Michigan Cichlid Association
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: RichE on September 15, 2013, 10:55:15 AM
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Any one in to breeding these or raising them?
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New world old world?
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New world old world?
Dan
I honestly didnt know there were new and old world.
I have looked up dwarf cichlids and all i am really seeing is rams.
So I figured I would ask a open question and try to get some feed back.
Thinking of trying some new types of fish other then Africans and the few new world that I have.
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I know what's going on here.
Dwarves need less space than than the bigger species & after your recent 90 blow out,... Kim has restricted the living room tank to something smaller. ;) :P
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Rich,
Rams are new world you might want to look into some apistogramma's
which are new world (south and central America).
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Rich,
Rams are new world you might want to look into some apistogramma's
which are new world (south and central America).
Thanks Gary
I want to breed some small fish and im not a guppy or killi fish kinda person, so i figured rams would be good.
The replacement tank in the living room is a 75 no sump so i will just stick with the 8 or so peacocks I have(all male) and some plecos
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IMO Rams, Killies & guppies are all the same type of community type fish. If you wanna try some smaller fish look into the Thorichthys, Cryptoheros & Archocentrus genus. That way you can still have "real Cichlids " instead of feeder fish.
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I somewhat agree with Blair. I would avoid Rams or Apistos for your first non-African cichlid more for the reason that they're harder to breed. They need lower PH water and more diligent/close attention to raise the fry successfully...which I was never very good at...and I didn't have as many tanks at the time as you do...also ram/apisto parents like to eat the eggs more often than Africans (mouthbrooding Africans, that is), so you end up having to raise the fry with bubblers and meth blue and all that fun process. If you go for rams, get german blue not golds or electric blue because it is much easier to sex german blue rams/wild type.
You tried pink convicts successfully, right? I still have the pair I swapped to you and you swapped back to me. :) My wife won't let me get rid of them. Anyway, Thoricthhys meeki (firemouths) and ellioti or maculipinnis are both really easy to breed, like the convicts. That is, once you get a pair, which can be a little tricky sexing them until full grown. Honduran Red Points - closer to wild, not some of the crossbred ones with convict blood - are good choices and really pretty as well - bright blue with red tings on the fins/tail. IIRC Mike Zebrowski has some nice ones.
If you want small + egg layer + pretty, kribensis could be a really good choice. That's a West African fish. They were my first cichlid, though not the first one I bred. They successfully bred in my oddball tank with hungry fry predators like synos and bichirs/knives/leaf fish. A pair could easily go in a 20g for a year or even life. Their only quirk is that PH affects sex ratio of the fry, but if you're doing this more for fun it won't matter if you get all males or all females (PH above 7 = more males, below 7 = more females, I think).
Give us some more specific criteria and we can make better suggestions. :)
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There are also dwarf mbuna and dwarf west africans like kribs to look in to.
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Thanks for the advice, I want to try some small species (breeding) as i have room for a lot of smaller tanks and it would open my options:)
Now the room is 96% done, I want to start looking and then there is this auction coming up That i heard about, I might be able to find something there ;D
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try fossochromis rostratus or champsochromis caeruleus i hear you can keep them in a 10g. i always thought kribs would be cool. are there any chromides you might have interest in?
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Metriaclima are these a decent fish? i did some reading and they seem to be what i am looking for.
Do these come across the auctions?
My goal is to find some smaller cichlids to breed, to have a variety of cichlids to work with along with the few l series plecos and corey cats I am working with.
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Metriaclima are these a decent fish? i did some reading and they seem to be what i am looking for.
Do these come across the auctions?
That would make sense, especially since you sold /traded off the OB Zebras that you got from me.
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Metriaclima are these a decent fish? i did some reading and they seem to be what i am looking for.
Do these come across the auctions?
That would make sense, especially since you sold /traded off the OB Zebras that you got from me.
There you go getting loopy again :P I still have those 2 fish i got from you.
After i posted i realized that i had these already ;)
SO i will continue looking for some smaller fish, i like the mbuna's and some of the other smaller Africans
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demasoni
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I have blue rams...
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x2 on the demasoni
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So what size tank are you looking to stock?
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I have to disagree on the difficulty of sexing electric blue rams. Mine are very clearly easy to tell the difference
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I have to disagree on the difficulty of sexing electric blue rams. Mine are very clearly easy to tell the difference
I'd be interested to hear the differences.
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Males are larger and the females have a fat bright pink belly that the male does not have. Quite a different shape to them.
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Photo of female and then male/female
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Photo of female and then male/female
Yours are nice German blues.
Google "electric blue rams" and you'll see the difference. I'd post a link but my browser got hijacked and I don't feel like fixing it until tomorrow. :)
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Mine are called sapphire blue. Difference is my blue is more scattered and not all the way through like a traditional electric blue.
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Photo of female and then male/female
Yours are nice German blues.
