John Snow

If you are going to go with no breeding, then for Peacocks you definitely want all males - the famales are a boring brown. The Front is 100% out, too big and won't do well alone. The Brichardi, i've never had them, all i keep hearing is that if they pair up you will get the Brichardi Death Squad and long term you will end up with only Brichardi in there (because the future generations will team up with the parents to kill off anything else in the tank). I think you would be good to go with only one of them, or if you get them big enough that you are 100% certain they are the same sex, but that will be tough. Do lots and lots of research before getting fish, you have a nice big tank so you have lots of options, but there is still going to be compatibility problems with lots of fish. With Chiclids, the key is to do way too much front end research and you'll have success. People who go to the LFS and get the ones that they like the best are almost always doomed to have casulties.

Thanks for the info, i'll start feeding predominantly NLS pellets. I have one more question. I've been reading about bloat and i'm not sure if i have cause for concern. The Saulosi have been in the tank only 3 days, roughly 24 hours after being in the tank i noticed the male had a long string of white poo hanging back there. From what i read this is often a sign of internal parasites/bloat. They were bought at Big Al's and had been fed OSI spirulina flakes once. All have really good appetitite and the male is not showing any other symptoms. Any reason to take action? For now i'm going to switch to only NLS and feed only once a day and observe to see if this white poo continues. If i notice the male being not so eager at feeding time, what treatment should i go get?

So i ended up with the more sensible solution and now have 4 Ps. Saulosi in my 30 gal tank. One male and 3 females, the male is in between yellow and blue coloring. So, to feed these little guys i bought some Spirulina flakes and some New Life Spectrum pellets. What is the best feeding routine? They are herbivore and eat algea off the rocks normally, so i'm assuming i predominantly feed them spirulina flakes and a few times of week give them some pellets for veriaty. Does that sound right?

Hi, I've got 6 hard working zebra danios who have performed their job admirably and cycled my 30 gallon tank. They now need a change in address, will they be ok in a 5 gallon tank? One of them is tiny, maybe 1/2 inch and the others are about an inch. I'm assuming that no other fish could go in that 5 gallon with them as i'd be at the stocking limit, is that correct? I can give a couple away to a friend if 6 is too many for my small tank. John

Thanks everyone, this is great info. I'm pretty sure i'm going to end up doing a single species tank with Saulosi (assuming they are still available), but it's so tempting to have a veriaty in there. What about aggression towards non-similar looking fish? If i had 1M 3F Saulosi could you add a male of a different species (Mbuna) or whould that male compete with the Saulosi male becuase he has no females of his own species? Lets say a Labidocromis Perlmutt or a Rusty cichlid, something pretty different looking then the Saulosi male.

I'm not sure if i am understanding this correctly. Are we saying here that if i feed cichlids NLS then it won't matter if they are herbivores or carnivores? That i could therefore have a mix of both and feed them the same thing?

Hi Everybody, I'm new to the world of cichlids and am eager to jump right in. I've been doing some research for the past 3 weeks and i think i have a pretty good idea of what might work for me, but i want to run it by the group of experienced cichlidophyles before i head out and buy some fish. I have a 30 gallon long tank that has been cycling with zebra fish and it's almost ready as my ammonia and nitrite levels are falling. I've got a biowheel type filter (not sure how many gallons/hr but it's rated for a 30 gallon tank) and lots of rocks for hiding places. I'm looking at two options (based mostly on availability at Big Al's Edmonton): 1) Starting a colony of Ps. Saulosi, i'd get 4, pretty sure they are 1M and 3F. OR 2) Going for all male (hopefully) tank with different species, i'd get 4 out of the following: 1 Cynotilapia Afra Cobwe 1 Ps. Saulosi 1 Ps. Demasoni 1 Labidocromis Perlmutt 1 Ps. Elongatis 1 Ps. Polit I know option 1 is good but can option 2 work? For some of the species i might end up with a female - is that a deal breaker? I'm also assuming diet is critical, so an Astatotilapia Nubilis for example would be incompatible with a Cy. Afra because one is herbivore and the other carnivore, is that correct? thank you for your help. John Snow

Hi Kraken.... your not the mortal enemy of the direwolf i hope!

I am assuming it's best to buy fish off of other memebers of the local community, but failing that, is there a better place to buy fish in Edmonton then Big Als?

Thanks Qattarra. I've currently have a 30 gallon long tank cycling with some zebra fish and i am just about ready to get some permanent residents as my water parameters are shaping up nicely. I've been cycling for 3 weeks now. Where i want to go is not 100% decided yet, but i am very interested in small cichlid species.

All, I just wanted to say hello, i'm new to the forum and a beginner in the hobby. I live in Edmonton and am hoping to get all sorts of good information here. John Snow