I have been keeping mostly CA/SA cichilds since last summer, and after breeding several species (angels, convicts, cutteri, hondurans, thoricthys aureum [pasionis as well soon I hope]), I thought I'd give some Africans a try.
I started out trading some tanks etc with a friend for some brichardi and helianthus, 2 of each. They are under 2" so both presumed pairs are in separate 10s with sponge filters.
Then I traded some honduran red points for julies at an LFS by me. I was sold julidochromis regani but after further research discovered they were actually dickfeldi. Possibly the Livua variant, but hard to tell exactly. The julies are in a 20 long with a hydro IV sponge. Eventually, I plan to upgrade them to a 30 long and add in some gold ocellatus.
Then at the MCAS meeting I got some labidochromis mbamba from Tony, which it turns out were probably some offspring off some that Bob Stevens had a while back. One of the labs is albino, and the rest apparently have the albino gene, so I'm looking forward to getting some fry to see how they turn out. These are growing out in a 40 breeder with a Hydro III sponge and a an AC110. Also in the tank are 3 ~2" VC-10 that I won at the MCAS fishy bingo.
Then yesterday I went and got a few more Africans from Bob Stevens.
I currently have 1M 2F of electric blue (fryeri/ahli) and 1M 2F of white top afra/hara. I plan to add more females in the near future to get it to 1:3 or 1:4 for each species. They are in a 55 with a Hydro IV sponge (and shortly an AC110 once I get it cleaned up and plugged in).
I'd appreciate advice as to what other species might work well with afra/ahli in the 55, and what stocking to consider. I was hoping to add some electric yellows - so I'd end up 1M 4F ahli, 1M 4F afra, and 1M 4F (eventually) of e. yellows.
Oh, and one last pic. I've had a pair of kribensis since last July but they had never raised fry until about a month ago - not shocking since they were in with oddballs like a brown knife, senegal bichir, 3x upside down nigriventris, etc. They have since been moved to a 20 hex and laid eggs at least once, but no survivors from that batch though.
So, that's where I'm at right now.
