Christopher

You must've said a magic work or something extend coz I just turned around to see one of the cyps with a mouthful and still going!

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Some pics of the Cyp. Lepto. Mplungu

No breeding yet, also no deaths so woooop! haha

Unsure why no beeding yet, thinking it might be due to highly irregular light periods as the tank is in my room with my bed and computer so they don't have a very consistent day/night cycle, even moreso as I recently graduated school so late nights and sleep in everyday
They are all doing well regardless, initially they wouldn't eat flakes but after about a week of feeding frozen brine shrimp they had enough of an appetite to eat the seraflora flakes that I feed the rest of my fish across the tanks including their current tankmates.

The males are doing their dancing but the females seem to not be very interested, one of the females is like a dark brown/grey compared to the whitish body of the rest (and the males) can't really tell why, it seems a tiny bit more skittish but I might just be coming up with that with it being the odd-one out in mind.

No breeding from the Julies or Caudos yet either, but I'm still yet to find suitable shells for the Caudos which I quite urgently should get off my ass and do.

With Christmas coming up I am looking to purchasing some more stock, I had this idea of the tank being a safe breeding environment, meaning that the fish could successfuly breed and raise fry with a decent survival rate but I'm not sure that is even possible with my already current stock. Calvus have been a long time favourite of mine so they are close to top of my list but If im still going for the breed-safe environment Calvus the fry hunters are off the list. Outside of Calvus i'd really like to have a smallish colony of shell dwellers established in the tank as it was the varied territories that really intrigued me about Tangs and this would be opening up another cool territory in the community. Then theres stuff like Leleupi, Syno. Petricolas, Goby cichlids (might become a wizard at the same time) or would love some Frontosa but I think the 4'x18'x18' tank will be too small. Any stocking suggestions would be very welcome as im pretty open to anything.

Stock as of this post:
6x Cyprichromis Leptosoma Mplungu (2 males, 4 females)
5x Juliodochromis Regani
2x Neolamprologus Caudopunctatus
1x Common Bristlenose (female)

First pic of the new cyps as I peek over the back of my chair trying not to disturb him working his moves on the ladies

It's crappy coz it's on my phone will take out the DSLR when they are more comfortable and less skittish. It's the dominant male in the pic, subs territory is confined to the edge of the tank near filter outtakes

Wish I could film him doing his little shake in front of the females. It's just so cool, like whole body ripples and is so pretty with this tail and dorsal really popping and he's not even started eating properly yet so he hardly has the colour he could!
It's all very exciting haha

Edit: Figured i'd do a bit of an update on the rest of the tank, Julies have become much more comfortable with the small school of cyps hanging out at the top, the bigger Caudopunctatus is a bit less happy with the new residents He had the whole 4ft to himself before so whenever the cyps start hanging a bit lower he chases em and nips a bit. One of the female (i have sneaking suspicions its an undercover sub male if cyps even do that) cyps had a decent bit taken out of her tail fin, cant really pinpoint the culprit but the Caudo is being a bit more violent as opposed to the male cyps who are just very chasey. Would be a shame If i had to remove the Caudos as ive loved the two I have but these cyps are most expensive fish ive ever bought so they are top priority within the tank.

Hey guys, so my german import cyps arrived today! woo
Ill put photos of them up on my tank journal thread but this topic is for you guys potentially helping me find out what I found in the net when i poured one of the bags (of 3 cyps).

Each bag had 1 male, 2 females and for the first bag i noticed something bouncing around in the net whilst i was holding it waiting for the little cyps to swim their way out.

I took a photo on my phone, any idea what it is?

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at the expense of sounding like an idiot i immediately thought eggs because I want these guys to start spawning asap!! haha
Then as some were kinda mushed i thought maybe food but then they dont feed travelling fish because of the waste, and also doubt any food would be left.

Its not really that big of a deal just my curiosity
Any help would be great, cheers guys (so excited got my fish woo woo haha)

Quite pricey, $68 per 5-6cm I believe they were.

Light of current events helped persuade me to get some quality stock for the future.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Some pics of the new residents. Managed to 'borrow' my sisters DSLR, didnt wanna change her settings heaps so just made do with what they were on.

 

 

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Only kept fish for a bit over a year and so much of this already applies... the one patch of lush grass is what got me haha, those plants on the porch get the best watering in the house! haha

With my last school holidays of high school i decided to start what i've been wanting to do for the better half of this year and setup the empty 4ft ive had laying around since i retired my malawis. This time with some tanganyikans! Stockpiled the money from some aquarium sales and general savings to stock the tank with fish a bit pricier than previous I managed so far to have the tank back in my room, clean and now with a hardscape of limestone that i got from Gezza on the forum. Also scraped off what remained of the old painted background and repainted the whole back with as dark a grey as the lady at bunnings could mix up for me haha, type of paint they recommended for glass didnt come in black

Tank was made @ Morley and thus is top quality

This is only the 3rd or 4th hardscape ive ever done and as you'd expect isnt too impressive but ill pop up some pictures of what ive done so far.

Also just realised after taking photos that scape looks worse on pics than in person :'( haha

 

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The substrate will be a fairly fine white aragonite gravel (going a bit heavy on the white i know, just hope it doesnt wash out colour too much. black background should help)

Also am keen to find anyone selling leleupi, juliodochromis and most importantly any Cyprichromis. Ive only looked @ Morley (Have leleupi + julies but no cyps in decent numbers) so if anyone knows some other LFS with some good stock of any of those i'd be greatful to know aswell as any of you guys who'd be able to sell me some

Calvus have always been one of my favourite fish. Am yet to keep them (will be in 2 or so months though) but visually I just feel they have 'cleaner' patterns and finnage than any compressiceps ive seen.
Might just be a discrepency in the quality of the calvus that ive seen compared to the comps.

+1 for what MM said though, when it comes to fish what is 'better' is really up to you, just take your own time to decide what you want, theres no rush and you'll be much happier when your certain of the fish that you want

We gonna be new tang-tank buddies red? haha

Keep us updated so i can copy your good stuff XD

My favourite tang are the Altolamprologous Calvus, Morley Aquariums had a breeding pair of Alto. Compressiceps (similar to calvus) that were just amazing.

I cant even think about keeping the real big hitters atm, still living at home and managing a tall 4ft display, 2.5ft growout and 2 18" misc tanks in my 12'x8' room (alongside a rather large desk and my bed) so for me atm I dont think id wanna sacrifice my one larger tank for a few (or just 1) big guys maybe when i become a millionaire and have a house full of 6 and 8fts i can keep some haha

Edit: talking about americans btw, most of the ones i see people keep are the big aggressive guys (although a quick google did reveal geos which ive seen but not looked much into and they are incredible, and not too gigantic either)
 

Cheers for the heads up on that fb group Jack, if nothing else will let me see some nice tangs people richer than I are keeping

Thanks also to the fish you guys have mentioned, ocellatus and tropheus were some i hadnt looked much into but its been said here and malawiman i believe had some mighty praise for tropheus and i think ocellatus look pretty darn cool. Just getting me very very excited for the changeover to Tangs