all male tank.

hi, hope this works, this is a video of some of my fish. i will add details of some of the species later.

Great vid there Derek, fairplay.

Very good.
Some good looking and healthy fish there Derek.

ian

Good post Derek. Top man.

Dave

Great video Derek,
Some lovely fish there mate.

John

Looks FANTASTIC-fish looking good,active and healthy.My favorite is big Ahli !!!
How many fish are in there?
S no problem due to a fight?


Gedas

thanks for commenting mick, ian, dave and john. the fish are in a 300 litre tank and the ornaments are all artificial. apart from the careleus which are young all other fish are male and are malawis, freyeri, spengerae, taiwan reef and cynotilapia hara.
the victorians are pundamilia nyerere ruti island and platytaeniodus red tail sheller. both of these victorian species grow to about 4 inches and are moderately peaceful in temperament. they are not particular about water conditions, (hardness,ph) but like clean well filtered water. both are omnivore and the sheller are also fond of snails so could be called a moluscivore.
it is noticeable that the nyerere finnage is a bit tatty in the video and this is because they had been fighting with the smaller but stronger hara male. all have settled down in the hierarchy now and there is no fighting and all fins have healed.
victorian cichlids are more prone to crossbreeding than almost any other fish and that makes it very difficult to get pure breds through the normal channels. when setting up for breeding care must be taken to avoid hybridising as it is almost impossible to detect hybid fry till well grown.

fish look great derek that ahli must be the biggest and best in the country he is a cracker

ciaranm wrote:

fish look great derek that ahli must be the biggest and best in the country he is a cracker

yes ciaran he is indeed a really good fish and is at least eight or nine years old but still shows great form and vigour. as he is a purebred he is also much less agressive than the hybrid ahli/freyeri. he has recently sired young with the best available female i could find and the fry are looking fairly good. most of them have clean vertical stripes and no horizontal bars and i have high hopes for them.

@gedas
that particular tank is all male and/or juvenile so there is no reason for the lads to fight. without the presence of females the males have no reason to fight. the cyno hara is mildly territorial and would be the only fish to occasionally get a bit scrappy.

Absolutely gorgeous video there Derek; would love to see more shots of that 'ahli'- legendary! 8 years old! Regards.

lovely Fish Derek
fairplay

Des

hi derek how old would you say the ruti island are befor they lock there colour in i have some but ther colours come quite strong but dose not stay with them .they turn it on and off like a light switch cheers ciaran

ciaranm wrote:

hi derek how old would you say the ruti island are befor they lock there colour in i have some but ther colours come quite strong but dose not stay with them .they turn it on and off like a light switch cheers ciaran

ciaran, the male colour improves and tends to lock in when they are fully mature at 15 to 18 months, but the juveniles will show ever improving colours from a few months old and will grow at a faster rate than females. they seem to reach full size at a bit less than 4 inches which is a plus for community keeping. they can hold their own with malawi haps or acei but are worn down when kept with mbuna and even careleus/spengerae can be too much for them if adult.
your own individuals are about 6/7 months i think, and they should be starting to hold colour better if they are not housed with more dominant fish.

@ des, what are you keeping these days, have you still got the big catfish.

@andrew, thanks for the comment, i would love to see pics of the zaire blue if u still have them. did u get yours from mick (kabamba) or tim (kitumba).

pm sent Derek

derek wrote:

@ des, what are you keeping these days, have you still got the big catfish.

Hey Derek

I still have some big cats (Megalodoras Irwini, Pseudodoras Niger, Pangasius Sanitwongsei, Pterodoras Granulosus, Sorubim Lima) nothing too crazy
anything too big or too aggressive has been moved on, no more red tails, tiger fish, snakeheads or anything like that anymore...

I've become very interested in planted tanks, community tanks and inverts aswell as just having a few old world looking cats, think it's better to have a bit of everything these days
I love the crayfish, think they are very interesting and are increasingly taking up tanks as they breed...

still have 6 tanks on the go, a Betta Cube Nano tank (8.2 litre i think), 2x 30 - 40 litre tanks (not sure exactly what litre they are), a 120 litre, a 240 litre and the 600 litre

Betta Cube (CPO Orange dwarf Crayfish, Ember Tetra, Micro Crab, Ottocinclus...)
30 - 40 ltr. tank 1 (Thalassoprhyne Amazonica, Shrimp, Guppies, Convicts...)
30 - 40 ltr. tank 2 (Zebra Danio, Garra Rufa, Shrimp) this tank is just basically running incase i need a quarantine tank etc. etc.
120 ltr. (1 white Crayfish female & Her Babies) + 4 Breeding Nets (BN 1 - Male Orange Crayfish,
BN 2 - Female Orange Crayfish, BN 3 - Endlers, BN 4 - Endler Fry)
240 ltr. (white Crayfish, Cardinals, Pentazona Barbs, Rainbowfish & other community fish)
600 ltr. (Odd-Balls - above mentioned catfish, Eels, Uaru, Giraffe Cat, Striped Talking Cats, Spotted Talking Cats, Mystus Gulio, Synodontis Decorus, Chrysichthys Nigrodigitatus, Acanthodoras Cataphractus etc. etc.)

that's about it for the moment...

I must drop out to Ya Derek some time soon, it's been a long time since I called in for a chat

Des

edit: here's the most recent vid of the the odd-ball tank

Just found this while looking for something else and thought some of the new posters might like a look. I still have the large ahli/freyeri but he is starting to look his age these days and because I had no luck sourcing a good female none of his offspring are a patch on him.