SECURE YOUR HARD-SCAPE

TODAY'S SMILE ~ CICHLIDS PLAYING LASER TAG!

Having some fun with my cats I decided to give my cichlids a turn. It's amazing how inquisitive these guys are. I laughed so hard when I watched the one guy trying to eat the laser dot. It's comical so I hope you enjoy!

CICHLID FIGHT - BIG AL RETAINS THE THRONE!

CLOWN MYSTERY SOLVED

I shared a couple posts back that my clown loaches had disappeared. I was quite concerned and had no idea where they went. Sharing a video on YouTube I had some helpful comments leading me to believe they were still there but were hiding. Apparently, clown fish (like many fish) are shy, they don't like bright lights and they like crawling into tight spaces to hide.

I cleaned out my entire tank and could not find them anywhere. I removed everything this time including my UV sterilizer. As I grabbed it out popped my three missing clown loaches! I couldn't believe my eyes. They were hiding in the output tube. Two of the clowns looked fine but the one had scraped his head and chin area.

I was so happy I had found them. I adjusted the output tube on my UV sterilizer so they shouldn't get in there again. I also added a pipe for them to hide in. It's actually a piece of intake tubing from my HOB filter. I drilled a hole into it added a suction cup and then stuck it against the back glass of the tank. I placed it on a 45° angle. I was hoping the clowns would use it but my curious cichlids found it first. I also added a couple little jugs I picked up at the Thrift Store as hides as well. It seems the cichlids have taken them over as well.

Watching the clowns, they do seem happy, merrily swimming around. My cichlids do not bother with them and I have a feeling they are getting used to their surrounding not having the need to hide like they did.

THE DISAPPEARING CLOWNS

A few days ago I was out and about and stopped at the local aquarium. I left with a couple clown fish. They are something I've always wanted to add to my tank. I love their colour and their funny antics.

I put them in my 40 gallon with a group of juvenile cichlids. They are so funny sticking together like glue. You just don't seem them apart. So I thought. A couple days after getting them they didn't look as feisty as they did. There wasn't any apparent fin damage or other indications of abuse but something didn't seem right with them. 

I did a clean on that tank so while I was at it I re-homed them to my 55 juvenile tank. These juveys are just a step above fry. Within a couple hours the one clown was swimming upside down. We all know that is not a good sign. I moved him again this time putting him in a hospital tank, but by mid-day he was dead.

The other one seemed to be doing okay all alone, but I did want to get him a new friend. Because I only had them a couple days I put the dead one in the freezer and planned to take him back. The next morning, I did a quick check on the healthy one before leaving. He was no where to be found. I searched that tank all over. Very strange. I left with my dead return and came back with two more. One was a replacement and the other an "in case" one. 

I acclimated them to the 55 gallon where the missing clown was supposed to be. He was still missing by the time I got home. The new ones seemed a good fit but it still confused me as to where the heck the other clown was hiding. I don't know anything about clown loaches. Do they hide like that?

I pushed it out of my mind and got busy with other things I needed to do. Doing my good night check there were still only two but they did look good. Off to bed I went. First thing in the morning I do my rounds feeding my fry first, new moms, sick tank and then moving on down to the main floor. Checking on my cute little clowns there weren't any left! This was nearly driving me crazy! 

I took care of the rest of my tanks, did my mid-week water test and had my coffee. All my test were awesome. Perfect in fact. With no ammonia spike I was pretty sure my clowns weren't dead but they were hiding somewhere in that tank.

Finally by the end of the day it bugged me to the point of removing everything from my aquarium. I turned off everything, removed the rocks, shells, plants and every thing that was movable except the fish. Guess what??? No clowns anywhere. There is no place where they can jump out. I checked the shells, behind the heater, up by the filters and every nook or tiny hiding space I could think of. I even ran my fingers through the sand slowly in case they had buried themselves. But nothing!

Feeling totally frustrated I put everything back cleaned up my mess, tossed the towels over chairs to dry and was ready to go to bed. Just as I reached to turn out the light - there was a clown! Just one! Where the heck did he come from? Of course that got me all wound up again. I searched again but he was the only one in there. I went to bed with my head spinning.

