Busy Busy Week

After introducing the Pelvicachromis Taeniata into my planted tank. Saw a fellow forummer giving away a free pair of kribs aka Pelvicachromis Pulcher. Just like a typical kiasu singaporean, I pm the bro and amazingly I was first :) Collected the pair last Wednesday. Brother Phng has a very impressive 6ft tank full of apistos. There were also very nice big pieces of driftwood with huge flourishing nanas tied on them. Breath-taking. Was a pleasure chatting with Brother Phng, who has such a good knowledge of cichlids. This guys has been there and seen it all. Central American, Malawis, Tanganyikans, Plecos and now South American dwarfs...

Anyway, back to the kribs, they are huge! The male is almost 4", probably at its biggest. They are so much bigger than the two P. Taeniata that I bought a few days earlier. After comparing the two, kinda makes me wonder why i paid so much for the first pair. I can't even tell them apart! hahaha...

Anyway because of their size, I had to drive down to C328 at almost 11pm after collecting the fish to buy a small tank. Also bought a few nanas to go along. By the time I was through with the fishes, it was almost 1am. Added some katapang leaves in the tank as well. Was told that in their natural habitat, the river bed consists of all these dead leaves. So now, I can't even see anything, the tank's all brownish...:)

Phew..have made two long journeys to the east this week...wait...i just returned from CF as well..and I usually dun come back empty handed. Will share soon.

Pelvicachromis Taeniata Mosleri

The pair are inseparable, always together


another pic of the female.

New Additions

Last Sunday, I visited a fellow hobbyist, bro Scopeyeo, to purchase 6 N. Pulcher fries and a pair of Pelvichromis Taeniata. The trip was supposed to be only for the pulchers, but as usual, when you spot beauty, you just can't let go.

Brother Scopeyeo is the first person I know that has successfully bred n. pulchers. Though I would assume n. pulchers are not too difficult to breed as they belong to the same genus as the brichardis, which breeds fairly easily, seeing the tank full of the fries is still really awesome. They are not called "fairies of the lake" for nothing.

Brother Scopeyeo has a room dedicated to his hobby, there must be like more than 30 tanks in there, with all sorts of apistos. He has a tank of tangans and has also bred cories. Very impressive collection.

Just like the trips to the lfs, my roving eyes were attracted to a pair of Pelvicachromis Taeniata Mosleri. These West African dwarf cichlids are quite rarely seen here. After some deliberation, I decided to take them as well.

As I have done so many times, I bought the fishes without giving much thought to where i can put them. In the end, the 6 fries were dropped into the 2ft grow out tank of 10 n. brevis and 15 cyprs, a decision I regretted immediately. the tank is already very crowded. The bigger fishes started to harassed the fries. After observing for 30 minutes, decided to transfer them out to the other tank vacated by the demasonis. Hard as I try, only found 4 left. Turned every rock and shells, but just couldn't find the remaining two. Feared that they have been eaten up.

I then transferred the lone demasoni to the tropheus tank and also transferred 2 female cypris back to the grow out tank, leaving only a pair with the 4 pulcher fries.

The pair of taeniata were released into the planted tank which already has 1 discus (the other half is quarrantined), 3 cacas and many cherry and yamato shrimps. Again, not exactly the best setup for them. Already found quite a few shrimps dead after two days.

Black Sunday

This is the first time in two and half year that I scooped out as many as 6 dead fishes in a day.

Firstly, one of my older tropheus sp black bemba bellied up for no apparent reason. No sign of disease or attack by fellow tankmates.

Next, noticed that the pseudotropheus demasonis were not coming out of their hiding places during the evening feed. Curious, I lifted up a few rocks and lo and behold found one dead fish after another. They could have been dead for a few days. Didn't even notice it when i did the weekly wc the day earlier. Did a final roll-call and found 1 demasoni and the 4 newly introduced cypris left.

Can't help but feel it has to do with the introduction of the 4 cypris. The demasonis were all by themselves for the past year in the 2ft standing tank. Reclusive but growing and getting along well with each other. As they were always hiding within the rocks and sand bed, I thought it would be nice to add 4 of my cypris (1m4f) to occupy the top half of the tank and also increase the possibility of them spawning. At first I was actually more worried for the cypris as these demasonis can be pretty territorial. All went well for about a week, even noticed the demasonis coming out more often than before. Sigh...now there is only 1 left. My post mortem, died of stress. It's highly unlikely that the cypris attacked them. Demasonis are mean fighters.

This batch was painstakingly brought up from tiny fries for about a year. Was still hoping that I will see little babies soon. Have to now decide what to do with the remaining fella. Poor fella lost his entire family.

Facelift for Grow Out Tank

Finally decided to do something to my 2ft grow out tank consisting of my cyprichromis leptosomas and N.brevis. Gave the tank a good scrub, added new sand and pasted black oyama paper on the back and right side of the tank.

Took some pics, turn out that the babies are looking good. Last two pics are not mine, but some aquaphotography contest winning shots.