Love at first sight

[catfishmike]

it's good to hear your going for the brichardis.excllent fish.they spawn like nothing from what i have seen.i have been trying to find this fish for a while.i have building a tank for this fish for the last 2 months.rams are real nice but don't compare to the size and subtle charms of brichardis.good luck!

 

[Orion]

Well Im glad to hear so many good things about the brichardi. Puts my mind at ease hearing this from so many great members.

I have read that they can get up to 6in including there finage. Would anybody else agree to this?

 

[catfishmike]

6 inches T.L.(total lenght) sounds right.most i have seen are between 2-5 inches though.

 

[Orion]

Alrighty. Got the tank set up in the new spot and the rock work done. Put in the buffers and here is where I stand now.

PH 8.0
GH 22
KH 25

This sounds pretty good to me for the little fellas.

Something else I was thinking about, do I use the same amount of buffers at every water change or is it depending on the amount of water I change? Once agian a silly question, but Im probably over looking the answer.

When the tank clears up some I will take a picture and get some opinions on my rock work.

 

[TaffyFish]

yeah man! your water's now so hard it's not even wet!

take care to factor in evaporation with water changes, remember if you've lost some water between changes it'll be pure H20 that's gone. you should aim to change in water at the same ph and hardness as that already in the tank. With a 20g, you'll probably change 25% a week, that's 5 gallons - so that's one teaspoon each of bicarb and epsom salt.

Pro rata if you change more....

Looking forward to seeing your 20g, I'll be posting some pics of my 20g multi tank this evening.

 

[Orion]

Should the water be a little cloudy after adding the bicarb? I would think that it would be at least for a little bit. Mabey I should have mixed up the buffers a little better before adding them to my tank. It is clearing up, just a slow process.

*Sorry I didnt get any pics up last night. Couldnt get ahold of a good digi cam and the one I have was not doing it justuce. With any luck I will be able to snag one today to take pics tonight with.

 

[TaffyFish]

don't worry about a little cloudiness, it'll sort itself out, but that's one of the resons to mix thoroughly in a bucket before adding to the tank...the water will clear when fully dissolved.

no worries about the pics - did you take a look at mine?

 

[Orion]

Yes I did. That Shellie tank looks great! Always been interested in shellies as well, but once agian, I end up limited by the stock at my LFS, and Im not willing yet to pay the price of shipping fish to my home.

Once agian great job on your tank Taff!

 

[TaffyFish]

Thanks Orion, your kind comments are much appreciated.

Today I sold on 12 of my juvenile brichardi for just GB£1 each, and leleupi for 50p...I got £1 each for 25 julies at one fish store, previously I have simply had to give them away......so shame you're not over here Orion, it would appear we're relatively spoilt for choice. Tangs are still nowhere near as popular as Malawis judging from the fish stores, but I think I've found what suits me.

 

[Orion]

Atleast you can get what you like there Taff, thats what counts.

Well, it has begun. Got 6 Sub-adults and as of right now they are aclimating (SP) in my tank very slowly. I will keep every one updated on the progress!

*wanst able to get ahold of a good cam today, wont be able to get it till later on this week or this week end. I will try and post some pics however from the one I have, but be ye warned, they wont be pretty.

 

[Orion]

Alrighty, well they have been in for almost an hour now and so far so good. Already the largest male is staking out its teritory in the tank. I love them to death these guys are so great. I only hope I sexed them right. LOL Just have to wait and see.

This is a pic from tonight. I am very sorry for the poor quality. As I said I will not be able to get ahold of the good cam untill possably this weekend.

Im all ears to comments on my rock work. Also to any additional info anyone would like to add to it.

I bought about 8 pounds of the white rock in the pic saturday I belive, underneith all of the white rocks I put a rock with lots of natural holes in it. Also the two white objects in each front corner are caves I made last night. So far I seem to be getting compliments from my new fish.

 

[TaffyFish]

That's a lot more colourful than my tanks, have you used a mix of real and plastic plants in there? The rockwork is good, the fish have lots of hiding places, that'll be great for them. There's not much open substrate (purple sand?) left but probably enough. My tip would be to use the cave structures as foundations under the rockwork, IME brichardi love to have a secret spawning place that opens out onto the substrate. You can then build the height of the rockwork as safely as you can. The downside to having such a lot of good hiding places is that you'll need to do quite a tear down when you need to remove some of those fish. I can make out 3 of them on your photo, you'll be surprised how they'll sort themselves out and start excluding one or more of the siblings.

My only worry - is that a piece of bogwood at the back on the left? You might find your water getting softer if you leave that in.

Other than that, great tank, hope you really enjoy them.

 

[Orion]

So it should be taller, more open substrait is good. Ok, got it. Silly me, that rock with all the holes in it that I did put underneith the rock pile is texas holey rock. Ive had it for years and never thought anything about it. I understand what you are saying about the cave structures underneith the rock pile.

And no, that is not bogwood on the left, just a very dark, long rock that I put in there. It hides the heater very well I think.

The only live plants in there is anchris (sp + lazyness), the rest are plastic ones, actualy the only plastic plants I have. And yes it is purple sand now. It is a mix of red and blue. I kinda like the way it looks with the white rocks.

Still my only worry right now is that I sexed them right when I bought them. I fear the day I have to remove some, I tried for 10 minutes to catch the ones I wanted and only managed to get one. :/

I am enjoying them very much. Mabey to much. The wifey and me are looking to buy a new house and I have already started talking plans of building around a 100gallon tank for cichlids. Not really a bad thing tho, who knows, it also just might end up stuck in a wall in my living room!

 

[TaffyFish]

Good news on the bogwood, yep it hides the heater well.

If you have 6 subadults, you've pretty good odds of a pair being formed. I also started with 6 and they whittled themselves down to 3 by the time of the first spawn. All seemed well for a few days then suddenly one of them disappeared - I found it dead in a back corner a couple of days later after quite a tear down. I had to wait for the second spawn before I could be sure that I still had a pair. How did you sex them, did you research how to vent them?

When you move house and move up to that 100g, bear in mind that you'll still be better off with these guys in a species tank...maybe a 30 to accommodate all the little 'uns they'll have by then ;-)

 

[Orion]

I sexed them by looking and the cadule and dorsal fin. The pointer ones I called males and the ones with more rounded fins I called females. The owner of the shop also said that was the best way to do such. I belive I read that off of cichlid-fourm.com.

Vent them? Do you meen how to disperse the aggresion? If so then I tried my best to create as many 'teritories' and cave that I could where they could go and not see another fish at all.

I have read that they do much better in a species only tank, and I dont think I would put them in with any other cichlid due to this. So mabey if I ever get a larger tank for my plants, they can have my 45 gallon. It would be great for them due to the large foot print it has, 36" x 18".

 

[TaffyFish]

Never heard of that technique, hope it works...

Venting is telling the sex from the size / position of the vent (you know what the vent is, right?!)

 

[Orion]

Hmm, cant say I have off hand. I probably do, I just refer to it as something else.

 

[Orion]

Alrighty, Im on top of it now. Thanks Taffy. I will check them out tonight when I get home and see how close I really came to picking out the sexes. ( If I can manage to catch the little buggers.)