This morning after doing my rounds in MLFR I headed down the check on my 55 and hopefully find 3 clowns back. GAH!! No clowns at all!

CICHLIDS VS CANON 60D

FEELING THE LOVE

DAILY OBSERVATIONS

This is the beginning of a new month and hopefully a good one. I'm so happy to report my Ichy fry are no longer spotted. I still have a couple days to go but I believe my Ich problem is in the past. The only benefit this has given me is the
experience and knowledge I now have and will be able to help others on a personal level as I gone through it. For the fish they benefit (if they survive) because having had Ich they will have built up immunities and will not suffer this nasty parasite again.

In MLFR I had 2 moms holding. That is now down to one. The Yellow Lab who had her mouth so full she could barely close it - lost all her eggs. I assume she ate them. I caught her to check and make sure and she spit the last egg at me. My Yellow Labs have not been good in following through with their brood. I have a brood of Yellow Labs right now but from 4 females only one managed to deliver for me.

I still have two other females holding. One is an Elongatus Mpanga. I'm very excited about her brood. This is her first and she's very young so I am guessing she will have 10 at the most. Her male is very handsome and they should have beautiful fry. The other female is also very young and she is a Red Empress. Again I don't expect her to have many as this is her first brood as well. Maybe these young ones will show up the adults.





Breeding continues to go well. All my fry tanks are full and I have some in brooder boxes as well. I'm certainly not complaining. The breeding part is amazing and I love watching my little ones grow up.

WATER CHANGE DAY CHANGE

I have always done my water changes on Mondays. Today is Friday and I just finished with my three show tanks. Because of a poor water test I was doing testing and water changes every other day for a bit. My test are spot on now but somehow my water change day has changed. Not sure how that happened but I like it just as well.

I always did them all on Mondays. My three show tanks and my Little Fish Room tanks as well. I did my LFR on Monday so I think that's how it's going to work for a while. As long as my tests are good and I don't get thrown off my schedule that is.

When I did my Juvenile Cichlid community, I removed five fish. One is holding so she is now in a brooding tank and the other four I moved to my tank they go in between Juvenile and Adult communities. It's only a 40 gallon but it's a pefect lay-over for them. Before I can add any more to my adult community I'll either have to sell some or get a bigger tank. My 75 gallon adult community has 31 fish. The 40 gallon has 14 all under 3" and my Juvenile tank is a 55 and it's holding 32 and they are all under 2". I love seeing them grow and develop their colours as I move them through my progressive tank setup.

It's a good feeling for me as well as the Cichlids when they have a beautiful clean environment to call home.

DAILY OBSERVATIONS

Preceding me into my Little Fish Room is my cat Finn. He knows my routine and he knows I always give him a couple squares of brine shrimp while I'm feeding my babies. It's pretty bad when you are so stuck in a routine that your cat knows it! Ha!

This is my favorite way to start my day - by saying good morning and feeding my Cichlids. My sick little Kenyi doesn't look any different today. I did soak 3 pellets in salt water and dropped them in one at a time. He ate two so now we'll see if that helps him with his swim bladder problem. I feel so bad for him and I'm sure he's lonely but this seems to take time and I'm willing to give him what he needs. I just hope this is treatable. So far he really hasn't improved much. At least not as much as I had hoped by this time.

On to my fry. The babies I stripped yesterday from my Dragon Blood are doing really great. They are eating and spreading out in the playpen. They no longer huddle in a cluster as they are used to doing in Mamma's mouth. I can't count them all. I took a photo and can clearly count over 40.

Next my Auratus fry and in another playpen in with my 1 month old fry. They are growing like crazy. I am sure they have doubled in size. You don't realize how much they've grown in 4 days until you see them next to the newest fry. It's really shocking. They are fantastic eaters and doing very well.

I continued feeding the rest of my fry. I have to vacuum the substrate pretty much every morning cause there are always left over algae chips melted on the sand. I have one Pleco who lives for those things. The others are too interested in them but they are smaller if that makes a difference.

