punman

Our family is going to Edmonton Saturday for a family dinner at 10425- 99 Ave. at 2 PM We are entering Edmonton from the south. I'd like to visit some independent fish stores when in town. I need to go to Aquagiant Ltd.for sure - Address: 11709-170 St. , as well as any others you would recommend. (Fresh water only - esp. cichlids) I want to do this prior to the dinner. Can someone suggest a plan that will end me at the dinner without running back and forth. Just tell me the names of the stores I should hit and the order to do it. I imagine I can see maximum of 4-5 if my wife does not get too bored. Thanks - I only go there every couple of years so don't know the city well (or the names of the popular fish stores).

I guess my comment is too late but I don't want a tank deeper than 24 inches - too deep to maintain.

Those are all good suggestions and fish that I have not had - except saulosis - I am just selling off the remainder of their fry - parents are gone. If I get something to complement the demasoni it won't be many. I just want a splash of color. For those that have kept demasoni - do you think 15 in a 4 foot 45 gallon tank is enough or should I add another 5 and forget about a second fish?

Wondering about that too but someone said that if you pick from amongst the 4 or 5 major groups and don't duplicate (like not 2 duboisi) the chances are less for hybrids. But this is why I want to research it first.

I have 15 demasoni in a 45 gallon four foot tank. They are 4 months old and the largest are two inches. I'd like to add three or four fish (one species) for contrast. I could do yellow labs - I see that many do but I had labs for four years and would like a change. Another yellow fish would be fine if you can suggest one - also I was wondering about something in red/orange. I've never had red African cichlids. Someone on another forum suggests red zebra.

My initial thought was to do a group of 20 tropheus in my 90 gallon tank and then, if I love it and am successful, free up my 180 gallon, move them from the 90, and add a second compatible group of 20 six months down the road. Now I am wondering if I should just go for the 180 gallon now with two groups if I can find and afford two at the moment. Any pros and cons to my dilemma? What do you think of my numbers (assuming I am starting with 1.5 to 2 inch fish)? I have had frontosas in the past and now have cyps and featherfins so I am confident in my ability to make this work but don't want to rush into it too much either.

Great pictures - wish you all the best.

There is nothing like a cichlid with a mass of eggs or fry!

Saw the video for the first time today - what a mass of fry.

Who in Calgary carries Korilas by Hydor?

I have three canisters and want a little more flow in my 180 gallon. I have good filtration - just want some better surface movement. Not looking at more filtering. Any suggestion on brand or model number? Have never owned power heads before so don't even know what to look for in features. Or are they all about the same anyways?

I cut an AquaClear sponge into a block the size I wanted; then used scissors to cut a hole "sleeve" 2/3 of the way in. It slides over the intake tube and does not fall off - does not need elastics. I have a sponge filter too and use it on occasion but like the extra flow I get from the hang-on-back filters; esp. on a fry tank 10 gallons or more.

In Calgary many bills for electricity also include water (and sewer). For example, my April bill was $199.93 but when I examine it closely, $107.67 + GST was the electrical part. We pay monthly, maybe some areas pay every two months.

Here is a link for info: http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/c_leptosoma.php They school together so best to have a group - not just two or three. They occupy the middle of the tank - not the bottom so that is kind of neat. You can keep multiple males together so that is good - they will all show color. They can be kept in as small as 40 gallons. The downside is they are hard to find in Alberta. I am only getting 5 fry at a time and they don't always all survive. My adults are hardy though. There may be some fish you can't keep them with (I hear frontosas eat them in the lake).

Maybe they finally read your meter!!! Also, be aware that electricity is a commodity like oil, or peanuts or whatever. It can fluctuate. In December I was paying 10.3 cents a kwh; this month I am paying 9.1 cents.

Cyprichromis leptosoma Utinta often called sardine cichlids or "Cyps".

Featherfin adults cannot be kept with much else. Cyprichromis are colorful but hard to find.

The females and juveniles are silver but males have this stunning color at breeding time. I just snapped this shot on this snowy-do-nothing afternoon. I just wanted to share it with those of you who don't frequent the buy-sell section where I sell this guy's fry.

Thanks for sharing - I guess you are a pro at picture posting now.

