Wednesday 27 May 2009

Babies, babies, everywhere!

I've got baby Jags, baby Kribs, baby Convict/HRPs and I'm pretty certain my new pair of Fliers has spawned too, so I'll get to meet their babies soon too.

Upsettingly, my female Red Terror took it upon herself to lay a bunch of eggs in her plant pot without the male being present (he was on the other side of the divider, so didn't get a look in!). Problem is, she doesn't want to spawn with him, but she certainly can't spawn without him!

I moved all the growouts into the middle 4' tank the other day (the female Green Terror is in the 6' tank with her mate now). Basically this was all the young Jags, Pearls and unidentified Vieja.

Just found a source for adult Kribensis, some of which are 'Super Red', in a local shop. They're on sale tomorrow, so I might have to head over and snap the best pairs up quick. Very exciting to be getting such nice adults.

Tuesday 12 May 2009

...and then it was May!

How time flies. It has been three months since my last post and there have been a lot of changes in the fishroom.

- I have a new male Green Terror (the old one went to Simon P. to see if he could get it back in shape). I've had two spawns out of the pair now, but only one very tough fry remaining (I wasn't really trying to rear them up).
- The female marble convict now lives with Ian A. as does one of the male HRPs.
- The male wild con died (but I was never really convinced he was a true convict).
- The wild male cutteri went to Simon P. alongside a trio of wild Blackbelts.
- My sajica '24ct gold' died. Gutted.
- I sold all 6 of the Mozzies, the remaining 3 Aequidens (tetramerus) sp. 'Peru' and the female Egyptian mouthbrooder at the EACG auction in Moulton on the 3rd May. Woohoo!
- I have a new female Krib, as the old one has gone rapidly downhill (face falling apart). The male is super shy, but still a lovely fish for breeding purposes.
- I have 4 Blockheads remaining (3 males and a female)
- I bought what I believe is a pair of Aequidens tetramerus 'Ecuador' from Tranquility in Brighton (mistakenly sent as Blue Acaras). Very rare in the UK and a snip at just £10 the pair.
- I have just two melanurus left that I am hoping are a pair. Both have the bizarre blue 'wash' to their scales. I think they will be something special when they 'grow up'.
- I bought about 100 baby F1 convicts from Ian A. at the EACG auction, who are all doing well in the hall tank with no heating.
- I have culled a large number of jags and hybrid convict/HRPs as there is no real market for them. Some of the hybid fish are stunning, so I have put the two best together to see if I can get another generation out of them.
- The Festae are now alone in the display tank. The male is still 1/3 the size of the female, but has started to show mature colouration. He's got high hopes!
- All the Midas youngsters are now playing 'survival of the fittest' in the 6' tank along with quite a few hrid convict/HRPs that I chucked in there in the hope they'd be eaten.

Not sure how I'm going to move things around in the near future. I want to have a go at breeding from one of my various pairs, but not sure which fish to try next.

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!