ALL MALE HAP & PEACOCK TANK

I've been working on making my 75 gallon Hap and Peacock tank all male. I have moved quite a few females out but I missed a few. Today I came down to find 2 more holding. I just moved two moms that were holding in that tank a couple days ago.

I have all four of my tumblers full of babies and eggs. I just wanted to move these females to my all female tank so they wouldn't be harassed but nope they decided they were going to spit their eggs out first.

I think making that last move, I have pretty much all the females out of that tank. My girls have their own tank where they can live happily without constant
harassment from the males. I know There is one little female I'm leaving in there. She is the female to my handsome Species #44 . I'm not sure if she's old enough yet but it won't be long. He's already shown interest in her so I'm hoping to have them give me a brood.

FRY OVERLOAD

It's really been a crazy couple weeks in my little fish room. I have every tank in use and all four of my tumblers are running too. Looking at my furthest along in my tumbler I was able to move one brood into a playpen freeing up a tumbler this afternoon.

I like my fry babies to spend a couple days in a playpen so I can just observe their progress. When the are first out of the tumbler I l keep them in a smaller area then just loose in the tank so I can make sure they are finding the food and eating well. If I just released them it would be harder for those little ones to find food in the 10 gallons than it is in the playpen. After a couple days they are usually ready and I am satisfied, then I release them.



The brood I moved today are Dragon Blood fry. There are 25 healthy babies and they will be joining 27 Dragon Blood babies that are about 5 days older. I'm fine putting fry together but I do like to keep their age difference within 7 days.

I have a couple more moms holding in my Mbuna tank so I'm very happy to have a free tumbler. I don't have room to allow the moms to spit themselves so I must strip them. I like stripping free swimming fry best but having them in the tumbler gives me a little extra time to get things moved around. Love my babies..

UPDATE ON MY 20 GALLON GROW OUT

THE ALL FEMALE CICHLID COMMUNITY

Yesterday I was out with mom. I take mom shopping and  we do her running around once a week. It's my way of helping out and it's a good time for us to spend the day together.

When I got home, of course I checked on my fish tanks. In my Haps and Peacocks tank I noticed I have two more females holding. When I left there was only one. This is a good thing because as the females reveal themselves I will be moving them out of the tank they are in. My goal is to make that a male only community. I do intend to keep breeding cichlids but I want to be in control of that process. I want to choose who breeds with who.

The females will be going into a 40 gallon aquarium. I don't intend on keeping too many females so I think the 40 will work for this. It's not really recommended to keep cichlids in anything less than a 55 gallon as they do grow to a fair size and are considered an aggressive species that do better with more room.

I just set up my 40 gallon for the female community. I had everything I needed to get it set up but I
don't like the light I have to use. It will do until I get an LED. The old style lights just don't cute it when you are used to the LED light bars. I used substrate that I removed from this tank before. It hasn't been washed. I am also using the HOB filter that is also well used and hasn't been touched. I am sure I'll have a sufficient bacteria to accommodate the few females I plan on moving over. For decor I used a few of the rocks I picked up at the stone mason's place and I had a couple really ugly plants so I used them. They are super fake looking but they will brighten up the tank since the females are as colourful.

Tomorrow when I do my water changes I will be moving the first few females into their new home. I will begin with the three holding in my H/P tank. I have a few I know for sure that are females so I will probably get them moved as well. Eventually I plan on selling many of the females and bring in new species to breed.

I'm really excited to get started and probably won't sleep well because the hamster will be running a muck! Tomorrow can't come soon enough!!

AFRICAN BUMBLE BEE CICHLID

MY LITTLE FISH ROOM UPDATE

This morning it was time to do a little work in my little fish room. (MLFR) I had been watching some videos on breeding and raising goldfish/pond fry. I have about 10 tiny goldfish in one of my 10 gallon tanks along with 27 Dragon Blood fry that I just moved over from a tumbler they were in.

 I learned that the two should not be together only after I had already moved my cichlids into the tank with the pond fry. It's not good for them to be together because of the temperature difference. Hearing that, I thought it was going to be difficult to move the fry. As it turned out my cichlid fry are very quick and stick to the bottom of the tank. Whereas the goldfish are all throughout the tank much closer to the surface. This made the pond fry very easy to catch with a little net. I couldn't see them in the net but dipping it into the little tub I was using I quickly saw them swim off the netting.

In a few minutes I had the pond fry in their own tank and my cichlids in their own tank. I added some more pond lettuce to the goldfish fry tank so they would feel sheltered and at home. The cichlids much prefer the rocks to hide among. I counted the pond fry I moved and there were 10 so if any more show up they will have come in with the new lettuce.

I then cleaned out the Dragon Blood fry tank making it clean and fresh for them. I did quick water changes and vacuumed the remaining tanks and felt I was all caught up with my duties.

I stripped the Yellow Lab that was holding my my Mbuna tank. She was holding just over 7 days. Her brood was 25 wigglers with tails and heads already out. Another week in the tumbler and they will be joining the Dragon Blood fry in their 10 gl.

 Recapping MLFR

- 30 gl Red Top Zebra (4 mths) - 20 gl Auratus fry & Dragon Blood mystery fry (2 mths) - 10 gl Electric Blue fry, Red Empress fry & Elongatus fry (6 wks) - 10 gl Albino Red Zebras, Yellow Lab and Albino Red & more Electric Blue - 10 gl Dragon Blood fry - 10 gl Pond fry - Small Tumbler Yellow Lab wigglers.

