African_Fever

This is when you look at the good possibilities. You could use it as an excuse to get a ray (or other predator), as you would after all have an almost endless supply of food! Or, you could order in a group of adult Syn. multipunctatus (or try to find some local 6" adults - good luck, WC adults would probably be cheaper!) and try your luck at having them taking advantage of the promiscuity of your Haps! I had thought about them many times when my fish just wouldn't quit breeding and no-one wanted the fry (and am finally growing out a group ) .

No need to keep her in then. May as well put her back in the main tank now.

I have my Synodontis petricola spawning for me now, and I've removed the eggs to another tank (they are egg scatterers and will eat their own eggs). I was looking for some means to help prevent the eggs from getting fungused, but it looks like it shouldn't be too much of an issue. Only about 4-5 eggs fungused before they hatched, and as of right now it looks like I have about 14-16 little wigglers in my tank.

As an anti-fungal on eggs, at least that's the most common use I've heard of it used for.

Welcome! :beer:

I agree with everything you've said so far Dan, but I don't think that the percentage of wild fish carrying the albino gene would be that high, or even existent. Albinism also occurs as a result of a mutation, probably the same kind of mutation that resulted in me having Aulonocara's born with two heads etc. I think as cichlids are inbred in captivity, certain species are more susceptible to mutation than others (ie. Aulonocara's and socolofi). As soon as the mutations occur, those who have it quickly seize the opportunity and breed the @#$% out of them to get as many more albino's as they can. If there had been only 1 albino in the brood, and it were a 1 time occurence, I would believe that it was in fact a random mutation, and the fish could be wild/F1. But with 4, it would essentially follow Medelian genetics as you said, and both parents would've been carriers already of the recessive trait. If wild fish DO in fact sometimes carry the gene I think more hobbyists would've seen it already. If it had been any species other than an Aulonocara or one of the other commonly-seen albinos, (such as a red empress or frontosa variant [maybe a little closer to home for you?]), I'd have to believe whatever he said about the lineage of his fish. It's great to get someone in here with some other viewpoints on the subject as well as some more knowledge. Great to see you on the forum!

Sorry Rahim, but I have yet to see any sump that even comes close to an Eheim as far as noise goes. IME you won't find a quiter pump, anywhere, than an Eheim. I have to put my hand on mine to make sure that they're actually running sometimes. They are somewhat pricey, but for bombproof reliability (I have two I've been running for ~10+ years), they absolutely can't be beat. Come to think of it, I don't think there's any filter company I've seen out there who still has the same designs/models out they had 10 years ago besides Eheim (the Classic line).

Does anyone know where I can get ahold of some Meth. blue? The petland near me and Wally world don't carry any. The Syno's bred again (about two dozen eggs this time), and I'm going to keep trying something different until I get some fry!

Dan, Sure, it is possible that the fish are true. But personally, if you believe that you may as well go out and buy a lottery ticket b/c the odds are much better of winning the lottery. Snakes aren't fish, and have different genetics. I had actually asked Stuart about the number of albino's he's seen in the whole time he's been on the lake (over 25 years), and I'm pretty sure he hadn't seen a single one, ever. I know if his divers ever saw one they'd definitely catch it b/c they do know what is common and what isn't, and they would always be on the lookout for the bonus that would accompany an albino (they actually found a new Aulonocara while I was there, it was actually somewhat similar to the line-bred 'tangerine' jacobfreibergi's, unfortunately only 2 males, and since there were no females I never brought them back). With albino Aulonocara's being just about THE most common albino cichlid on the market, my money is still on them being hybrids.

Probably depends on how much your loaches move around during the day, and how large they are. If they seem to hide most of the time during the day, they should be fine. But if they're small and are out at all, the demasoni may see them as a toy and give a little nip here and there. Many people keep eels with their cichlids and they seem to do ok as long as there's places for them to escape to.

I'd have to agree with the rest on adding more demasoni as well. Though I've never kept them myself, everyone who actually has says larger groups are better. As Neil said, to the 5 you have, add 12, even 15 more as your tank does appear to have the filtration required. I'm not sure what kind of mbuna vantGe has, but I've never really had my mbuna eat much of the algae in my tanks. In the wild most of the algae is more like a hair/strand algae, rather than the slimy stuff that often occurs in our tanks. Labeotropheus, Tropheops, and Petrotilapias are really the only fish that are truly adapted to eat the hair/strand algae and will have a hard time removing most common aquarium algaes (and only the Labeo's are somewhat common around in aquariums). Again, the others were right on bristlenoses. I find that my cichlids chase my cichlids, and completely different fish such as plecos and catfish are all but ingnored (except for breeding time). Since adding BN's to most of my tanks, I haven't had to clean the glass quite as frequently. Best of luck with the demasoni!

Congrats!

If you're combining the two as wild caughts you shouldn't have any issues. I'm definitely looking forward to see how well the estherae with maintain their colour on NLS!

There've been 'reports' of petricola's breeding in a parasitic manner with mouthbrooders, though I've yet to actually find anything that's confirmed. I have seen one report of someone (SidGuppy) having had them breed parasitically with his Alto. comp's (egglayers), but he's the only one I've heard of so far with this method. As Neil said, it's the multipunctatus that breed parasitically with cichlids most commonly (not many others breed them any other way, much easier letting the cichlids look after them for you!).

