sun

the Fryeri has got some stuning blue and a striking white blaze!

"first and foremost, I'd start by making a very detailed, concise list of the qualities I want in my fish...Then, make a list of his good points, and another list of "things to improve upon", namely his faults. I'd have 2 lists for each male." Great point! this is what I am going to do next.

"you're looking at - conservatively - a few years" - humm, this is something to think about.

I see your points. but right now its hard to say good or bad about those F1 fries just yet, coz they r too young. Other than that the barrings are good so far for the first batch of ten from the colored female. I will see how they develop along the way. I will for sure take some pictures of those little ones. I can see a few started to show a bit of yellow and one even with a white trim on the dosal fin.

However, like i said, I really wish that I can have a group of "perfect looking" Baenschis, which i guess is hard to come by even in their nature habitat. In fact I dont not really worry too much about them being F1 or FN coz i am planing on keeping keep the majority of them, and as long as they are good looking healthy pure fish, i am a happy camper. It does sound like there is some competition going on between the idea of "being natrual" and "being good looking", but so far its more of a personal preference than anything, and I am leaning to the look myself, at least for now.

wow sweet pictures! thanks for taking the time put things together, the pix says it all.

I agree, my pix are 500 miles under par, and maybe i should stop blaming only on my poor camera as well... but really my baenschi is very similar to the one in your two pictures (showing both side of the fish). Due to the "very limited" photo shooting skills, I guess I will have to use a few words then.

so when I was picking the Baenschi male (among 6-7 other males) I was trying to look for the followings: Big eyes, curved forehead, straight bold and even barrings on the body, two horizontal barrings close to the tail, nice bright yellow body and finage, Metallic blue under the chin, light powder blue between the barrings, and a nice and deep profile, Active but not over agressive. - tell me if i miss something. The male I currently have qulifies for most of the above but not 100%, - i know nothing is but how about 99% . anyhow, that was where the idea of line breeding came in.

So anybody can tell how long its going to take before I can see some significent improvement? I mean, to a degree that you can tell the difference without them being side by side. and timewise, are we talking about years? or decades?

thanks RD you just hit the nail right on the head. :thumbs: really appreciate the input. Now i have some pictures for you. do you think they are a decent stock to start with? or do u think i should look around for something else?. - actualy i found that picking the right females seems to be more tricky. Although they look close enough, one of the female does have more yellow on the body and even a bit of blue hue under the lower jaw. So, dose that make it a "better" looking female, hence possible better looking offsprings? or simply a good female peacock should look like a female, i.e. absolutely no color.

anyway here are the pictures i took from last year when I first got them, and some from last month.

Pictures taken about one year ago - Aug 25, 2006

the male:

male finage:

One female:

Recent Pictures - May 18, 2007

the male:

male finage:

Both Female (one's holding)

thanks for looking and comments welcome!

Aulonocara Baenchi is my first and long time favorite peacock, I can only dream about having a species tank full of these yellow-blue beauties. Currently I have a trio WC Aulonocara Baenschi adults and 3 batche of about 50 F1 fries from both females. My question is, if I am to line breed them to enhance some of the favorable genetic charactors such as the bright yellow and superior finage etc, what sellective procedure should I follow? i mean, would you choose the "best looking" F1 males? or females? or both? Please someone chin in some light. :bow: thanks in advance.

Have both xp3 and ehim. while both are good filters, i found xp3 is easier to clean.

nick looking Mpimbwe! thanks for sharing.

keep it coming! :thumbs:

Very nice zaire blue! esp. the 2nd one, owesome color.

how big is that guy? looks like 3" - 4". :thumbs:

Nice looking fronts!

i d agree on the N. Livingstoni

sorry double posted.

Thanks dan. Right now I am using NLS cichilds formula for everybody in the tank.

since I am very new to lake Tang. not sure if the fronts do need some high protein food. what do u feed your fronts? any live food at all?

ok here are 3 of my Zaire Blue kapambas, F1, about 1":

Got lucky this time just landed 3 Zaire blue kapamba babies yesterday, suppose to be F1. they are only about 1" or so but already got some decent blue on them and fairly sharp strips as well. will try post some pix soon.

Still looking for more kapambas tho. anybody with any clue pls let me know.

Anyone has Zaire Blue Kapampa fries available in edmonton or calgary?

thanks in advance.

yes Nev. I have 4 of them and I think (or hope) that they are 2m/2f, as you can see in the 1st pix here, the bigger ones are almost twice the size after just a month moving into the tank. btw, how is your wc pheno? any updated pix?

I kinda like the idea of having less species but more fishes, just to get a more natural looking tank, so I ended up with only 3 groups and about 20 fishes: borleyi for the red, baenschi for the yellow, and pheno for the blue, although I have yet to see any blue so far.

Thought I'd share some pictures.

Just got a pair of wild Baenschi last week, here is the male at about 3":

here the C. Borleyi again:

And a group shot:

Very nice! Esp. the last one!

Thats one of the better Lwandas. looking good!! :thumbs:

Nev, here they are as said. Still no good but you got the idea.

Saulosi #1

Saulosi #2

Perfect pictures!!!

Now I really think either my camera or myself should be in the recycle bin

Thanks guys! he really is a nice looking fella

I got them Oct 15th of last year, they were only about 2.5". Unfortunately the lfs didn't have much species info for them other than C. Borleyi. But after some hard diggings I think that they are most likely from Crocodile Rock.(Page 133, Malawi Cichlids in their nature habitat, 3rd Edition, Ad Konings). Anyway, the male borleyi does have some very intensive red on the body and even the tail, they are all health and active and a female even hold once for couple days before spitting out during feeding time. :cry:

Hey Nev, I tried but the saulosi are so darn quick and no pix came out yet. Maybe I should try the "tripod" idea this time (thanks Finaddict), or just leave the flash on. BTW the camera is a Canon G2 and i was using manual speed and exposure, anyone with experience pls help on the set up, thanks in advance.

Thank you all for the nice words.

finaddict: no flash for both pictures, tank light only. I guess that explains why my pictures all look blurry. The fishes look better in person, but I just dont know how to get decent pix.

Guess I'd share these two big boys. they are now about 4" and owners of my 135g.

Sorry for the low quality pictures, I really tried. any comment and critique welcomed :bow:

Protomelas Taiwan Reef:

Copadichromis Borleyi: