Former Newbie's African Cichlid Experience

[Demeter32]

As always, the new guy wouldn't hold still for very long. But look at those egg spots on the Rock Krib!

Slightly better pictures, he got a little roughed up but he's begging with the others now. Looking forward to his development, wonder if he will turn all yellow

The boss of tha tank is the only one that sits still long enough...

Fry update: I removed the female OB once I saw all the fry out of her mouth. The fry are eating BBS and micro worms. I found one dead yesterday and wen I looked at it the head seemed a bit deformed, like the eyes were not evenly spaced and it was larger overall than the other fry. I'll be taking a closer look at the next batch of fry for deformities.

And Stubby the synodontis is looking much healthier now the elongatus isn't beating him up. No more scratches and nipped tail. His whiskers still seem to be getting shorter though. I haven't seen anyone actively nipping them lately so I almost wonder if they are infected or something.

 

[Toney]

Cool

 

[DutchMuch]

Cool

 

[Demeter32]

I really need to do some thinning out again. The tank is sooo crowded and that means the nitrates get high pretty quick. I also moved the older 30 or so OB fry into the 29 and the younger ones into the 10gal, there's 37 in the second batch.

These guys are looking good, nice and healthy. There's 2 or 3 runts though, they're about half the size of the largest ones.

 

[DutchMuch]

does it suck to be a dad or a mom, do you feel now like your life just emptied out on you
LOL

 

[Demeter32]

Few pictures of the males

The rock krib and the pastel male in breeding colors

Stubby the synodontis makes an appearance

Then the male OB peacock with a frayed dorsal, the pair of 1st generation YL/P were spawning.

The younger OB fry are getting crowded in the 10gal, but I am not comfortable enough to toss them with the older fry. I had some left over pool filter sand and added it to the 10gal, now I'll be ready if I ever come across some shellies.

 

[Demeter32]

For some reason or other, my "content" section that drops down when I click on my name is completely empty, so I had a heck of a time finding this thread. I had to google it because it wouldn't show up in the search bar either.

That aside, there are 3 holding female now, one is a 1st generation female, the other 2 or second generation females (of my hybrids). The first gen. and one of the second spawned with the dominant male (profile pic). The other female seems of to spawned with a newly maturing 2nd generation male. This guy is still small and only started showing color in the past couple of weeks. He looks a lot like the male I recently traded in, but with better outlines of his fins.

I plan to trade in most of the older OB fry, they are about 1 inch long and looking pretty good. There's a few I have my eye on and will keep for a while longer. The younger OB fry will finally be tossed into the 29gal and the 10gal will be ready for the next couple of batches. The 1st gen. female should be about ready to spit her fry, still debating on whether to let her do it in the main tank of to strip and raise the fry.

 

[Demeter32]

Took the OB fry to the pest store and got 2 free mystery snails and a glass canopy for a 10gal at a discount. I kept a handful of the more promising fry and put the younger batch with them.
(Note these are only the older fry)

After the pet store I went shopping elsewhere and saw am mbuna with a fair amount of red coloratoin on his dorsal, so I got him on impulse. I believe it to be a rusty cichlid (body shape and head similar to a blue zebra). If he can play nice I'll keep him, if not then he be traded in.

At the moment he is in a 10gal quarantine, he's only about an 1.5-2 inches.

Update on the cross breeds, I stripped the eggs from the two 2nd gen. females. One mostly bad eggs, but I did take the chance of keeping 2 that looked ok, and they are now little wrigglers. The other female's eggs were less mature, only a few days old. I kept most of them and picked out the discolored ones. Last night there were several eggs that looked bad so I took them out of the tumbler and sorted them out. Looks like I will have to do it again soon as I see more eggs not looking too great.

 

[Demeter32]

Better pictures of the new guy. He is very striped now, and there's a tad bit of blue on his dorsal.

Update on eggs in tumbler: I looked in this morning and saw that one of the recently hatched fry was stuck to the mesh that keeps them from getting pulled up and out from the tumbler. The little fish was somehow pulled through the mesh while its yolk was keeping it from going any further. It was still alive and moving so I very carefully cut it out with tiny scissors. Then I removed a few more bad eggs and counted 12 fertile ones. You can see the head/eyes of the younger ones now, a few have already hatched. It's safe to say that the 3rd generation has finally arrived and the 2nd generation is not infertile.