Google "electric blue rams" and you'll see the difference. I'd post a link but my browser got hijacked and I don't feel like fixing it until tomorrow. :)
And I stand corrected they are German blue :)
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From what I read they are same species, just a different color morph?
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From what I read they are same species, just a different color morph?
Yes, gold/german blue/electric blue are all mikrogeophagus ramirezi...at least last time I checked. Cichlids get moved around frequently as to exact names.
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Afras.
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So what size tank are you looking to stock?
20 longs and 29's
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Afras.
Really? I don't think of them as a dwarf and they are one of the more aggressive mbuna IMO. Maybe you had better luck than me. I tried 1M 3F in a 20 long (3" male, 2" females) for a few days (only tank I had free for holding) and one male and the larger female killed the other two females. Could be a number of factors to that.
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So what size tank are you looking to stock?
20 longs and 29's
You can do a number of species it those sizes. The smaller Aulonacara, Julidos, Cryptos, ect
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Afras.
Really? I don't think of them as a dwarf and they are one of the more aggressive mbuna IMO. Maybe you had better luck than me. I tried 1M 3F in a 20 long (3" male, 2" females) for a few days (only tank I had free for holding) and one male and the larger female killed the other two females. Could be a number of factors to that.
Can I call on your knowledge to get me pointed on the right direction?
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Afras.
Really? I don't think of them as a dwarf and they are one of the more aggressive mbuna IMO. Maybe you had better luck than me. I tried 1M 3F in a 20 long (3" male, 2" females) for a few days (only tank I had free for holding) and one male and the larger female killed the other two females. Could be a number of factors to that.
Can I call on your knowledge to get me pointed on the right direction?
with enough rockwork, I think you could pull off an Afra trio.
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Afras.
Really? I don't think of them as a dwarf and they are one of the more aggressive mbuna IMO. Maybe you had better luck than me. I tried 1M 3F in a 20 long (3" male, 2" females) for a few days (only tank I had free for holding) and one male and the larger female killed the other two females. Could be a number of factors to that.
Can I call on your knowledge to get me pointed on the right direction?
with enough rockwork, I think you could pull off an Afra trio.
This was likely my problem - not enough hiding spots. I had planned on it being a temporary thing that turned into a couple weeks so I probably hadn't set up the tank with enough rocks.
Oh look...here's some afra! With auction delivery available. http://michigancichlid.com/simplemachinesforum/index.php?topic=3776.0;topicseen ;)
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You could do shellies in those size tanks. I have my afras as the little dog in a big tank so the male isn't overly aggressive. I also have a ton of rock work which minimizes a lot of aggression issues. I guess if trying to put them into a smaller tank I can see how that might be more difficult.
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You could do shellies in those size tanks. I have my afras as the little dog in a big tank so the male isn't overly aggressive. I also have a ton of rock work which minimizes a lot of aggression issues. I guess if trying to put them into a smaller tank I can see how that might be more difficult.
Gold or blue or purple ocellatus are a nice shellie. Mine bred monthly when I had them in a 20 long.
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Do some pseudotropheus lanisticola. The malawi shell dweller and a fish you don't see often
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Do some pseudotropheus lanisticola. The malawi shell dweller and a fish you don't see often
IDK about that. Josh's big lanisticola male Looks like he'd be too much for a 30x12
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I've never dealt with them personally but the few I've talked to said the males were more bark then bite. I would listen to Blair on that one
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Is there any species that can go in to a Community set up?
The tank (75 gallon) that I set up is going to be a "family" type tank, lots of driftwood some low maintenance live plants, some angel fish, a few l series plecos and 3 4" clown loaches.
Since I am a "cichlid" guy, I want to stick with cichlids.
IS there any type of "regular" africans I can put in with these fish that I have already(mentioned above)?
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Do some pseudotropheus lanisticola. The malawi shell dweller and a fish you don't see often
IDK about that. Josh's big lanisticola male Looks like he'd be too much for a 30x12
I just sold my large male, he was a good 5.5" to 6". Not a fish for small quarters down the road. They breed around 2.5" and would work in a 20 long for a while if you got them around 1". I spawned my first group of them in a 20h. Down the road they would need a bigger tank. I have some fry coming up and ready shortly. My large male is my avatar.
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Is there any species that can go in to a Community set up?
The tank (75 gallon) that I set up is going to be a "family" type tank, lots of driftwood some low maintenance live plants, some angel fish, a few l series plecos and 3 4" clown loaches.
Since I am a "cichlid" guy, I want to stick with cichlids.
IS there any type of "regular" africans I can put in with these fish that I have already(mentioned above)?
I would not mix any African cichlids with angels. I would look into some of the bigger mouthbrooding apistos in a tank that size. Look into apisto kelleri and barlowi. If you didn't go that route, with enough hiding spots and territory markers, you could do three species of the smaller lesser aggressive apistos
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I have angels with my tropehus and mbuna ll the time when I run out of room i haven't had a problem lol
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Hey Rich A large school of neon tetras! say 50 to start with.
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Consider Kribs. Very easy and they are great parents!