Janoch

Yeah man, best thing to do is try to find that perfect balance between c02 ferts and lighting. Everybody's setup is different so it's hard looking at advise on forums sometimes lots of contradictions, I've got wisteria, Java ferns, Java moss, bacopa caroliniania and jungle Val in a 3' tank.... I had all kinds of algae problems. Brown diatom was probably the worst. Took out a lot of my wisteria. I was running the tank with a single t8 6700k bulb and ran the lights for 12 hrs and dosed with flourish liquid... Didn't work well. (That's when I had a lot of brown growth) then I upped my lighting to 2 6700k t5HO bulbs for 12 hours a day still fertilizing with flourish but added co2 booster plants were growing but so was the green hair algae, I was pulling out like a handful of algae a day lol gross. Then lessened the photo period down to 2 hours in the am then a 2 hour break and another 8 hours in the evening continued dosing with co2 but quit using liquid ferts and began using tabs instead. Soon the tank was full of plants and now I spend less time worrying about algae and wilty plants and more about trimming and what to do with all the shoots of jungle Val that keep shooting up all over the damned tank lol.

Try using flourish tabs, keeping a nutrient rich substrate as opposed to dosing into the water column. I switched from dosing my planted tank flourish liquid ferts and using the tabs instead as well as Api co2 booster. Found significantly better growth as well as less algae

Started up a YouTube channel to kind of chronicle my experiences with Mbuna so far as well as to pass over some tips and research on different species, let me know what you think 😜

That's ugly! Kill it with fire!! 😜

Thanks! Yeah I've seen some with some faint barring at another store and figured they must have been hybrids.. However the lady was just referring to them as "low end" (They were being sold for the same price as these beauties from golds lol) thanks for the info!

Yeah, I've heard that a lot of different species of pleco are hard to breed/never been bred or don't have any definitive conditions for spawning. Seems it's even harder to do anything in Brazil without putting an entire species at risk... thats a good example however for breeders such as yourself to maintain solid line bred fish. You never know when they will be lost, So cudos for that as well as your method for your cull... Cycle of life right lol big fish does eat little fish. Otherwise floods/droughts and other more natural Occurrences have led to species breaking apart and either failing to adapt and dying or as a one dr. Ian Malcolm has put it "Life breaks free. Life expands to new territories. Painfully, perhaps even dangerously. But uh... life finds a way." I'm not too certain about these specific breeds but generally pleco can thrive in a varying condition and will learn to accept a lot of different types of food (at least in the aquarium) but likely would not remain as they are over time.

Interesting choice bringing up the German Reds, I thought for sure these guys were the result of a successful hybridization but I guess they are more of a line bred success story. Confused as to how line breeding could result in a different species designation though...

I don't think I have the time or space to REALLY get into any serious breeding. Maybe a bit to help fund the hobby. I just have a 75g recently stocked with mbuna Juvies and had become concerned with ending up with a ton of hybrid fry. (4 different types of metriaclima, yellow tail acei and yellow labs) I went a bit crazy, way too excited and over did it on the species. Will be looking at separating the different species of metriaclima by some means soon. still early to tell if they themselves are hybrids or not... I believe their parents were in mixed tanks. Anyways thx fairdeal

Not going to lie a 7" electric yellow with prodominate black barring sounds pretty cool looking lol, also sounds like it would be one hell of an unsuspecting aggressive "yellow lab" I'm fairly certain you cannot breed out aggressive traits in fish very easily... Otherwise we would all have betta community tanks 😜.

So what do you do with your hybrids fairdeal? Thanks for the tips regarding things to look for when dealing with new breeders btw!

Thanks for the opinions guys, I agree selling hybrids as line bred is pretty low. Definitially wouldn't ever do that, I would even be a bit hesitant giving them away to be honest... I'm new with cichlids and would hate to contribute to sullied lines in the local market. There's already enough mixed mbuna tanks going around lol, However i still find myself curious what traits could possibly be bred between different species and if anybody had any positive experiences Raising hybrids. or is it all about faded yellow labs and blotchy runts?

Whoops that was a photo with flash sorry, made the colour look a bit lighter then it really is

Dennis from golds was insisting these guys were primo, I think they are pretty amazing but I am also brand new... What does one look for in this species, I am just drawn to the way the bright yellow pops in the aquarium

How do you guys feel about keeping hybrids/selling hybrids? I'm curious as to people's experiences whether it be positive or negative. Yay nor nay... Any sought after hybrids or should they be well avoided.

Wow! This is an inspiration

Thanks Fishy! I got it off kijiji (turned out the seller was an old friend) he was using it as a reef tank until he had to take it down, gave me a good deal but it came at the price of a late night with a bottle of vinegar and a lot of scrubbing. Especially the sump! It's an aqueon proflex model 3 I believe, lots of places for salt water crud to build up. Couldn't get the faceplate of the overflow bulkhead clean. Figure it would probably end up looking like that in a few months anyways.. Maybe I'll replace it once the tanks a bit more established

They are red top, ob zebra ( etherae), blue cobalt zebra, albino red top zebra

Started with a few yellow tail acei as well as a BEAUTIFUL trio of male yellow labs, then payed a visit to a local breeder who had a remarkable assortment of different zebras. They're all still juvenile yet but I couldn't help myself, especially for the price he was selling them!... I definitially don't want to end up with a bunch of hybrids so once these guys start to show gender I will be looking to separate the different species of metriaclima. In the meantime there is peace amongst them all with an alpha labidochromis funny enough. or maybe I should just look into rehoming all the females..? Has anybody had any success in a male display tank of these or similar species?

Okay, could only find them at Pisces and big als.. None at golds, Portland or pets mart.. they should have them somewhere else though either way FYI if anybody else is curious $28 at big als for a pack of 4 or individual at Pisces for $13.99

Yeah good call, I've been guilty of getting too excited with the driftwood and putting it in before giving it a good proper soak. Hate the look of tanin stained water. Have no experience mixing dwarf gourami and Rams though, good luck man tanks looking good

Nice looking stand there man! Just throwing my two cents but for your considerations I'd go with a clown pleco for a 20g, a nice piece of driftwood as well as a nice dark nutrient rich substrate. Excellent call with the powder blue gourami, for a schooling fish neon or Cardinal tetra would accentuate him well imo, however I'd be interested to see what you decide, post a pic when it's up!

Right and have added a glass canopy top in the last pic there as well

this pic was taken right around the time of the initial post

This is basically now, trying to create as many caves as I can, taking my time with the aquascape as despite my efforts with nitrifying bacteria adding a bunch more media including fluval bio max and squeezings from my 33g's sponges still haven't gotten over my initial ammonia spike... Have more stones boiling now though lol.

First couple of weeks, first pic is day one setup and leak check, note how rusted up the stand was, how dirty the sump was.

Anybody know where I can get some of these in Calgary other then big als or Pisces?

Once again thank you! I will Emulate a full bioload of ammonia during my cycle prior to stocking, and will stock all at once. That's a lot of info to get me started, really appreciate it all. I will post pics in this thread once I get everything setup the way I like it. Been a busy week, haven't accomplished everything I had hoped by this point, still have quite a bit of stones to scrub and boil lol. Thanks again

Also should I be concerned about the weight I'm adding to the aquarium in stones? I do have egg crate down and have lined the back of the tank with some big heavy river stone (not leaning against the glass back wall) then will be stacking smaller stones on top... So far I've got about 120lbs of stone gathered in large stones alone. My stand is a solid stainless steel frame that the outer perimeter of the aquarium sits on. Thanks again for all the advice