roypark05

Pics? I think I'd like 2.

This guy gets bullied by everything. He's the only fish I can't keep in my mixed tank. Every time he's in there he is being chased and he never offers any kind of defence. The fish that picks on him the worst is an evenly sized OB Peacock. He never stands up to the other peacock. Even my tiny yellow lab chases him from time to time! What is it that makes this fish such a wuss? And why do the other fish want to chase him so bad? Is there some sort of odour I'm not aware of? Anything else I put in there...smaller aulonocara even do better than him.

I am starting a mixed cory cat fish tank and I am interested in a wide variety of corydoras, preferably several different colours and looks. Can anyone give me any info on where to find good corydoras?

Nice pics RD. My Gnome lookd very similar. They're nice fish. Is your's aggressive at all? Mine is not, and is scared of my smaller Magunga.

I have what I was told is a Metriaclima Gnome. Never seen one before or since and I can't even find any info on it from the world wide web.

I'll be there 1:27 PM this Wednesday. See you there! P.S. I will tell you what to buy.

Glad I posed this question. Thanks for the responses. Funny how everyone here uses the same product.

Yes, except I'm not buying distilled, I have a friend who gives it to me for free. So we're comparing buffers vs prime. Seems as though so many of you swear by it, I may give this product a try.

Well the good thing about tap water here in Edmonton is that it comes with a good level of hardness and alkalinity and is a pH of about 7.8 all of which tend to be good for aquariums. Using distilled water means I have to bump up the pH and add hardness and alkalinity as distilled water has none. I wonder if you spend less on your SeaChem Prime than I do on the aforementioned buffers. Hmmm...

I'm asking this largely out of curiosity. I had a lot of trouble establishing my 3 aquariums since moving to Edmonton on account of the water being treated with pesky long-lasting chloramines as opposed to old predictable chlorine. I use distilled water right now for water changes as opposed to tap water. The problem there is I am using more chemicals to maintain hardness and pH. So for those of you who still use tap water, please reply to this thread telling me/us what you do to prepare it (namely remove chloramines). Do you boil it? Use chemicals? If you don't do anything to prepare the tap water and just use it straight out of the tap, please reply as well telling me that's what you do just so I have an idea of how many people do that. Thanks for all replies in advance.

Still, it's hit or miss from my experience. I remember moving a couple platys into a mixed african cichlid tank I had to do some work on the tank they were in before. They did so well in that tank that I ended up leaving them in there. They lasted a few months and then I lost my tank through a divorce so I don't know how they ended up. There was an OB Zebra, a Jewel and a Brownae in there. What type of african cichlids do you have?

Never ever saw a pleco attack another fish. Surprised you said your not a fan of them, I think they're cool.

driftwood

When I get my own internet connection I will be able to post pics of my fish and I will be sure to show you my Msobo. I got him at Big Al's they had 3 in the one tank and I bought the 2nd largest one. Maybe you saw him already. His colours are much better in my tank than they were at the store.

Yeah they still use the big chlorine tonners in Calgary but will soon be using the chloramines like we do here in Edmonton. Not sure when though. Edmonton uses UV as well, which of course doesn't have any sort of a residual that changes anything for us at the tap.

Well I thought he was pretty cool when I saw him, but I still was looking to see the pictures here. Is there some reason I can't see them?

Two Jewels, a Mpimbwe Frontosa, an OB Peacock, a Sunburst Peacock, a Magunga, a Yellow Lab and two Marmalade Cats.

A supposed "bimaculatus": vs A supposed "guttatus": Now what the hell is the difference there? 503 scales vs 504 scales or something!?!?!?!?

Thanks for the replies, and I'm not trying to be argumentative with anyone, but when I look at those two pictures I still see the same fish. I can't wrap my mind around anything else. The shape, the fins, the colouration, the pattern of the blue... One thing that gets me big time is the way the blue stripes come across the face of both fish. My fish has the exact same thing. I can't believe two completely separate species have that identical feature. Also, what's the deal with the genus differences? All over the internet I see a species of fish (Msobo is a good example) that will be listed in 2 different genus. Some say Pseudotropheus Msobo and some say Metriaclima Msobo. What's the deal with that!? There are a lot of species like the Msobo who seem to be listed under more than one genus. Back to the thread title, the bottom line is some species are hard as hell to differentiate! Hemichromis Jewels are another I have always had trouble with. I think I finally wrapped my mind around what makes the Lifalili different, but the Bimaculatus and Guttatus seem like the same damn fish!

You sound like me when it comes to setting up a tank. I pretty much have always stuck to all male tanks. I find their colours come out well that way, and like you I'm not looking to breed them at all. I usually keep a lot less fish than what most people recommend, and I know that leads to some extra aggression, but I like to keep hardy cichlids that can handle it. I find for the most part, the aggression will calm down when the cichlids realize their evenly matched and will end up sticking to their own part of the tank. On occasion I've had the fish duke it out, but afterwards the aggression will almost cease entirely. The trick is finding cichlids that are evenly matched. You can see what I'm going with my tanks right now in my signature line. Like you, I like Africans and Tropheus are pretty cool. I have a species tank on the go with my 29 Gallon - sort of anyway, I have a couple peacocks but there is a lab in there. It was supposed to be a peacock tank but a lab ended up there in the end. I wouldn't necessarily be afraid to make it a 2 species tank. In my 75 I have a mix of jewels and mbunas, although I couldn't resist throwing a frontosa in there. I'll be honest, I can watch that tank for hours.

Nice Dempseys!

I know the Magunga females are orange so there's no confusing the females of these 2 species then! Still confusing determining what my fish is, though. I'm fairly certain it's Pseudotropheus Msobo, but I'll let you guys make your own opinions when I post pictures of him. I should be able to do so some time next week.

Thanks, that is true. Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Stress Coat has long been my product of choice. It does exactly what you say: break the chlorine/ammonia bond, and doesn't actually detoxify much ammonia. I have never had a problem with any mini ammonia spikes after the use of this product, though. Of course, I NEVER do large water changes, and the small amounts of water I add have never had ammonia present. Large water changes never seem like a good way to maintain an aquarium, I prefer more frequent small changes if necessary. Anyway, I've since started using "Ammo Lock" which does the whole meal deal. Like I said, it works for the fish natural slime coating just like Stress Coat does, and it also takes care of all three potential problems: chlorine, chloramines and ammonia.

yeah if your fish like murky to brackish water then over filtration is a concern having said that, if your fish like hard water, you can filter it to the nine and not remove any considerable amount of hardness

So you're telling me that not only are these fish indeed of different species, they are of different genus as well!?!?!? I can't believe it...look at the blue pattern on the face - it's identical! Not to mention the coloration of ALL the fins is exactly the same. What do you mean by counting scales and fin rays? ---oh and thanks for correcting me about the cichlid index and Nandopsis's involvement.