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.
Saturday 31 May 2008
Friday 30 May 2008
Fish swap
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':
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':
Thursday 29 May 2008
Baby Jewels
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!
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
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.
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!
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.
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.
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