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punman

Calgary & Area Member
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Everything posted by punman

  1. My 90 gallon has twenty 4 inch tropheus and that is about as many as I would want in there. Yet I am sure I could put forty skinny 4 inch cyprichomis in the same size tank. On a short term basis I can have forty half inch fry in a ten gallon tank. That works out to 20 inches of fish in 10 gallons or 2 inches of fish per gallon with no problems. On the other hand, one 5 inch frontosa in a 10 gallon is a half inch of fish per gallon and that would be a disaster (and cruel). Many people consider fish size and filtering levels when deciding but some do not consider the compatibility issue. As I mentioned my 90 gallon has twenty 4 inch tropheus with good health of the fish and little waste accumulating and I do one-third water changes every 10 days. Instead, imagine if I had two Jack Dempseys, two tropheus, two demasoni, two Blue Dolphins, two electric blues, two discus, and so on, up to 20 four inch fish. The fish inches per gallon would be the same, the tank could handle the filtering, the water conditions would be fine, but fish would die, get picked on, and be unhealthy. Some of the fish forums do a good job of specifying how many of a certain fish should be kept in a given size tank. Cichlid-forum does a good job in their library of cichlids. I say err on the side of caution. When the recommended is a 75 gallon tank for certain species of fish some say they will try it in a 55. I say go with the 75 or safer still, use a 90.
  2. My tiny cyprichromis sometimes have as few as three eggs; yet I had a Blue dolphin (C moorii) who at just over 4 inches once spit over 90 fry.
  3. The eggs don't really hatch like a chicken with a discarded shell. The egg develops eyes and then a tail. What seems to be the egg eventually becomes the belly. For mouth brooders the egg often becomes a "wiggler" at about 10 days and free swimming at about 18 days but it varies from species to species.
  4. I think I might be addicted to breeding fish. I rarely have community tanks - usually breeding tanks. It started with live bearers when I was in high school. Then Jack Dempseys and Convicts when I was newly married. Then we kind out got out of fish for a time while raising our kids. Now back into it again for the last 6 years with African Cichlids. Sometimes I will get bored with a fish but the challenge is to grow them from juveniles to spawn.
  5. Well, I haven't seem many responses yet, so I guess mulms the word!! If I can spare a filter to be out of commission for a day I'll soak it (not the motor or media)in a bucket of water with a tablespoon or two of bleach. It gets the really bad stuff that way. I use Q-tips inside the motor housing. A thorough rinse though after the bleach solution.
  6. I use a plastic 2 litre pop bottle with the bottom one-fifth of the bottle cut off. That becomes the base with the other four-fifths of the bottle inverted into the base and the screw top stays on. I stick an airstone into the bottle with a cheap hang-on-back heater to keep the water at 80F. Eggs hatch in 24-30 h and I siphon off the shrimp.
  7. I had yellow labs and Blue dolphins - two breeding groups in a 90. That worked out just fine. I tried to add 1M 2F electric blue - the male was too boisterous so I took the electric blues out.
  8. The only conditioner I use is the one I apply after the shampoo!! Actually sodium thiosulfate is all I use in Calgary as I just want to remove chlorine. I never try to mess with PH, water hardness, etc. I do African cichlids and nothing else.
  9. So does anyone know if the BigAls sale is still on and and has anyone found any good deals there?
  10. RD might tell you differently but I find that the size of the NLS pellets is more of a factor than the type of NLS. Having said that, I use mostly 1 mm Cichlid formula, grow formula for fry, and have used 3 mm size for larger frontosa and blue dolphins.
  11. When I had Demasonis, New Life was all I ever used with great results. I'm into fish from Lake Tanganyika right now and they all get New Life Spectrum - even the tropheus.
  12. When I had saulosi I only fed NLS with good results. I did not mess around with supplementary foods. But when it comes to fish food you will get many opinions and many will defend their food choices more vigorously than their religions!!!
  13. Fish out of the toilet bowl? Maybe its a crap. Oops - I'm dyslexic. I meant carp!!
  14. With NLS you won't have a food issue; the thing to watch for is the compatibility of fish issue. Ihad a friend who had saulosi and demasoni spawning the same 33 gallon tank but I would have never tried that. Maybe a few of either but not both in a tank that small.
  15. It worked quite well. I went into MEMBERS -> by JOIN DATE and could see 20 to a page with join date and last post/visit date. Couldn't see member number at that point but okay as I knew I was #80. Some have not been on almost forever or at all, but amazing how many are still around. I found that member 100 was Guyzer who joined 20 Aug 04. I checked how many members from him back to #1 have been active in the month of Oct. 2009. I counted 24. That is surprisingly high from five years ago that there were that many still active in the hobby and spending time on the forum. Or maybe not surprising. It is a very good fish forum.
  16. I was invited to join Alberta Aquatica in the spring of 2004 and became member #80 on 26 Jun 2004. I was somewhat skeptical at the time as I belonged to a much larger forum on the Internet. I have been pleasantly surprised over the years and this is one of my favorite sites which I check every day or two. I am just curious, of the first 100 people to join, how many are still active today? (Say, have posted at least once in the last 30 days). Any way of searching to find that out or is it confidential?
  17. I found an Eheim filter cheap in the States and ordered it on-line and had it shipped to where I was staying in the States and brought it back. I was staying with relatives. That might not work if you are staying in a hotel.
  18. This is the setup of my 90 gallon Tanganyika tank made up of Cyprichromis leptosoma Utinta, Altolamprologus compressiceps "Lufubu", Enantiopus sp. Kilesa. The cyps are a breeding group of mostly adults and I have had them for many months in this tank. I have recently added the 6 compressiceps (one inch in length) and the 7 kilesa (1.5-2 inches in length). A question about the tank setup. I know the cyps are open water swimmers so I don't have or want many rocks or caves. If the kilesa are anything like the foai I had in the past, they don't want a lot of rock cover either. But what about the compressiceps? Is this setup fine until they mature and pair off and at what size do they do that? Also, does anyone know at what size the E. kilesa start to colour up?
  19. I got in some Altolamprologus compressiceps "Lufubu", and Enantiopus sp. Kilesa through Spencer Jack and they are in my 90 gallon tank with the Cyps Utinta. everyone gets along fine. The 7 Kilesa are 1.5-2 inches and the 6 compressiceps around an inch.
  20. punman