My wild polit are fine, as are the F1's, not more aggressive than anything else I've got. I have them in a 77 with all my other WC mbuna; Mel. cyaneorhabdos, Mel. joanjohnsonae, and Lab. caeruleus. I have my F1 breeding group in a 55 with the WC Aul. stuartgranti 'ngara' and the F1 T. 'yellow/yellow', with no major aggression issues (there are actually 3 males that regularly colour up in there). When combining captive with wild fish I've found you have to be extremely careful because of the different diseases that both will carry. I had my WC's in a tank for over two months before finally deciding to add some captive fish (the Oto. tetraspilus you have to the Aul. ngara's), and made sure that I treated the captives ahead of time as well. If your polits come in as true WC's, the females won't be any larger than 1.5", and the males shouldn't be any larger than 2.5". With the size of your estherae, I'd be cautious of this even though they do seem rather peaceful. If the polits were to decide to become little buggers, it wouldn't take much for you estherae to bully back and put an end to them pretty quickly.

Looks like none of the wrigglers made the night. Thinking it must've just been some damage from being transferred last night. No worries though, from what I can see they seem to breed regularly, so it's just a matter of getting things set up the way I want this time. :thumbs:

I've done tons of research on them in the past, and getting them to breed isn't really all that hard. It's more how to get them to breed where you want and hopefully get some eggs. Looking at various pics on plantecatfish.com I've known that the original pair was male/female, and now having my newest ones coming up I've had a couple females that have been very gravid for a while. If I had the tank space I'd probably have tried conditioning them separately, then putting them all in a bare tank with the breeding apparatus and trying that. But mine have always looked gravid on regular food (NLS now), so I just put the flowerpots in my main tank up here (a 120) with all my other 'hopefully soon to be breeding Tangs' and hoped they'd decide to use it. From what I can see with mine, I'd guess that they've got be at least 2.5", probably 3 for better results (the most gravid females are all the larger of the group). I've had them over 18 months, and got them at about 1". From the few eggs that I've gotten, I still think that they're breeding elsewhere in the tank as well b/c I do have other caves that they spend a lot of time in. Reports on the net have them laying literally hundreds of eggs at a time. Hopefully they'll decide to use mine a little more frequently! Here's the page where I found the marble/pot/mesh breeder setup. http://www.planetcatfish.com/cotm/2001_06.php Mine is essentially the same, but due to the depth of the tank I had to put a longer piece of rigid tubing to extend the sponge filter so it reaches the surface. I'll try to get some pics later. I'll definitely keep everyone posted on how/if they come along!

My largest 'pair' is 4", the others all between 2.5-3", 11 in total. I've known that the largest pair has been breeding for a while b/c the female would always go from thick to thin overnight, I just never had the right decor to set up a breeding cave (I bought them from a guy who said they had bred for him a couple times, but he never really knew what do with the eggs). With the smallest ones, a bunch of the females have been extremely plump for a couple of months, so I've had a feeling that they'd be old enough to spawn. Mine seemed to grow extremely slowly in the beginning (I got them around 1" too), and it's taken them over a year and a half to get to 3". It looks like I've got 3 that have hatched so far, with another 10 or so eggs. Put in a smaller pot arrangement, so hopefully they take to this one too and the eggs actually get sucked up! And yes Neil, they've been on NLS and nothing else. Don't seem to take to the wafers right away, and I just make sure that there's lots of extra cichlid formula that hits the bottom whenever I feed them.

Well, I decided to remove my breeding setup tonight that I had in my tank for my petriocola's since I hadn't seen any eggs in the mesh breeder that they were supposed to go into (inverted flowerpots w/marbles and sponge filter to mesh breeder). Figured I had better at least check the marbles to see if there were any eggs/fry, and YES! There's at least one little guy (just a wriggler with a huge yolk sac) and a couple more eggs. I now think that my flowerpot is either too large and there isn't enough suction from the sponge filter to cover the entire thing, or they've been breeding somewhat regularly and the eggs have just been getting eaten through the mesh. If anyone has any experience with raising synos it would be MUCH appreciated. Otherwise it looks like I'll be doing all the on-line research I can tonight to find out what to do. PlantCatfish, here I come!

Welcome to AA. I keep plants in all my African tanks, so I can provide a little help anyways.

Do some searching around the net for info, there should be a lot out there. From what I remember, once they actually decide to do their thing, they're extremely susceptible to outside air changes, and many people cover their entire top with a piece of glass (I think it has to do with humidity and the eggs). I don't think that the AC is the best filter to have on the tank, a sponge fitler and some plants is probably a much better bet (don't need the nest destroyed by the AC!). And definitely don't do the water changes, again you don't want to risk disturbing them too much and destroying the nest.

Congrats! I suppose it is possible if they were to come upon one while it was sleeping. I prefer to keep my fry in bare tanks for the first while b/c it always seems like I lose a couple fry in the gravel.

Looks like a great male! Those Taiwan Reef's are looking great! Looks like they'll make some good show males!

Personally, I wouldn't keep the babies in the breeding net, at least not with adult fish. Too much possibility that they'll get nipped and killed through the net. Colour will depend on genetics and what you're feeding them. I don't think you'll get any better colour than using cyclop-eeze to start and then NLS growth formula once they're a couple weeks old (mine can usually take the NLS pellets at 2-3 weeks). I've used other flakes with my F1's (supposed colour enhancing flakes), and they had no/crappy colour for months, with cyclop-eeze and NLS they've got great colour by the time they're 1/2", and are already getting some black and they're just under 1".

Not really white, but the pic of the Ps. zebra (same fish as Met. zebra, just older name) is the subdominant colouration where the bars aren't very distinct. It doesn't really go white, just a light blue as in the pic. Dominant colouration has very dark bars and the body can be slightly lighter than in the picture so there is more distinction b/c bars and body.