RD.

Spirulina flakes? Ingredients: spray dried salmon, dried yeast, soy flour, dried spirulina algae, wheat, oat and gluten flours, shrimp meal, plankton meal, dried kelp, fish oil, lecithin, dried krill, vitamins and minerals. yeast, soy flour, wheat, oat flour, gluten flour I personally wouldn't consider that to be "pretty good", but that's just me.

BTW - all sprirulina types contain ash (10- 20%), the only reason that your HBH food didn't show ash on the label is there is no legal requirement to do so. Typically when ash content is left off of a pet food label, it wasn't done by accident.

IMO nothing else on the market comes close to this for a herbivore staple, and it can be purchased locally. http://www.bigalspets.ca/algaemax-herbivore-diet-1-mm-sinking-pellets-250-g.html Ingredients: Algae; Chlorella, Ulva Seaweed, Red Seaweed, Kelp, Spirulina, Wakame Seaweed, Whole Antarctic Krill, Whole Fish, Eucheuma cottonii, Spinosum Seaweed, Chondrus crispus, Whole Wheat Flour, Omega-3 Fish Oil, Alfalfa, Astaxanthin, Capsanthin, Zeaxanthin, Vitamins etc Crude Analysis: Crude Protein (min) - 32% Crude Fat (min) - 5% Crude Fiber (max) - 10% Moisture (max) - 10% Ash (max) - 9% FYI - HBH was recently bought out by Pisces Pros, which appears to have either dropped a number of their product line, or are simply selling out whatever was left.

The moment that one buys something with the intent to profit the "hobby" is no longer considered a hobby. So whether one wants to consider it a business, in the eyes of the govt it is a business and the profit is considered taxable income. Businesses that collect more than $30,000 in revenue per year are required to charge and remit HST/GST. http://taxtalk.hrblock.ca/working-for-yourself-tax/self-employed/do-i-need-to-charge-gsthst/ That has nothing to do with regards to if one is considered a business, or not. This is a good place to start before you make any decisions. http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/smallbusiness/ That, or take Jay's advice & have this thread deleted.

There are a number of mbuna within the Labidochromis genus that are classified as omnivores, including L. caeruleus , L. perlmutt, L. freibergi, L. gigas, L. joanjohnsonae, L. textilis, L. vellicans, etc. There are also those within the Melanochromis genus that are also classified as omnivores, such as M. auratus , M. chipokae, M. vermivorus, M. parallelus etc. Metriaclima genus, same thing, such as M. sp. daktari, M. sp. dolphin, etc. Same within the Pseudotropheus genus, such P. cyaneorhabdos, P. crabro, etc. Some mbuna are even classified as carnivores, such as Cynotilapia sp. "Lion" (Lion's Cove). The list goes on & on, but yes, certainly most mbuna are in fact classified as herbivores. A sudden change in a fishes diet is never a good thing, which is why when changing diets I always recommend to feed sparingly for several days which allows the fishes gastrointestinal system to adjust to the new food. Also, most authorities on the subject of bloat now agree that it's intestinal flagellates (Spironucleus vortens) that typically cause "bloat" conditions in fish, and certainly not excess protein. While stress is always the trigger with bloat, IMO dietary stress is seldom the cause. More info can be found in the following link, a little something that I threw together a few yrs back. http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?456034-Bloat-Causes-Cures-and-BIG-Myths HTH

Not all mbuna are vegetarian, but those that are can get gastrointestinal upset easily, which can lead to bloat, so I too would avoid feeding foods such as brine shrimp, black worms, etc. NLS has a relatively new food out called AlgaeMax that I would recommend using to change things up from their regular NLS pellets. Ingredients: Algae; Chlorella, Ulva Seaweed, Red Seaweed, Kelp, Spirulina, Wakame Seaweed, Whole Antarctic Krill, Whole Fish, Eucheuma cottonii, Spinosum Seaweed, Chondrus crispus, Whole Wheat Flour, Omega-3 Fish Oil, Alfalfa, Astaxanthin, Capsanthin, Zeaxanthin, Vitamins etc .... Easily digestible aquatic plant matter that doesn't contain the antinutritional matter that is found in terrestrial based plant matter, such as peas etc.

Black blasting sand is typically made from iron ore slag and is sharp so I don't personally recommend its use in tanks with cichlids, especially those that tend to sift the substrate. I also find that black substrate tends to make a lot of fish darken up, giving them more of a dirty look. Go with a natural colored silica sand, IMO you'll be happier over the long haul.

