Former Newbie's African Cichlid Experience

The OB fry have been moved to a breeder basket and are munching on microworms. One of them died in the tumbler (probably the underdeveloped one) and another seemed to have swimming issues and possibly fungus growing on it so it died too. The others seem perfectly healthy. I think I might be needing another breeder basket pretty soon if all the other young females start reaching breeding age.

I think I'm gong to trade in my elongatus tomorrow when I go to the pet store. Every time after a water change he starts feeling very "happy" and digs pits while attacking anyone coming close to his love nest. I'd like to see my male hybrid take charge and show his lovely breeding colors. A few of the 2nd generation juveniles will be weeded out as well. I'd say there's 3 males now, one of the younger fry is looking very colorful lately so he gets to stay for a while yet.

I'm going to try not to come home tomorrow with new Africans, but we'll see how that goes. I can't promise I will resist buy any shellies if they have them. Update pictures of fry/juveniles coming soon.

Well, I didn't trade in the elongatus last week, but I did this week along with one of the older female fry and the rest of the last batch of crossbreeds. The 20gal is ready for the OB fry, but there are 5 corydoras in there as well which I will probably move, again.

I picked out two new Africans, I think they are both peacocks, if not then at least one is and the other might be a hap of some sort. I think they are both males
This was the larges one in the tank, about 2.75 inches

This has got to be a male, it wasn't the largest but had the most color. He's a little over 2 inches

I also took some pics of their main tank, the one that has my other hybrid male and then the blue zebra. There's a 2 foot long pleco front and center.

Who's arm is that?

NickAu said:

Who's arm is that?

Click to expand...

The bony one? I believe it's the arm of the last person to clean that tank...I haven't seen that one young volunteer worker in my last few visits and that's when the arm showed up. He was a noob anyways, over fed the fish and turtles IMO.

I nearly forgot to mention, I also bought a super expensive API master test kit.

You got rabbits?

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I used to have one a lop eared rabbit a few years ago, but that's just the display tank at the pet store. They have a bunch of snakes, tortoises, and guinipigs in the back ground cages. They also have several large parrots, doves, finches, little parrots etc. Their rabbits are in the basement, I think they're working on getting them to breed. I guess they don't want the kids seeing rabbits going at it (although I did catch a pair of doves in the act)

I guess I should take a few pics and a video of my main tank, it's been a while and I re-scaped half of it trying to get the two fish out of there today. I'll post again in a bit.

Here's one o f the videos, the other one is still uploading.

Feeding video

OB peacock fry video. Soon enough the OB female will spawn again, she's very fat.

Loving the pastel colors on this male. This is when he is being submissive.



The two new fish are adjusting well, they have starting coming up to the glass when I walk by.


I think this guy is also electric blue ahli, or at least part ahli.

I JUST finished big water changes in the 29 and 55, now the OB peacock pair in the 29 are spawning, not even 10 minutes after refilling the tank I'll try getting a short video of them doing the deed

Cool

The new fish have adjusted quite well as they are begging for food with the others in the 29. The peacock seems to of lost color but that is to be expected when he's with larger fish. The other one has colored up more with loads of egg spots on his anal fin and orange speckles in his tail. I'll have to get some pics or a video of them.

Today one of the 2nd gen females spawned with the non yellow brother. The 1st gen male was trying so hard to get her to spawn with him but the little male managed to sneak in and do the deed himself. We'll see if she hold them full term.

The 30+ OB fry were moved to a 10gal tank, and I moved the albino BN back into the 55 along with a piece of driftwood for him. He's taken charge of the wood and stays in a hollow part of it.

As for water tests, I took readings in the 29 and 55 before and after a water change, strangely the nitrates didn't go down much at all.... All the other readings are perfect though, no nitrite or ammonia. The darker red tubes are for the 55gal


Pics of the OB male when he was spawning

I wish the nitrites in my tap water would go down...

Still thinning out the juveniles from the last batch that I plan to keep. I traded in 6 of them (1 being the largest female) and then 1 of the first genereation females (I don't want any more fry from them for a while). The first batch of OB fry are growing fast, as of yet they are still in the 10gal but I moved out the fish in the 29 (except 4 that I have yet to catch) and will put them in that in another week or so.

2nd batch of OB are still being held by mom, but they are ready to be spit. I moved her to a breeder basket with a place for her to hide and spit the fry, but she only spits a couple at a time then gathers them back up. I'd guess there's 40 or so in this batch.

I got one lovely young male peacock on Friday (4/21) that is mostly yellow with blue on its gills. Can;t wait for him to grow a bit more, he's around 2.5 inches right now. He got a few nips on his fins as did the OB male when I added them all in, but things have calmed down just fine and there are no serious injuries. No pictures to show right now, but I'll get some in a bit of the new guy and the others.