Monster Mobas

Was down at brother Levy's place last Friday. His awesome 5ft tangan main tank that I saw the last time has now been transformed into a just as remarkable marine tank. The tank is stocked with various variants of butterflies. As enthusaistic as ever, Levy introduced each of the fishes as if he has been in the marine hobby for years.

Anyway the main reason for my visit was to help clear Levy's remaining tangans that are now housed in a smaller tank. As with my new craze over the Altolamprologus family, I decided to take over his 1x Tanzanite Calvus, 1xGold Head and 1xRed Fin. In the process of it, I was distracted by the poor mobas (about 6 of them) in the small tank. End up taking two pieces, which takes up 80% of the total price.

No regrets though, the moment the two fellas were dropped into my tank...wow! Out came my Canon 350D again..after so many months of inactivity.

Sad to say, the Tanzanite Calvus did not make it pass the night. It was already looking pretty frail in Levy's tank, but I thought it was just probably stressed out by the other occupants. Alas, it didn't get much of a warm reception from the resident black calvuses in my other tank.
I now have a problem. 8 pieces of adult Altos in two 2ft tank...it's way overcrowded....

Another LFS Bites the Dust

Yuyi has closed. It's sad. In the past three years, I have seen more than five lfs that I frequent closed down. Yuyi has been special because that's where I was first introduced to african rift lakes cichlids and in particular that's where I first laid my eyes on and bought a frontosa. It was a 5" burundi costing $50. Ironically it did not make it past the next day cos it committed suicide by jumping out of the tank. A tank full of the boisterious malawis mbunas and peacocks also bought from the same shop. Rather that being discouraged, I was spurred into finding out more about this fish and as the saying goes, the rest was history.

The closure of Yuyi has once again reinforced the fact that it's not easy to make it in the aquarium business here in Singapore. With a few notable successes such as C328, QH, Rainbow, CF, a lot of the smaller shops just can't survive in the long run.

As a result of the closure, the shop was clearing the items at good discount. I almost brought home a 2 X 3ft (partitioned)tanks. Luckily my common sense prevailed. End up buying a small fully equipped (light and filter) nano tank. Have since brought it to office and am keeping crystal red shrimps...more of that in my next posts.

Anyway all the best to George, owner of Yuyi in his future endeavours.

Black August

Lost 3 of my largest Zaires Blues "Kapampa" in the month of August. One after another within the month. There is no sign of any injury or disease. I suspect it's hydrogen sulfide poisoning as I do have quite a thick layer of gravel in the tank and the fronts do like to dig.

Anyway the good news is, the remaining 6 fishes are now having a better time with the lower bioload and more room to swim around.