Thanks for the heads up! 50% off Petsmart price is pretty much wholesale cost for everyone else.

LMAO

http://albertaaquatica.com/index.php?showtopic=43059

Someone with a very large pond and who lives in a tropical climate ......... And Arapaima can easily grow beyond 8ft in captivity. According to those that have kept them they can reach over 6ft within 2 yrs when properly cared for.

FYI - Cloram-X is not nearly as cost effective as Seachem Safe.

That could very well be it, I'm not very familar with juvenile hybrid Aulonocara but it does look like one of those made in Asia hybrids.

That's just a fancy name for a "red shoulder" peacock. Like the fact that the lines origin is German makes it uber special. http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=1389 Problem is, that's not what a normal juvenile should look like like. So unless this is some type of leucistic strain, I'd say that you didn't get what was labelled on the bag.

There's been plenty of bad press over the yrs about Won Bros heaters failing in both the off & on position. Would a stock tank heater work? http://www.amazon.ca/Manufacturing-Ultimate-All-In-One-1000-Watt-Removable/dp/B002QXN1GO Make sure to read all of the reviews. My advice is to purchase your heater from a source where you can easily return it if it fails, and add a controller to your set up. Good luck.

Correct, there is a failure rate on almost everything, the difference is that when it comes to aquarium heaters there is an easy way to add some redundancy to ones system, and it doesn't have to cost a lot. (a controller unit) With a controller in place now two units have to fail in order for one to potentially suffer fish loss. My x brand heater has worked fine since day1 too, but I've also been kicking around this hobby long enough to have seen a LOT of fish deaths due to faulty aquarium heaters (remember the Stealth recall of 2011?), including numerous members of this little forum, where we are not talking about 100's of thousands, or even tens of thousands, of ANYTHING. Just some friendly advice, the OP is free to take it or leave it.

Jager can be crap too, Jay. Jason from Pets & Ponds told me a couple of years ago that Jager had one of the greatest failure rates (hence store returns) of all the brands that he sells. That doesn't surprise me, there's been a few threads on that subject here on AA over the years as well, like this one from last year. http://albertaaquatica.com/index.php?showtopic=39939 The old Ebo-Jager, pre 2006 when Eheim bought them out, no argument, one of the most reliable heaters on the market. The reality is that a certain percentage of ALL aquarium heaters made today WILL FAIL, no matter the brand. Even those with the newer electronic thermostats such as Aqueon Pro can & have failed. A fellow from Aqeuon's R&D dept posted the following: http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=252381 Dr. Tim Hovanec, Ph.D. and owner of Dr. Tims Aquatics stated years ago on a public forum something along the lines of, high quality "reliable" heaters would be priced out of the market for most hobbyists. Not a lot of people want to pay $100 or more for each heater that they require. Ironically enough I was just discussing this same thing on another forum yesterday. Do a google search on your favourite heater, then add the word 'failure'. As an example, the following search string on google, hydor inline heater failure, brought up this discussion. Hydor inline heater just wiped out my tank http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=190059

+3

The reality is most heaters made for the aquarium industry are crap. Buy a controller, or roll the dice.

Hey, sounds good Jason. Keep us updated with some pics down the road.

I dunno Jason, I think that it might be a mistake, even if added after dark. If the trophs find those wafers, being the pigs they are the most dominant fish could hog most of the food, which could in turn lead to complications. A gut full of food sitting over night is never a good thing when it comes to bloat prone fish. Personally I wouldn't keep any plecos in a tank full of active aggressive herbivores such as tropheus. Let the algae grow wild in the tank, and use a glass cleaner & some elbow grease to keep the glass clean. But that's just my opinion. I don't know if you have seen the AlgaeMAX pellets that NLS recently released, if I was keeping trophs again I would probably give these a try, along with the cichlid pellets. Maybe a 50/50 mix. If you are set on keeping the BN's, you could try tossing a few of these in after the lights go out, not nearly the overeating risk factor compared to wafers. AlgaeMAX is made of 9 different types of algae, seaweed, and kelp. •Chlorella Algae •Red Seaweed •Kelp •Chondrus crispus •Ulva Seaweed •Wakame Seaweed •Spirulina •Spinosum Seaweed •Eucheuma cottonii

Big fan of Ikola, nice addition to the tank.

Looking good, Ryan!

I personally think that you should get rid of the plants, and the fish, and give that big beautiful male creamiscle midas that 90g to himself.

Nice clean set up, Jason. Well done.