    Hello

    Welcome to AA, for those in Alberta with a fish addiction. I saw where someone asked the same question and he was told to contact a moderator. He did that and got it changed. Maybe someone can tell our new member who to contact and how.
  21. My 90 gallon tropheus tank is 4 ft by 1.5 ft with a footprint (bottom area) of 6 square feet and a diagonal of 4.3 feet. You tank would have a footprint of 9 square feet and a diagonal of 4.3 feet. So although the plan is somewhat unconventional, overall you have quite a large area to work with.
  22. I got my rocks from Burnco - about 30 cents a pound compared with $3 a pound at a pet shop. But you could get them from a creek or river for much less if you are into that method. I have used pool filter sand and play sand from Home Depot - the Target brand of play sand. Clean but rinse it first. Like Blue Ram, I too have tropheus I am selling. Yellow and Black coloured Kirizas. You can PM me if you like. By the way - is your tank floor area 36x36 or 36x27?
  23. Are you using regular tap water because it is better than the water softener source, or are using tap water because that is the only option you have? I want to know if one type is better for these fish than the other.
  24. I don't know Bettas but because I have tropical fish a friend thinks I might be able to answer this question. (I can't). Should he use regular Calgary tap water or the water coming through his water softener?
  25. It's a 500 W heater in a 90 gallon tank. My Ebo-J was a 250W. I hope the thing is fairly reliable - 500W is a lot of heat if the thing were to malfunction; but I will try it for a few days and see what I think. The idea of the sensor being in a different part of the tank makes sense.
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