I am going to also start breeding cory cats for sale to the local fish stores.  My blue rams are in demand and doing well.  The stores aren't having troubles with them, like they have with ones they ordered.  My acclimation to full tap water from half R/O, half tap seems to be working as there are very minimal losses in my tanks or at the stores.  Anyway, I want to add the cory cats as they are another high demand fish and I can raise the fry in the same tanks as the ram fry and they will help eat up any food the baby rams miss.  This of course means adding more tanks to hold the breeding adults, which means more water changes, but all well. 

For cory species, I think I am going to use albino corydoras aeneus, corydoras paleatus, and corydoras panda.  These seem to be the most popular types around here.  If I ever find dwarf corys I will probably try them as well (corydoras hasbrosus or corydoras pygmaeus), just because I like them.  I will set up three 15 gallon tanks to house the breeding groups and keep them similar to my breeding groups of blue rams.  My only dilema here is that they adhere their eggs to surfaces, including the glass of the tank.  Trying to get the eggs off of the glass would be a bit hard to do without damaging them.  Any ideas? 

 

 

Picture credits:elpono_njg, Whisper Photography

As of midnight last night, just 6 weeks after the last batch of Convict fry, the parents have laid eggs again inside a sea shell in the 55 gallon.  The parents had only been in the new tank 6 days!  They are prolific.  I will post a picture of the shell with the eggs inside.

Allow me to introduce myself:  I have been keeping fish for most of 37 years.  I have never owned saltwater fish - though have said "Some day".  However, I have kept most every kind of freshwater.  I prefer the Cichlids.  Right now I have four tanks running.  A little 5 gallon Eclipse acrylic tank on the kitchen cuonter with some 6 week old Convict babies; a 54 gallon acrylic double hex that is joined by two 4 inch diameter tubes between the hexes; a 50 gallon with a pair of mated Red Devils; and a 55 gallon with the parental Convicts who are prolific, and some Zebra Danios as dither fish! 

I enjoy live plants and currently have 10 varieties in the double hex wheresome dozen  6 month old Convicts reside with a couple of Tetras.   I enjoy surfing the net and talking with other fishkeepers from all over the world.  I truly enjoy ging to the fish auctions at the local clubs with my girlfriend, and my youngest daughter. 

A month or so ago, we set up a 10 gallon with some 6 month old Convicts and live plants at her house.  She truly enjoys watching them, and nothing could make me happier than to see her enjoyment. 

I live in Michigan, and look forward to the comraderie of local fishkeepers and the clubs. 

Recently, I set up the 55 gallon and moved the Convict parents into their new home after seeding it with water and gravel from their old home the 50.  They are doing fine after almost two weeks.  However, I am thinking of eliminating the Red Devils and placing small friendly schooling fish or African Cichlids in the 50 gallown, which is on the same stand as the 55. 

So, I am enthused about meeting others here, maybe see some familiar faces from FishChannel.com or other forums. 

Drop me a line anytime as I would be glad to "talk".

Best Wishes for the Fishes!

Any 1 have any suggestions for cool looking easy-to-care-for beginner fish? I have 4 guppies and 2 tadpoles and one crawdad.... and also of any cool aquarium catalogs {besides foster and smith}

 

anybody know why 2 of my 3 balloon mollies would have it in for the 3rd molly? my black female and white male have decided that they no longer want to get along with my orange female. when she gets close to them they both dart at her and bang off of her sides and appear to be trying to nip her as well. she seems undetered and continues to try to stay near them, only to always be chased off again. would adding another female balloon molly add to the chaos or help alleviate it? please help!

I have become a bit bored with my tank, not only do I want to completely redo it, but I think want different inhabitants as well.  I have been considering discus for a long time.  The fish store  I worked at gets fairly healthy young discus in that do fine in our water, despite the pH being a bit high for what is normally acceptable for discus.  My only concern is that my tank is only 13" wide.  It is a 60 gallon tall tank.  I have seen some rather large discus so I'm not sure te tank is wide enough for them at adult size.  I suppose I probably have some time before they got huge though.  I would do a planted tank, as I love live plants and maybe 6 young discus and keep my rasboras and botias.  As the discus grew, I would keep which ever 2 paired off I think.  I don't think a 60 gallon is big enough for 6 adult discus for sure.  Is a 60 gallon even big enough for 2 adults?  I know people breed them in much smaller tanks, but I am wanting a display and I want for my fish to be comfortable and have decent lives.  They are more like pets to me.  My concern is that in such a narrow tank they won't have room to explore and entertain themselves. 

My blue ram breeding is going extremely well.  The rams are very popular in the stores and are selling well.  I added 2 more 30 gallon grow out tanks and have seperated out my youngsters I had kept into pairs.  I had ordered 3 blue rams from an alternate source to have some outside blood.  I paired them up with 3 of the hold backs, and sold the other 3 holdbacks to a store.  I now have 4 pairs (my origional pair and the 3 new pairs).  The 3 younger pairs haven't bred yet, but they do seem to like each other.  I kind of split up by going by who seemed to like who.  I have each pair in a 10 gallon tank, with fake plants.  I have the fake plants bunched up heavily in the corners and then a couple spread about.  This gives them the ability to hide from their mate if need be.  I have sponge and/or box filters running in all my blue ram tanks.  I currently have fry in all my grow out tanks except the new ones.  My origional pair breeds every 14 to 18 days on average.  I am feeding several live foods to the adults and the fry, as well as some high quality flakes.  I have spawn split between 2 grow out tanks currently, as I don't have enough spawns to warrant one tank per spawn.  This keeps the tanks cycled and gives the fry more room.  Some of my younger pairs are looking like they may breed soon, so hopefully I can start suppling my local stores more regularly.  I am currently breaking even on this project, I am hoping to start actually making a profit within the next few months.  I am thinking of finding a way to have automatic water changes done, but my snag here is that I need half the water to be R/O and half to be regular tap.  I suppose I could run 2 drip lines and one have an inline R/O?  More planning and thinking on this is needed.

I have 18 baby swordtails left.  I had 22.  I have them in a 10 gallon tank with some fake plants.  I am doing large daily water changes (about 2/3s of the water) and am feeding a few times a day.  I am feeding them flake food, first bites and frozen baby brine shrimp.  So far so good!

A new study shows that mosquitoe fish (similar to guppies) can count up to four.  I wonder how high cichlids can count then?

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/02/26/eafish126.xml