NLaferriere

Took some updated photos of my Lab.caeruleus Ruarwe colony yesterday. The dominant male was showing off to two of his ladies who are both gravid and ready to spawn. These guys were breeding like clockwork for quite a while but haven't spawned in a while. I did a 50% water change and increased the feedings and they're back at it again. I've raised a few spawns from them and the juveniles are growing out with the rest of the colony now. Extra males will be taken out as they reach maturity. 

Differences from Lion's Cove:
-no blue iridescence in the caudal fin
-the anal fin is yellow instead of white
-blue metallic band in the dorsal fin
-thinner black banding in dorsal fin
-overall colour is bright orange with no white bellies

 

Great idea!

Awesome! Eventually I'd like to be able to be self-sufficient with a red wriggler culture, white worm culture, and a blackworm culture. But that won't be for a while, still convincing the girlfriend that they can't get out. lol

Ya! Now I just need to find some wild microworms, blackworms, and mysis shrimp. lol

Got a group of 10 young Corydoras sterbai last week to get a breeding group going. Took them a couple days to start eating and now they're little gobble monsters. Thankfully I was able to dig up some earthworms and chop them up fine so they could fit them in their little mouths. That got them going and now I have them on chopped earthworm and flake.

I snapped a few pics of them tonight. Should be a few months before they start spawning but already they're looking good. Can't believe how active they are! They're in a species tank with sand and small stones from a local mountain stream.

So I found out they are the same species. I found a concentration of worms sandwiched between two pieces of plywood with grass clippings between. I picked out a bunch and setup a culture.

So I found some "White Worms" under some logs in my wood pile and I'm thinking they're very similar to the ones we keep to use for live foods. I was searching for small earthworms to chop up to feed my Corydoras sterbai and found a bunch of these 3/4-1.25 inch long white worms in amongst the moist soil. They look identical to white worms and I'm curious if these are in fact the same!?

I put about 2 dozen of the worms into a small plastic container and set it up like I would normally setup a white worm culture. I placed a small piece of bread in with them and it looked like a clump of eggs was laid under the bread. I just removed the bread and replaced it with some fish food. I haven't seen the worms feeding on the bread or fish food so I'm not sure if these will survive or not. I live in the mountains so access to any starter live food cultures is a problem.

Anyone have any insight on this?

Nick

I'll try to take some pictures of them.

Thanks Harold!

On-going have been looking for:
Pseudocrenilabrus multicolor victoriae (Dwarf Egyptian Mouthbrooders)
Synodontis schoutedeni (Yellow Marbled Synos)

Pundamilia nyererei "Makobe Island" (males)

Thanks,
Nick

Hey Harold, I picked up a bunch of Pundamilia nyererei Makobe Island and was wondering if you had any males available? I have 12 girls and no boys. What're the odds of that eh? Haha

Looks like a great looking Yellow Lab. The biggest thing is black in the fins and solid yellow colour throughout the body. Hybrids will have a different shaped mouth (not the pointed mouth) and won't have the solid black in the fins. Some will also have faint barring in the body.

Yours looks like a beauty!

Nothing like it. =) Truly wild and untouched up there.

3m 3f Labidochromis caeruleus "Ruarwe" (Orange Labs) - currently breeding with 16 fry growing out

12 juv F1 Pundamilia nyererei "Makobe Island" (Super Reds) - growing out

13 juv Pseudotropheus acei "Yellow-tail" (Msuli or Luwala) - growing out

3m 1f Synodontis multipunctatus "Burundi" (Cuckoo Catfish) - female is separated at the moment

I've known Spencer a long time. Great guy and his fish are awesome. Have bought fish from him for years.

Check out Spencer Jack's list. He always has a pretty good selection of Tanganyikans. Shipping is very reasonable and fast to major airports as well.

www.cichlaholic.com/lists.html

I did it similar to how the video showed but with only one strip. It's only a 36" tank and I think with more output it would be better. However, I don't think adding a second strip would get the same amount of light as one T5 bulb. It's good enough for now but you definitely couldn't grow plants.

Our local Home Hardware just switched over to Rona, and apparently they're now carrying the LED lighting you mentioned. I'll have to check it out.

Nick

Well I built the light hood with the LEDs. They're not super bright so I wouldn't suggest them for growing plants or anything. Kind of cool to be able to change the colour though with the remote. Would be great to combine the LED with a T5 tube and get the best of both worlds. You could switch up the LED colour to add more of a colour enhancing element to supplement the T5. I might add a T5 fixture eventually into the hood but for now it's good enough. I'll try to snap some pics as some point.

Ya there's a lot of crap out there unfortunately. =/

Third female spawned today. She's the smallest of the three at just under 2 inches.

Terrible photo but she was being shy and I couldn't get enough light on her.

Ya when I used to breed them they would fire up whenever cichlids would spawn. I found that 2 pair was a good group for a smaller tank (50-gallons). There seemed to be a dominant pair that tolerated each other more.

I might have to pick up a female from ya on Sunday if you have one. I'll keep her separate at first to fatten her up and once the cichlids are ready to spawn I'll put them together.

One of the most fun fish I've had the pleasure of breeding. I love watching the cuckoo fry grow for the first 2 months. Seems everyday they're noticeably bigger than the last. 2-inches in 2 months was the growth I had with them with daily 50% water changes and lots of food.

Ya that's some great points. Unfortunately I had a pretty big set back in breeding these guys. My lone female got beat up pretty badly and I had to separate her until she recovers. She was the most dominant in the group of cats and I moved her to another tank because I didn't want them breeding yet and unfortunately the lone male in that tank must have taken out his frustrations on her. Hopefully she'll recover, otherwise I'll have to find a replacement female for the group. She's eating and seems to be enjoying solitude despite being in rough shape.

The joys of fishkeeping...

The Ruarwe were at it again today after a 50% water change. I noticed again this morning that one of the females was very gravid and her oviposter was quite swollen. Within an hour of doing the water change and they were at it.

Dominant male

Holding Female

There's one more female that is quite gravid so hopefully they get going pretty good. Sadly out of the 16 that I purchased it appears there's only 3 females.

From the first spawn the female only had 4 fry which are finishing off their yolk sacs in an egg tumbler. They're about 2 weeks old now. The female of these fry was the largest of the three females but I think it was lack of experience. They'll figure it out.

Deadly! Let me know when you have some available Punman, would definitely be interested.

Not an "Electric Blue" Sciaenochromis, head and mouth shape are wrong. More likely a Copadichromis type but I'm not sure what species by your pic.

That's awesome to hear Harold! If you're wanting to part with some fry let me know as I would definitely be interested. I have a second tank that I want to get another high quality strain of yellows going.