Breeding house suggestions

[firetank]

hi mate; hope ya had a good xmas\new year..

things slowed down since then with the baby and work (january sales; my busiest time of year + short staffed = nightmare) and trying to get things sorted in the house in general ( im shattered to be honest)

im getting the insulation ordered should be here next couple of weeks just unsure whether to divide the cellar up or do the whole room (economies of space heating..) but either way ill have enough insulation for both.

Im jealous to be honest (!!!!!!!) the transvestitus have been on my list for years; but im determined to wait till everything is perfect for them before I invest; are they off a private breeder??

I did get a quad of A. Thomasi just after christmas that im growing on; nothing too exciting but these guys are so easy to keep and I love the colouration; have a superb male already bossing the tank with a mate I think.

Im hoping that I can get somewhere near within the next month; if the cellars good to go im gonna transfer my other tanks from my parents (2\3 footers predominantly) and maybe drop my 36*18*18 down there too; Ive been looking at a colony setup as Ive never seen that behaviour before,, any suggestions??

 

[westafrica]

Hi!

@ste12000 : Just to mention it : if they are not too expensive (and unless you buy a genuine pair that already spawned with success) I'd advice you to buy rather 2 duos of P. roloffi than only one : from my recent experience with 2 males and 2 females of that species placed in the same tank, I'd tend to say that they are quite hard to pair! Of course, it may be only bad luck, but it would be too bad to get a duo of such rare fish and have no results but continuous fighting, right?

BTW are fish such as N. transvestitus and P. roloffi rare / expensive in the UK?

 

[ste12000]

Hi West Africa, thanks for the Advice..I was thinking about getting two pairs..It would be my luck to lose one and wait another 15 years to find them..To my knowledge both species are quite rare in the Uk hobby, P.Roloffi especially.. This is the first time i have seen them for sale in 15 years,(well not quite seen them yet, i have to wait until Saturday to travel down) That is not to say they havent been on sale before in the UK only that i have not seen them..!!! I have been told they are £9 each thats £18 per pair..When they are settled in my tanks i will post some pictures..(The N.Transestitus are still in hiding although i watched them in the dark performing the courtship dance..WOW)
The N transvestitus are on a few importers lists and if you want to you can source them..They are not imported in huge numbers so i would say they were not common.
If they are sourced from breeders over here they can be quite cheap, i bought my Transvestitus from a large aquatic Chain called Maidenhead aquatics..They are expensive fish(£22 per pair) but are large mature fish.. we all know how long these fish take to reach sexual maturity so i suppose the breeders need to make some money back on these long term fish.
And after waiting at least 5 years to see these fish in the UK i would of been willing to pay more..
I also believe that if retailers are brave enough to give up valuable tank space for dwarfs (which lets face it are not fast sellers)then we, the dwarf cichlid fans have a duty to buy them and give them a reason to keep stocking them. I understand why they are priced highly compared to mass produced Guppies ect and accept that as part of my chosen hobby.

Firetank, get the room sorted out and stay intouch, hopefully i might have a few fish to get some tanks up and running...The way today has gone i will be lucky if i get anything at all.. I introduced a group of Apistogramma Eunotus into my tank a week on sunday, the largest female went missing straight away and i thought for a while that i had lost her. She appeared yesterday, bright yellow and guiding a group of 50-60 juveniles, today the last one disapeared and now she is back to normal and looking sorry for herself..First spawn so i cannot really complain.
My A.Baenschi female was chasing everyone in her tank yesterday and a quick peak in her tank this afternoon saw a batch of eggs stuck underneath a oak leaf. I checked again about an hour ago and they have dissapeared.....WHY DO I LIKE THIS HOBBY AGAIN????

 

[westafrica]

Wow! that's 26 (roloffi) and 32 (transvestitus) euros! Quite expensive indeed, when compared to the prices here in France! Are they wild individuals for that price?

 

[ste12000]

Yes they are very expensive, however its a case of buy when you see them because i have'nt seen any of these species for sale in all my time i have been interested in west african dwarfs.
Well worth it in my opinion.

The P.Transvestitus are still very shy and only come out of hiding when the tank lights are off.Is this a common trait in Transvestitus?? Are they a shy fish all the time, they are in soft water at a PH of 6.5, i want to slowly start dropping it but if they are hiding through the stress of the move i will wait a while.
I also bought the P.Roloffi yesterday,They are wild but i could not get much sense of of the weekend staff at the shop.. they are very shy at the minute and i have only caught a quick glimpse. I snapped a very poor quick picture but the poor things looked terrified so i switched of the light and left them alone.

