Photo Shoot

[Orion]

One of my Juvie Blue Acara's

My Heros Efaciatus (eventhough I can't spell it....

Here's a few of my Gold Saum (False Green Terror) Juvie boy. It not only amazes me how much color he has at such a small size, but he can go from nearly ninja black, to what I would call 'full color display' when he wants too. This fish is one solid iridescent shimmer from mouth to tail. I swear it's like looking at a swimming prism as he moves because you can see every color in the rainbow bounce of this one. Most of the time the heavy base color is either blue or green like the photo's below.

Some of my Mesonauta's ( I won't swear that they really are M. festivus, but I do often refer to them as festivums just because it's easier. I know, Lazy Latin, shame on me )

My nutty Pelvachromis pulcher female

Finally my lone Laetacara dorsigera female. My favorite fish of all time. I do hope to get her a mate and some friends her size before long. I'm sure she's tired of hanging out with fish 5 times larger. But she does rather well at holding her own!

 

[Helena21]

Nice fish! I've got 2 of those Laetacara dorsigera, both male i think.

 

[big54bob]

OMG helena you are alive!

Man i love that Hero Thing!

 

[Cichlid-Man]

Awesome pictures. Great color on that Mesonauta.

 

[Lotus]

Awesome pics

 

[Orion]

I had a male laetacara for my remaining female, but I think someone else in the tank took a 'hit' out on him. The males when mature will have a very pretty shade of red along the throat/breast area and they will get some coloring in the fins. The females are pretty drab, but mine has the spirit of a Jag I tell you!

Thanks C-man, the recent 4 I added have certainly colored up more since I moved them from QT into the 75. They also became very aggressive to everyone but the Heros, loaches and plecos. Peaceful fish my arse lol. The other 1 I had I'm almost positive is a different species than the other 4, but for the most part they all get along OK.

And just for the record, I don't adjust the color balance on my photo's. I like to capture what they really look like.


Thanks Bob and Lotus

 

[Big Vine]

Beautiful cichlids/pics. *thumbsups
BV

 

[Pure]

Nice pics O. The hero is looking good.

Love the colors of the Gold Saum

 

[Orion]

Thanks guys

This Hero is a beut Pure, but nothing compared to how the dominate male looked. I hate to say it but I lost him last year to an eye infection that looked like was caused from an injury. Then the large female was attacked by an otto earlier this year who tried to shove itself down her throat backwards. I've never kept better fish I don't believe.

That Gold Saum is something I think. He'll be going in my 75 once he grows up some. I'm pondering tank mates, and might just end up getting some more Heros e.'s if Jeff Rapps gets some more in, but I've not seen them on the stock list in quite a while. Either that or I'm thinking maybe some Rotikel (sp?) Sev's.

 

[Pure]

Damn man, sorry to hear bout that. Let me do some checking. I think I can find the contact info of the guy in GA that has the breeding stock I got yours from. Remember they are Rapp's fish. Maybe in the future you can toss him an email and replace your guys.

I'll PM you with what I find out.

 

[Orion]

I thought I remembered you saying they came from Rapp, that's why I was keeping an eye on his site to see if he got more in. But yeah, that'd be cool if you ran across his email address.

It was a bummer when we lost the dominate male. If I remember right, him and the large female just spawned shortly before for the first time, but ended up eating the eggs like losers. They are an awesome fish, truly a mini-wet pet.

 

[Pure]

No, the origional stock came from Rapps but are bred by this guy in GA. I'm waiting to hear back from him now for his email addy. I PMed him through AB.

For these pics what camera did you use and what where the settings? No flash I assume? They are great shots.

 

[Cichlid-Man]

Was it Ken Davis by chance? (Fishfarm)

 

[Orion]

Your awesome Pure, thanks for the help. (and duh, you've told me that about the stock I think 3 times now and I never can remember. I'm getting to old...lol)

I got a new camera a few months ago and love it. It's a Canon Rebel XSI (or 450D in the rest of the world). The lens I used was the Canon 100mm 2.8 Macro. (This is lens is great for fish photography as it has a super fast AF, and a really narrow aperture for those wicked close up shots. It's also good for general Macro photography as well lol.) For the most part I've been using the TV setting and set the speed at 1/200, which seems to give an Fstop around 5 give or take most of the time. But recently I've been playing with full manual and using the same shutter speed, but an Fstop of 4.5. So far I'm getting pretty decent results. I'm still new to the DSLR, so every day is a learning experience for me. Alas, I don't have enough light over the tank to take that good of shots with no flash, but with careful manipulation of the shadow/highlight balance in photoshop, I'm able to tone most photo's down to how they really look without the nasty flash. I only have the built in flash right now, which I hate, and I don't have a lot of control over it. Canon has an external speedlight flash's that give a lot more control over the output of the flash, and I figure I'll pick one up one of these days.

And that Heros in the photo's was the runt of the 4 you sent me. After the dominate male died, he really started to color up and finally began packing on the pounds lol. He was always at the bottom of the pecking order when the rest were around. I'd say now he's pretty close to 5.5" TL and has some wonderful fin extensions. I'll see if I can't find a good profile shot.

 

[Orion]

This isn't great for the species, but for this fish it's come a long way. I think I took this one shortly after I first got the camera and only had the kit 18-55mm lens at the time.

Here's looking at you This was with the Macro lens. You can see just how narrow the aperture can go and still get a decent fish photo.

 

[Pure]

wow nice shots. I was wondering how well he colored up after bid daddy died. Nice indeed.

No it's not Ken..I wish it was, sure would make it easier to get more of them. I'm not going to post on here who he is due to the fact that "if" he has anymore I'm sure the supply is limited. I don't want every one on here spamming this guy and possibly taking away from O's chances of getting some replacements.

 

[Orion]

Thanks Man.
LOL, that's sure one way of putting it. I used to never see this guy without the stress bars from top to bottom and black and night, but now you'd never know he ever looked any different. And the fin extensions were virtually non-existent. He really did look like a small female when the big guy was around.

If anything, these have given me a wonderful insight to the surprisingly complex social structure of the species, and I think social fish in general to a point. Big Daddy kept the sub-dom males in line, but Big Sally called the overall shots in the group. It was looking like she was willing to accept the once smaller male as the new Sugar Daddy after a while, unfortunately she met a rather nasty end due to a otto.

 

[brooklynfish]

Wow, those are some nice fish and pics. I wish I could afford a beter camera.....