malawi cichlid lover

hello

im from Cape Town,32,male and Rasta and about 9 months ago was introduced to Malawi Cichlids by a friend and fell inlove...

since then my love affair has grown into a relationship.

thanks to these amazing fish i have had some awesome experiences and met some awesome people. many fish lovers i find are so willing to share and so i've learnt so much so quickly thanks to them and continue to learn and am willing to be taught...so please share and teach.

i hope to also share my experiences with you too.

at the moment i have some wildcaughts (aulonocara chiluma m and f, copadichromis borleyi chidunga m and f, copadichromis azureus m and 2f, protomelas mbenji thick lip m and 2f, copadichromis cyclicos m) all wildcaughts and f1's are from niel at aquaterra. also got f1 dimidiochromis compressiceps def. m and hopefully 2f, cyrtocara moorii m and f, nimbochromis fuscotaeniatus lol 2m one taking a beating, aim for one male one female ratio backfired...subdominant male recovering in more stocked tank:blink1:. also got 1m sciaenochromis ahli, one male protomelas taeniolatus-red empress, cyphotilapia frontosa burundi thru a friend (zaahier) and also protomelas spilonotus m and2f from germany that i got from sarf...i will post some pics when i've learnt how to....

enjoy your holidays ppl
dragon8

 

@dragon8 ... Ahoy,and much Jah love my friend....

You dont just love Malawi's - you sommer jumped in the deep end and went the whole hog... Impresive colection - what size tank? one word of long term advice... get more girls - spread some of the loving round and it will lead to less agression....

Irie - the chilled out azurekoi...

PS: Neill's a great guy - known him from like the mid 90's - great fish and great advice....
PPS: Welcome to the wet nut house...lol

 

Hi and welcome to the Forum. You have a awesome fish collection there great stuff...

 

Thanks Azurekoi

three tanks...a 900, a 1200x650x800high and a 1500...got chilumba male in 900 cos his a gangster and a mass murderer and all the rest in the 1.5m while i work on the bigger tank which started coming apart...

and advice taken plan to get more females as they become available and then spread the fish out between the two tanks after more thought and consideration about who will suit who better...

erm i know i might be a little over stocked but i got fish of various sizes and this currently has had no fights just chasing.

am not sure of litres in 1.5m...i do 5-10percent water changes almost everyday with some vacuuming(got various opinions about my regular changes....feel free to comment)...got boyu1100 canister filter and two powerheads to create current

might be jumping the gun here but does anyone know where is can get placidochromis phenochilus tanzania (mottled phenochilus) please????

Neil is super only know him for a short time but really feel priviliged that i can get such quality fish and advise

thanks

 

Dude,love it when a "noob" jumps right in and LEARNS/LOVES/RESPECTS....

Your set ups sound pretty solid - good going there.... Get some more girls and things will be A - O.K - Been keeping fish for a long time and got stuck in the Malawi/Tanganyikan biotopes for over a decade... Some of the species you have now makes me DROOL...

Ps: Big up on your waterchange regime - hard work,but worth it in the long run... Nother question - you running any salt in your tanks? Lake malawi has a mineral salt concentration of like 2.7kg per 1000liters...mimic this(especialy 'cos you got Wildcaughts...) and not only will the fish be healtheir,but show better colour....

Word of warning if you are planning on breeding... There is a VERY popular brand of cichlid food on the market called "Cichlid Supreme" - avoid this at all costs if you are planning to do some serious breeding - contains high amounts of testosterone hormone that generally leaves your females sterile,or batches of very weak fry...

 

i mostly stay use a flake a got from neil...a spira veg flake and hbh veg...erm i learnt my lesson with too much protein and aggression. i have a big variety of other foods that i feed very sparingly like shrimp and bloodworm and tubifex and and and

when it comes to all products i prefer to keep it natural

i use salt. i use about one teaspoon of aquarium salt and one teaspoon epsom salts per 20litres and i used to use bicarb, but since then i bought the pet shops last 30kg bag of coral chip with nice big chips that i use at the bottom of my canister...my ph ranges between 8.0 and 8.5 which i think changes cos the tap water changes cos i monitor that too and try to do more of the changes during the week cos i heard that they dose(with chemicals) the water more over weekends cos of more usuage...trying to keep it more stable....

thank you very much for the feedback

ps neil said his not on the internet cos his got no time for it and his customers advertise for him enough will pm you his number when i can

 

here's some pics of some of my fish

 

will post more when i have time and they stand still long enough:bigsmile:

 

hi there dragon8 welcome to the malawi cichlid world.you have quiet an awesome collection there.you seem to be very clued up with the care of the fish and you will definetly be very very sucessful with them.i always buy my fish from niel and over the years niel and i have become very close friends and must say that he always supplys nothing but the best.

 

fish colouring

:bigsmile:

just wanted to share with you guys how two of the fish i showed pictures of before have started colouring...if you look at the previous pics you can see the transformation...esp on the commpressiceps...malawis colour as they mature....very exciting!!!!

will post more again soon:bigsmile:

 

Great stuff love your work, can only wish my Compressiceps to become like yours

 

:amazed:
thank you very much