Monday 25 August 2008

Bank holiday weekend

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.

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Introduction

I have always been fascinated by cichlids. They are among the most stunningly beautiful of fishes; they come in all shapes and sizes (there is a cichlid to suit everyone); and they have some seriously awesome behaviour. Since I started keeping fish 15 years ago I have kept and bred several species, but I never had enough tanks to house all the individual pairs I wanted (and their subsequent fry). In April '08, I was lucky enough to have a space-heated fishroom built into the garage conversion my girlfriend and I were having done. This diary is my way of keeping track of all my fish breeding projects. I hope you find it informative!