fish have been busily cleaning a spawning site all weekend, so I have high hopes for a large spawn in the near future, 25% of which will be xanthic, just like their grandfather:

The two four foot tanks in the fishroom still both have high nitrite levels, which is bad news, but hopefully I can doo some big water chages next weekend. Hopefully the sponge filters will kick in soon!

BULLETS:

- Female Honduran Red Point improving after treatment with Sterazin. Trying to fatten her up with eggs so I can reintroduce her to the male. I recently found out that they are probably 'Rio Danli' strain.

- Moved JD x EBJD pair into their own tank.

- Shifted the two spare Bangui jewels to Simon in exchange for five of his home-bred Blockheads (I really hope I got at least one female in there!). This means I now have 7 Blockheads in one 24" tank in the fishroom.

- Put a pair of cutteri in the 30" office tank. Used the male withe the most red in his fins. All my female Cutteri are showing their egg-laying tubes now.

- Festae have started to pair.

- I have HRP x Convict fry and Bangui fry this weekend.