Coming down stairs I feed my poor starving cats who haven't eaten since yesterday and are sure they are near deaths door by the sound they make! Once they and my pooch are looked after I take care of my show tanks. I begin with my 75gl greeting my Cichlids with as much joy as they greet me with. I alternate feeding them pellets and chips. I have been dropping a few in at a time watching who is eating and then directing food to the ones that are smaller and wait for the bigs guys to get out of the way.

Moving on, I next feed my newbies. The tank looks great. I'm so happy with it. The fellow I got them from told me he never sees is Cichlids. They are always hiding on him. I've noticed any time I approach the tank they shoot for cover and *poof* the tank looks empty. I've never seen this behavior before. My Cichlids are very bold and almost rub noses with me when I sit in front of the tank watching them. Each day they seem to be less and less afraid not ducking out of site like they did the first couple days. I found that odd.

Finally I do the same with my juveniles. I feed them a mix of pellets and chips alternating days. I also feed slowly watching that all the smaller ones get their share. It helps too in avoiding over feeding them. All tank daylights are on and everyone's had breakfast. It's the beginning of a great day!

I think I'll go rock hunting this afternoon. See what I can find since the last of my stash in now in this new setup. As silly as it sounds I love hunting for rocks. I'm quite choosy as well. They have to be a good size, colour, shape... just any old rock won't do!

ANOTHER TANK?

Oh dear.. yes I got another tank yesterday. I was online looking at some postings and ran across one that interested me. This fellow needed to unload 8 Cichlids and was interesting in acquiring a 30gl tank with hood/light. Well, guess what I had all washed up sitting here all clean and empty? You got it. I had a nearly-new, in great shape, no scratches 30gl tank. I acquired two tanks the other day through trading the last of my batch of fry. I got a 40gl and 30gl.

I contacted this fellow and the deal was done. I dropped the tank off and picked up the Cichlids. They are beautifully healthy and nicely coloured as well. I got 2 Cobalt Blues, 1 Yellow Lab, 2 Kenyi and 3 Elongatus Mpanga. I'm very pleased to have these guys. I don't have Cobalt Blues or the Elongatus so that's exciting.

Earlier I set up my 40gl tank and got it running. I had everything, from top to bottom so it was just a matter of setting it up. Hubby helped me with location and moving some furniture. I waited until the temperature was warm enough before adding the Cichlids. I also added 4 of my own that needed to be re-homed. This group fits really well together. So far I haven't seen any aggression but there are lots of rocks and crevasses for all of them to be happy.

The only thing I didn't have was a hood light. I went to home depot to get a few things and made my own. I used a plastic snap-on floor board piece and an LED tape light. Hubby cut the plastic for me. I stuck the tape light to the inside and poof! a hood light for the huge cost of about $30.

The tank looks ok, The only thing I'm not so happy with is the tape light isn't white light. It's more like an old fashioned yellowish colour. I thought that if it said LED it meant white. I'll go check this week and see if they come in the white as well. I much prefer that.

Along with all this fun we also had our two little granddaughters for a sleep over. Morgan asked me "Gramma why do you have so many fish?" 

MY NEW ADDITIONS

WATER TESTING FUN

With all the aquariums I have water testing can take me a long time. I have enough test tubes to do 4 at a time but it's a pain with the tubes and not tipping them over or worse breaking one.

Thinking about this I decided to make myself a remedy for just that problem. I made a Cichlid Water Testing Board. It's wonderful and a little quirky too I suppose. We had some hardwood floor boards left over from when we redid our family room. The piece I chose was perfect. 18" a good size for what I had in mind. I measure off the length and then marked where I was going to drill the holes. Once the holes were done I lightly sanded them using a pencil wrapped piece of sand paper. That was it.

I have a wood burning kit so I thought I would decorate it a little just to make it special. I'm not finished with it yet but I am using it and it's awesome. I can test 3 of my aquariums at one time - no spills, toppled tubes or broken tubes.

AFRICAN MALAWI CICHLID MATING DANCE

Stella has been back in the community tank less than a week since her last brood. She seems happy to be in with her group but Bubba is smitten again. I just hope she plays hard to get a little longer before she gives in.