 

[james41683]

Your new fish looks like a metriaclima greshakei female.

 

[Demeter32]

I just did a quick google search and it does resemble the ice blue zebra. On another forum another person said the same and another said possibly a Hongi. It's more than likely a cross-breed of some sort, but I don't mind that.

As for gender, I say male judging from the behavior I've seen while it was at the store and it's good coloration at a mere 1.5 inches. Time will tell though

 

[Demeter32]

I was on vacation for 5ish days and the fish were being cared for by my sister. Everyone is in more or less good health, the 12 3rd generation fry are out of the tumbler, but there is 11 now. As they devloped, I noticed that one fry had a curved spine, it seems to of died while on vacation. Tis for the best, I suspect all the inbreeding to cause more curved spines, I'll just have to be careful on who gets breed with who.

I took the new guy out of quarantine and he's in the 20gal while the 50+ new batch of 2nd generation fry are in the quarantine. I'll slowly be picking out the promising ones and feeding the others to the adults.

I recently found out the white tail acie is a female, she was holding eggs when I got home, they were not fertile though (good thing) as there were white streams coming out as she tumbled them.

Apparently I didn't note this last time, but the OB peacocks are expecting again. Not as many as last time judging by the size of her mouth. I think they spawned last water change, which would be 6/18(?) The 2nd batch of their fry (which were added to the 29gal) have been slowly picked off by the small peacock I threw in to gain some weight. He certainly looks plump and healthy now... As a side effect of the decreased numbers, the remaining fry of that batch are quickly catching up to their older siblings.

The male OB somehow damaged his right eye, it's a little cloudy but it seems to be healing pretty quick. They'll be getting water change today, might add a touch of aquarium salt as well.

 

[Demeter32]

Picture time

When I moved the new guy, he's a little freaked out.

The most promising developing male, very bright outline on the dorsal and other fins. His brother (blur in the lower right hand corner) will be traded in soon.

 

[Demeter32]

I did a bad thing... I may or may not of impulsively bought 2 more cichlids. Even worse, one may or may not be an American cichlid....

Behold, my new aquatic children.

When I bought the last new guy about 2-3 weeks ago, there was another little guy I had my eye on but decided against because it appeared to be an OB zebra. Long story short, he was still there today and looked to be in a bad way. Note its sunken belly... I felt pretty bad for the guy so I bought him. ATM he's in the 20gal tall, I moved the last new guy into the 29gal with the peacock fry.

As for the other new addition...

A firemouth. Don't worry it's not going with the Africans. I will be giving (forcing) this one on my sister's tank. The 36gal bowfront only has the corydoras ATM but the plants have been doing awesome. Once the firemouth is done being quarantined (also in the 20gal tall) he will be placed in the bowfront. Both new fish will be treated with Prazipro.


Side note: I traded in 2 more of the older 2nd gen. hybrids. One male and one female.

 

[Demeter32]

I had so much fun yesterday. Went shopping at V. I. Pets and Petco. At petco I finally found a Raphael catfish, some aponogeton bulbs, 2 large anubias, and another lovely koi betta. The catfish will probably end up with the Africans once his quarantine period is over, I plan to trade in the synodontis soon.

At V.I Pets it took a while to find the fish. They have several rooms and the fish were the last things I found. The room was completely dark with only the tank lights on, and their fish selection was amazing and healthy. I picked up an upside down catfish and and OB peacock.

Not too sure this 2ish inch fish is juiced or not. I wouldn't be too surprised but I took the chance anyways. Speaking of juiced fish, remember those two peacocks I got that seemed to be showing good color? Yeah, I haven't seen any color from them since. In fact, it almost looks like the one that had a yellow head is getting rather plump...

The OB mbuna is doing great, putting one weight and acting hyper. As for the other mbuna, he's a mean little snot and I decided to toss him in the 55gal as he was bullying the peacock fry. He's pretty fat and showing great color though.

Side note, the first gen. female is holding as of 3ish days ago, a 2nd gen holding as of 2 days ago, and another 2nd gen female looks ready to lay.