MLFR is a very busy place and I have had a busy day....

HAPPY DOING WATER CHANGES

After being gone for a weekend of family camping it's so good to be home. I got up early, greeted my cichlids with their breakfast and began doing water changes. After having my coffee and checking emails, messages and subscriptions I got to work.

I did a water changes Thursday morning preparing them for a good weekend without me. Because they didn't eat over the 3 days we were camping the tanks really did look great. I did my water tests and my nitrate was showing between 20-40 ppm. Not a crucial level but enough to bring on a water change.

I always look forward to working with my fish no matter in what capacity. Today it was changing their water. I began with my Mbuna tank. I was taking the water down by 50% and just refilling it. I cleaned one HOB on this tank as it was due. I
washed the glass on the inside and moved the scape only enough to allow me to vacuum the substrate. It was basically a light clean and took about 40 minutes total.  

Moving on to my Haps and Peacocks tank I did pretty much the same except I switched out the hard scape for the new group of rocks I collected last week at Alvin's junk stone pile. It's really wonderful to have access to awesome stones like this. These stones are not really suitable for Mbunas but they are stunning in my H&P tank.

I finished up just doing a quick water change on my 55 gallon juvenile tank. I removed about 40% of their water and refilled it while I vacuumed. That was pretty much all I did. I was still doing some laundry from the weekend so I had to share my water usage as well.

While working on my tanks I noticed I have three moms holding. Two are in my Mbuna tank and one is my Electric Blue mom... and the beat goes on!

ONE MAN'S JUNK IS MY HARD SCAPE!

EMPTY TANK HAS SQUATTERS!

BEAUTIFUL POND PLANTS

About a week ago I brought in some pond lettuce to put in each of my fry tanks. This plant floats but below the water is had a beautiful system of roots that resemble feathers. They look very pretty and my fry seemed to really love swimming through the fronds.

These lovely plants do need light or they won't survive. I had placed one floating lettuce plant in an empty tank. Because the tank was empty I kept the light off forgetting about the needs of this plant. After a couple days I notice the roots were breaking off and sinking. It was then that I realized my mistake and decided I better remove the plant and clean the tank.

After removing the plant I used a little net to scoop out all the little bits it left floating behind. I was satisfied and didn't do any more cleaning as I felt it was sufficient.

We were going away camping for the weekend so my neighbor agreed to take care of MLFR while we were away. I was not going to feed my show tanks as the larger cichlids are fine to go without food for a few days. In fact it's very healthy for them to fast even up to a couple weeks. This was only for 3 days but I didn't want to leave my fry without food for that long, as they are very young and need the nourishment. My neighbor came over so I could give her instructions for my fry care.

While she was here she asked what was in the empty tank. I told her there's nothing in there and that it's a hospital tank just in case I need it for isolating a sick fish. She pointed at the tank and said well then what is that? We both looked closely and found three very tiny fish in the tank. Not having a clue where they came from I began to think what they could be. It then dawned on me that I had pond lettuce plant in this tank for a good week before I removed it. The pond lettuce is straight from my pond that is home to my goldfish. I soon realized they must be baby goldfish. They are incredibly small and could easily be mistaken for bits of dirt that swim.

I instructed my neighbor on feeding and added that she should feed these interesting little guys as well. Just in case they needed the lettuce as protection or even a food source I went back out and picked more and added it back into the tank at least for the time we would be gone. I kept the light on this time.

When we returned I was very excited to see these little guys. I still can't believe how tiny they are. I
removed the lettuce and rinsed it off carefully making sure no babies were stuck in it. I ended up finding a whole bunch of them. Now in the tank there are 8-10 goldfish babies. To that tank I also added my youngest from their tumbler. I knew they would need to be moved when we got back. I put them in the same aquarium. The Dragon Blood fry are at least 5xs bigger. I hope they do okay together. I have watched them as I feed them and everyone seems to be eating. My DB fry stay on the bottom but the new little ones dart all over the tank.. up and down and everywhere.

I will be keeping a close eye on this tank. I'm excited to see if these new little ones will grown as quickly as my cichlid fry do. They have to grow fast as I empty the pond in October and bring the fish in for the winter.

WATER CHANGE DAY IN MLFR

DAILY OBSERVATIONS

After doing my rounds in MLFR. Feeding everyone and checking each tank as I did so. Everyone looks terrific. I have currently 4 month old fry in my 30 gallon grow out. I have 2-3 month old fry in my 20 gallon, 1 month and 2-3 weeks old in two of my 10 gallon and wigglers in my tumbler. That sounds like quite a little breeding room.

Next I came down to check my three show tanks. My juvenile tank is great although for some reason they do not want the NorthFin Pellets. I have been feeding this group the tetra Cichlid Crisps and they really love them. I have been mixing the two trying to get the switched over. I have also been introducing Spirulina to all my cichlids. The large one seem to love the it. So I give them a pinch once a day around 4pm.

Looking at my tanks this morning. I have 2 more mom's holding. There's a Yellow Lab in my Mbuna tank and my Electric Blue has one of his females holding as of today. I got some footage of the action but I'm not sure if I will upload it or not. The view was slightly obstructed due to my lovely new rocks!

I have more dancing and shaking going on so I'm expecting a couple more females to be holding by weeks end. I can see they are very close to
dropping their eggs.

It's always fun greeting my Cichlids in the morning.. they are uber excited to see me as they know what I bring. I love seeing them as well because they always seem to have a surprise for me as well. I love my Cichlids.