Mbuna Ron

beautiful fish. Are they in your 100 gallon tank?

I find demasoni very interesting because of their fearlessness as well. They have each found a spot ...I made many caves/hiding spots from a rundle shale "wall" at the back of the 90 gallon aquarium. The weaker/lower on the pecking order demasoni's have secured a place where they have to wedge in and can observe the aggressive males. They also have an escape route. At times it looks like the tank is empty but put NLS pellets in and they are super quick to react. They are always watching. Demasoni and tropheus are my favourite.

Thanks. They are free swimming but no egg sack....look pretty fragile. Funny that already one is trying to exert "his" dominance and chasing the others... I will set up a 10 gallon grow out with hope that there will be more to come... Dwayne what are you raising? I have the last of your labs (10) and they are showing great colour. All survived and they are doing great.

Thanks for the advice. It will be fun raising them.

I have 6 juvenile demasoni in a 90 gallon aquarium. They have already started breeding. I rescued 5 fry and put them in a netted enclosure. Do you have any advice as to how best I can grow them and reintroduce them to the tank? So far I have crushed 2-3 pellets of NLS cichlid food and put them into the net. I will set up a 10 gallon grow out tank if they survive. Any advice would be appreciated.

I went through three of the Coralife T5 thin fixtures. I still have the last one sitting in the furnace room. They are junk and if Coralife was a reputable company they should have done a recall as they produced a faulty product. I will never buy a coralife product again.

I have a 29 gall. biocube that I use for a SW nano. The filtration system is adequate but not great. It is easily modifiable. There are some issues with the tank such as a weak ballast and fish jumping from the main tank into the back- all can be remedied. Your best bang for the buck is still through buying a tank and components separately. Having said that - after some mods the biocube has been fine. IMO it is better suited for a SW nano though - due to dimensions and possible mods.

I have 2 48"Coralife T5's and 2 36" T5's and have had issues with both sizes. I have a surge protector for the fixtures-however they are prone to problems during a spike and seem to have weak ballasts. I would not recommend them as a reliable product. In fact, nothing seems to be reliable any more-there is poor quality control in China

Given your experience in fishkeeping (extensive) I would go with a one-colony tropheus tank. Contrary to internet reports on bloat, they are very hardy if cared for properly and a very interesting cichlid. In a 50 gallon you should only have one species and begin with at least 10-12 in order to defer aggression. Another great cichlid that I enjoyed was demansoni-you would need to build a shale face. They are a very interesting fish and breed well.

I have had 8 eheim cannister filters and never had any problems. Pay a little more and in the long run it is more than worth it.

Within the 10 months have you replaced the fine filter? As well you should use siphoned water from the aquarium to rinse out the course filter as well as the efimech and efisubstrat. This should be done every 4-6 months or earlier depending on the amount of detrious which goes through your filter. You should also clean out the impeller-check your manual for details. :pff:

I like eheim cannisters. They are quiet, carry a large biological load and are very durable. If you combine a cannester with a aquaclear, you have the best of both. It is better to overfilter IMO.

I looked into them too. Apparently they have been inbred so much that it is really hard to find good stock.

I have 6 eheims including 3 Pro 2's. I have never had any problem whatsoever priming any of them. The Pro 2's have a self-priming (push-prime) system that is great. Failing that just suck on the intake tube and away it goes...then plug in once full. They are the best filters by far on the market in my opinion...although I do like my Rena XP3.

I find the Fluvals have more bypass than the Rena's -this makes them less efficient. As well I find the seals to be a bit better on the Rena. As a negative, the clamps on the Rena are not that great-make sure the hose is tight and clamped well. You do get what you pay for. Consider a silghtly used eheim if you can find one.

I have a rena filstar XP3, a Fluval, eheim cannisters and Pro 2...actually 5 eheims. IMO the eheim is by far the best of the three however they are expensive. They are worth every penny over the long run. The Rena is a good second choice.

Thanks for all the advice. I am going to try to finely grind up NLS and use a pipette to deliver it to the fry. Will let you know how it goes.

This is my second batch of Multi fry...lost the first. They are like little pin-heads and difficult to get food to as the others gobble it up. Will ground up NLS grow or Cyclopeze work with a Turkey baster??? Any other suggestions? Normally I feed fry live brine shrimp as well but these little buggers are too small!

Thanks Kyle. I guess I'll go with rainbows again!

I just set up a 20gall. with 6 Sunspot Brevis (shellies) . The tank is rather boring at the moment. Does anyone have some suggestions for some good midwater tankmates for Brevis-preferably from Lake Tanganyika. I set up another tank with Brevis, and some Boesmani Rainbow as dither fish and what a difference it made...brought the Brevis right out of their shell!

Funny you mention Natures Corner. I was just in Edmonton and of course checked out all the LFS's. I stopped by Natures Corner at its new location. Henry was really helpful. He actually open the doors before the store was supposed to be open and we left with all kinds of information, pamphlets, etc on making a pond. He is very knowledgable and friendly and an excellent source of information! On a completely different note I went to Big Al's and was really impressed with their display tanks. The store is much larger than the one we had in Calgary. We are however lucky to have Golds. I went to AquaGiant in Edmonton as well and thought they had some interesting stock (hard goods). Their seamless tanks provide better site lines than conventional tanks. It was neat to see different product lines since in Calgary basically all stores carry the same stock. I found the prices at AquaGiant to be quite reasonable as well...picked up a 20 gall. seamless tank for 19.99, a light to match for 14.99, and a thermometer for 1.49, and a cheap filter for 4.99, biomax and biomaterial was very reasonable as well!

I dropped by around noon for a few minutes. Didn't see much that caught my eye other than some tricolour cyps and wild caught whatchamacalits.....lol.....did catch Harold buying a MICKEY MOUSE DECORATION FOR HIS COLLECTION OF COLLLECTABLES AND CLEARLY RARE AQUARIUM ARTIFACTS!!! -roll- -roll- -roll- I should have personally congratulated him on his find. Clearly he is trying to replace the cave which went North last time I hear!! HAROLD is Mickey Mouse going to find his way in with the Demansoni's ?????? Rumour has it there was a mouse sighting at Lake Malawi although they said it was a bit foggy. Kyle(African Fever) will vouch for that.

I guess that's a "hole" new way of thinking. I'm not sure I got the "hole" story -roll- Thank's for your help Harold. Nothing like advice from someone who knows what he's doing. I just thought it would be neat to fiddle with. I'll check the web sight and talk to you later in the week. Ron

I picked up a small hard shell pond and a Rio pump, tubing and some gravel for 50.00....could not resist the opportunity to make a small pond in our back yard and throw in a few feeders and plants. Can anyone steer me to a beginners guide to pond making or advise me on do's and don'ts?? I'm leaving myself wide open for Hosstile comments but I can take it! BTW Harold I still have 4 more demansoni for you..they have to go soon ...

PM me if interested.....Kris or David.