I will post better pictures when i get them..

 

[firetank]

****update****

well half the cellar is now insulated (its a slow process!!) and most of the racking is complete to allow stocking; moved the thomasi and dorsiger onto it a
couple of weeks back.

went downstairs last night and the thomasi have spawned ; nothing groundbreaking but its certainly got me fired up to get cracking on.....

craig

 

[ste12000]

Congrats...they might be easy to spawn but the hard work starts when the fry are freeswimming, I hope the Brineshrimp is on???
They are a good start for some of your future breeding projects..

 

[firetank]

cheers;

the parents are probably only an inch or so but these were meant really as my warm up fish before the proper stocking starts so its a bonus really, much earlier than expected!!

**thinks oh bugger and ducks downstairs to find the BS hatcher......**

hows things going in your fishhouse?? and luck with the roloffi??

 

[ste12000]

hows things going in your fishhouse?? and luck with the roloffi??

Things are progressing nicely, im collecting all the parts i need to build the new rack at the minute, i bought 4 18inch cube tanks yesterday..i just need another 12 18x12x12 and the wood for the racks and im ready to start building. I also want to install a main air ring around the roof of the fishroom so need the parts for that before the new rack go's up.. This new one will take me to 40tanks so i am looking forward to increasing my fish stocks. At the minute i have loads of Taeniatus growing on, both Bipindi and Nigerian red strains,The P.Subocellatus that Ed seely sent me are pairing up nicely and one pair looks like they have spawned already. I am also having amazing luck with my A.Eunotus..I received a group of 8 barely sexable juveniles on new years eve 2007, they are in my discus tank and in the last two weeks three seperate females have brought out fry, i have syphoned them out and placed them in the safety of there own tank in the fishroom, around 150 fry are feeding well on BBS..

The P.Roloffi are fine,They are a certain pair and are maturing rapidly, i have not had much time for photos but ill try and post some this week. They are still in seperate tanks because the male seems to be very aggressive through the glass towards the female, i am waiting until she gets into breeding condition and starts to flirt, at the minute she is only just reaching maturity, hopefully they will have many happy years togeather.

 

[firetank]

sounds like you got everything on track excellent news, may be after a few species soon...

hope you got a good deal on the 18" cubes..

whens your new little one due anyway; sure it was about this time??

one question thats been posed in my head for ages; what do you use for RO storage?? Ive used generic B+Q water butts before but I know theres differing opinion on how safe they are??

 

[ste12000]

I did and at the same time did not get a good deal. I bought all four from an ebay seller total price £80+£25 petrol to pick them up, i was quite pleased with that, i got there and loaded them into the car and noticed one glass panel was damaged..I got all four for £60, when i got them home i gave them a complete scrub and tested for water tightness, it seems i bought one with the glass broke and also another that leaks from the bottom!!!! I have ordered a tube of silicone and will order two new sheets of glass today. When they are fixed i need to find two more of the same size and they will sit on the bottom row of the new rack, its only a small fishroom (11x6ft) so these will act as growout tanks (eventually i might get a good breeding pair of discus or breed angels again).

 

[ste12000]

whens your new little one due anyway; sure it was about this time??

one question thats been posed in my head for ages; what do you use for RO storage?? Ive used generic B+Q water butts before but I know theres differing opinion on how safe they are??

We had Grace a week last monday, Both the wife and baby are perfectly fine, shes asleep on my knee as i type(baby not wife:tongue: )

As for water storage i just use normal garden water butts with no problems whatsoever, I dont know if there are any problems after long term storage but i change 140litre every night so its in there for less than 24 hours usually, just enough time to warm up...I just ordered another one to increase my clean water supply to 280litres...

 

[Apistomaster]

Perhaps you guy's have a source like this [email protected] in the UK.
They sell used open top 55 US gal barrels cleaned to meet USA FDA standards for potable water for $80 US including freight in the USA. Best deal I've found. I set up two side by side and connected to each other for a total storage capacity of 110 US gallons of RO water. I now have to buy a Supreme MagDrive water pump#18, 1800 gph. I tried my spare MagDrive 9.5/ 950 gph but the flow rate was pathetic after going through 50 ft of RV drinking water hose 1/2 inch diameter at six feet head.

I have found your collective experiences with Nannochromis very interesting. Parallels my experiences with SA dwarf Pike Cichlids, Crenicichla species, compressiceps, notothalmus and regani. They tend to kill each other given half a chance.