Hello everyone
,
Just discovered this place and thought i'd introduce myself. I've been keeping african cichlids for about 3 years now, started off with a 2 footer in my living room which housed 3 1 inch yellow labs, as the fish grew so did the addiction, now i have 3 fairly large (95 gall, 125 gall, and a 150 gall) tanks and an angry girlfriend who made me put them all in the shed in the back garden
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Northern Ireland, or 'Norn Iron' as we say
, doesnt have too many shops to choose from when it comes to african cichlids, even the bigger shops mostly stock guppies, platies, mollies, barbs, tetras etc etc, if your really lucky they might even have a 'mixed african' tank, which roughly translated means ' MONGREL ', lol.
At the minute i am keeping yellow labs (Labidochromis caeruleus), Cobalt Zebra (Metriaclima Callainos), Golden Auratus (Melanochromis auratus), Haplochromis Sp44 or Red Tail, Rustys (Iodotropheus sprengerae), Neolamprologus leleupi sometimes called 'lemon cichlid', and various kenyi zebra crossbred types bought from 'mixed african' tanks at my local pet store
.
Apart from the leleupi i have bred and raised all of these fish without too much effort, giving the juvenile fish away, sometimes even keeping the most promising young 'uns and giving away the parents. The thing is everyone i know is at max stocking levels with all the fish i give em, so its pointless trying to raise anymore fry and i hate to watch them get eaten in the main tanks.
The 125 gall tank at the minute is sitting empty due to lack of choice, anyone here from 'Norn Iron' know of any good shops or local breeders for cichlids ?, anyone ever had fish delivered from mainland UK ?, any mainland sites ive found dont guarantee live arrival for N.I. and that sort of puts me off buying new fish from them
.
Anyway, hello to you all again and please post and help me with my addiction, im starting to cold turkey and only new fish will ease the pain
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