This video is a perfect display of the Shiver-shake the males do to impress their ladies. Stella is showing interest but not laying eggs yet. Stella gets some rest as Bubba has is eyes on a couple other females as well.

STELLA'S BROOD

These are Stella's fry. Today they are 24 days old. They are eating well and are very active. They are in a 10 gallon brooding tank right now. I intend to move them into larger grow-out tank as I need this brooding tank for another holding female.

STELLA WEEK 2

It's time to consider moving Stella to a brooding tank. Recommendations are that the holding female be moved between the 7-10 day mark. It's the time where she is least likely to spit the fry out as she has held them long enough to have bonded with holding them and the best time for the fry as they could sustain injury or being swallowed moving the female too late.


Today I moved Stella into
her own brooding tank. This tank is one of 2 small tanks I use for brooding females, or at times just isolation when necessary. She is being moved from a 55 gallon. She has been sticking to a small corner of the bigger tank so she's not really losing any space. I figure she will be totally stress free on her own. Although Finn my cat has decided sitting on her tank is his new sleep spot. I've put a light layer of course sand down and gave her some rocks and an eve-trough elbow to swim through to keep her entertained.  Now that she's moved and settled it's just a waiting game.

Looking closely at Stella's jaw you can see the fry. The dark area are her fry. I can see them wiggling inside when I look closely. Can't imagine how that must feel.

JUST FINISHED

I'm happy that's done. I did water changes in two of my aquariums and got Stella's new home ready. I took the 10 gallons of water for her new home from her old home so I wouldn't have to take the time to the water. I tested it and the parameters are pretty much dead on.

Since I moved her I was able to do a significant water change on my 55 I took about 1/3 of the water out. Then I removed the stones vacuumed and reset the stones. I did all this while the fish were in the tank. It went well enough and now they have all new nooks, crannies and caves to explore.

It really is a job I don't mind at all. To do both tanks it tanks me about 2-3 hours depending on how thorough I am. When it's done - what a great feeling just knowing my fish are happy fish!

STELLA - WEEK 1

This is Poppa

This morning I was lucky to watch the entire breeding process between two of my Mbuna Lake Malawi African Cichlids. It's amazing and very interesting to watch. The entire process took quite a while. She would lay her eggs and spin around to pick them up while the Male would fertilize them. Spinning again and again they repeated this over and over again until all her eggs had been shed. From there she swam off and hid in the plants.

Holding Female

Stella is a healthy fish and I have no worries of her missing a few meals while she's holding but I do feel bad for he self-sacrifice. I have been reading forums and watching videos to glean information as to whats the best avenue for her. She will naturally hold her eggs for 3-4 weeks. I have read that allowing her to spit them out in my large community tank, although it's the most natural course, it can be stressful on her as she has more concerns for their welfare in a many-fish tank not to mention the survival rate is less then 50%. I will be preparing a tank for the fry so I'll move her there when she's close to releasing her babies. This is not her first spawn but I want her as stress-free as possible. The sooner she is free of her young the sooner she's be back in action to breed again. I'll leave her with her fry for a good couple weeks allowing her to regenerate her weakened condition through not eating before I release her back into the community tank.

AFRICAN MBUNA CICHLIDS

SPAWNING

This morning when I came down to feed my African Malawi Cichlids I was fortunate to watch Bubba and Stella spawning. It was so interesting to watch the process. Stella would lay her eggs and quickly turn around picking them up. Bubba then came and did his shiver-shake while Stella gathered her eggs taking in his sperm thereby fertilizing the eggs in her mouth. I watched them repeat this process over and over again. 

Stella now is hanging out in the plants with a mouth full of eggs. In about 4 weeks we will have fry in the tank. I have thought about removing her but have decided to allow nature to take it's course and let her and Bubba protect their young as they would in the wild.

It's easy to tell if a Cichlid is holding eggs in her mouth. If you look at their gills and follow them down to below her mouth where they create a triangle. That triangle becomes a pouch where the eggs are held. I'm excited and will keep you posted as to the progress of Bubba and Stella.