Tank Electrical Costs – Especially Heaters Note – If you don’t want to read through all of this, just skip down to the second last paragraph. I have seen posts where people want to know the cost of running their tanks for a month. Lighting is easy because the wattage is listed on the lamps and we can estimate the hours per day that the lamps are on. Filters are on continually so it is just a matter of checking the specs for the filter wattage. The trickier part is the heater because it goes off and on. I tried watching my heater in my 45 gallon tank while I worked at the computer. I tried to record the time it went off and on for two hours. Sometimes I’d miss it though and would have to estimate. I came up with ON 22% of the time. I have 5 tanks so I needed a better idea. Over two weeks I randomly walked by the tanks and checked off on a piece of paper if the heater was on or off. I tried to do it randomly, not every 10 minutes in case a heater was running say, an 8 min. off, 2 min. on cycle. I did this about a 100 times over many days but it took less time than sitting watching a tank for two hours. The 45 gallon tank was on 20.3% of the time so I feel my method was fairly accurate. The chart below shows my results. 180 gal. – 250 W heater = 1.4 W/gal. On 31.4% Cost per month is $5.21 90 gal. – 250 W heater = 2.8 W/gal. On 35.6% Cost per month is $5.91 45 gal. – 200 W heater = 4.4 W/gal. On 20.3% Cost per month is $2.70 33 gal. – 150 W heater = 4.5 W/gal. On 36.4% Cost per month is $3.63 23 gal. – 50 W heater = 2.2 W/gal. On 100% Cost per month is $3.32 All heaters were set for 77-78 F and room temperature in all rooms was 70-71 F so we are looking at 7 degrees heating (about 4 degrees C) above room temperature. All heaters but one were Ebo-Jagers (the other a Visi-Therm). All were installed in the upright position. What amazed me was how efficient large tanks are at conserving heat. The watts/gallon figures are not used in calculating dollar costs but make for interesting comparisons. You would think that the more watts per gallon you have, the less the heater would be on. Surprisingly, that is not always the case. I was worried about heating a 180 gallon tank with a 250 W heater (would it be enough heat output?) but it is on less often than the same size and brand heater on my 90 gallon. I surmise that this is due to the larger volume of water retaining heat better and the fact that the glass is thicker. Also my 180 gallon is my only tank with foam insulation underneath so maybe that makes a difference. Other factors that could affect your heating are: the location of the tank (by a window, wall, open door), the type water movement in the tank, location of heat vents in the home, and the type and amount of covering for the tank. [so tell the spouse you need a bigger tank and it won’t cost any more to run it!!! (At least the electricity part)]. In case you wonder how to calculate the cost of the heater, I will give you an example. My 200 W heater is on 20.3% of the time so that is 20.3% out of 24 hours so .203 x 24 x 30.4 days in a month = 148.1 hours a month. 148.1 x 200 Watts = 29,620. I am paying 9.1 cents per kilowatt hour so that is 29,620/1000 x .091 = $2.70 per month. You can calculate your lights and filters the same way. I am calculating in Canadian dollars. I don’t have live plants so I have single bulb lighting and the lights are only on an average of 6 hours per day (so for me I multiply watts of lighting by .25). Examples of filter energy use are: AquaClear 110 – 14 Watts, AquaClear 70 – 6 W, AquaClear 50 – 6 W, and Eheim 2217 – 20 W. Amongst my five tanks I have 9 filters. I calculated that the cost total for electricity for the 5 tanks I have, to be $29.91 per month, which averages out to $6 a month per tank. 70% of that electrical cost is for heaters, 22% for filters, and 8% for lights. If you live in an area where your home is above 70 degrees F much of the time because of the warm weather, your heating costs would be less. If you are heavily into lighting, that portion will be more. Other costs would be costs of the water (I am on a flat rate at the moment, not a meter), and the cost of heating the water as you do water changes – most people would not be adding it cold from the tap but trying for tank temperature around tank temperature. That calculation is for another day. So there you have it. If you are too lazy to do all this math and recordkeeping, you can use the $6 a month per tank average for light, filter, and heater expenses if your electricity rate is around 9 cents per kilowatt hour. A 12 cent/kwh rate would be $8 a month per tank; 18 cents works out to $12 a month. I have been back into fish keeping for the past five years. I have put off doing these calculations because I really did not want to know the answers. The costs were not as expensive as I had thought. You might think I’m crazy to go to all the trouble math-wise, but I must confess to being a math teacher. Say, I think I might use this as a bonus question on next week’s quiz!!

It is often hard to get fair evaluation unless the user has tried every brand. I have three Eheim canisters. I think they are great but I have not used the other brands so my comment may not be reliable.

Would that not be considered "cheating" or not fair?

Although I've been on fish forums forever, could someone explain "Bump" - not sure what it means or why it is done?

What to start with? Depends on if you have more money or more time. Fry are cheaper but you will need two years to maturity. I started with Juveniles in the 2-6 inch range in a 180 gallon tank. An eighty or ninety gallon or so is fine for fry up to three inches and then you better be prepared to move up.

I have a 48x12x18 It is a 45 gallon tank. A nice size with a 4 foot length. I run two AClear 70s (formerly AC 300 - which was a better way to designate by the gallons per hr) Tanganyikans? You could probably do Cyprichromis in there (not jumbo tho') Other lakes? I have P demasoni in mine right now. They are 1.5 inches in size and it is working so far. I had 5 P. saulosi adults in there for a bit before the demasoni and it was fine.