Changing from Tanganyika to Madagascar and questions!

[sidguppy]

I was re-reading a book (about the Fitz & the Fool) when I spied these 2 going at it

grabbed my camera, kept my distance from the tank not to disturb (hence the filthy windows!) and now, after the shoot, there's a lot more eggs

so far they're doing a great job clobbering all the catfish away from the eggs

[Benjamin]

Really great Sid,

Let's hope the catfish don't win this time !

[sidguppy]

well

they did

but it's OK, the more they practice spawning, the better
and I can't house or raise any tiny fry atm
best do that after the moving house, not before

[sidguppy]

some updates on my tank:

after 8 months of solid all out war, my pair of Paratilapia polleni (small spot east coast) made up and tried spawning
unfortunately the truce didn't last long, but when it did, it was a feast on the eyes.

all the following pix were made by John, who's a lot better with a camera than I am!

male

male

pair, female on the right

The Paretroplus keep growing slowly but steadily.
it's Mada breeding season and I lost count on the number of spawns they produce, with eggs or without eggs.
sometimes they eat the eggs themselves, other times the eggs last a day or even 2 before they loose them due to sloppy keeping watch.
but they sure try!




the Ptychochromis grandidieri in the same tank do fine and occasionally the male chooses a female to spawn with.
he's lucky, cause he's the only honcho and has 3 girls. he does all of em! raunchy fish

his first and biggest girl, not in spawning mood

one of his smaller females getting ready to spawn

him in spawning mood.

yes, his mouth looks weird. a long long time ago he was dumb enough to pick on the -long time removed- Alpha Cyphotilapia gibberosa male.
he came out second best at a prolonged liplock contest, lost most of his upper jaw, but it doesn't keep him from sandchewing, digging, fighting, eating a LOT and growing from a mere 3" to 6"now.

I also have a smaller Mada tank; the one with the juvenile Paretroplus damii from George.

coming into color

the bigger damii now show a wide variety in dress and they can change this at the drop of a hat!

the largest damii is now 4"; he was 1.5" in october 2008 at the AFC congress in Nancy, France.......

Also in that tank are 4 Ptychochromis oligacanthus 'Nosy Be Lake Bempazava"



these also spawn often; they formed 2 pairs.

completing that tank are 15 or so Bedotia madagascariensis (formerly B geayi)



as of today the grandidieri spawned again!
the following pix are made by me:

Ptychochromis grandidieri


Ptychochromis grandidieri


grandidieri male
you can see why the first name was "east coast GOLD".......


grandidieri female


grandidieri female


look hard! a lot of "sand" is half clear and very rounded....


more eggs

cheers!
Alex

[sidguppy]

they're getting better at it:
this particular spawn was made 2,5 days ago.....

they manage to defend the eggs against all catfishes during the night and they don't loose it during feeding times either.

the color is wrong I think (fertilized eggs should be pink, right?), but no fungus and their behaviour is getting better. not so very dumb anymore








it's the male guarding the eggs. his female I can recognise; she's got a wee bit less tail than him and a different shading on the body; broad dark bars.
only at the moment, cause once they join the shoal, they turn into regular mode and they all look the same then.

[sidguppy]

a rather sad update....

after 4 years of truly enjoying Paretroplus maculatus, I was building a huge 550 gallon tank for them

they were housed in one of those plastic Koi quarantaine tanks and doing fine, until that tank started to leak....

I had to act quickly and couldn't rehouse the fish; so I bought the plastic people use to make garden ponds with; lined that plastic tank and rehoused the fish

2 weeks later all my Madagascar fishes were dead, save for the smallest Paretroplus maculatus female.
they started twitching and evolved paralysis; not even carbon filtering and massive waterchanges and relocating them again could save them.

with the current state of Madagascar species it's highly unlikely I ever will get my hand on a group of maculatus again

in my opinion it's THE best looking cichlid ever.
so I've been switching to catfishes, characins and barbs, cause I haven't got the heart to start with any African cichlid again.

[Lisachromis]

Oh wow. That's truly devastating. Goes to show you that not all pond liners are made equal.

Hopefully someone can give you an idea on where to get more "Mads".

[Scott Jackson]

Dave's Rare Fish in TX has adults. I bought some a few months back, at $59 each, they are not cheap, or are they? Hard to compare these guys and worth every penny, IMO.

[ciclasoman]

I had the unfortunate experience of going trough something similar a few years back. I had a group of Paretroplus dammi and Paretroplus kieneri share a 135 gallon tank equipped with a wet dry, it was a temporary set up because I wanted more fin-room for the dammi, anyhow, I bought a filter sponge that wood fit the filter perfectly. I rinsed it a couple of times and set up the whole thing with aged media. The next day all the fish were stressed, my reaction was to think ick so I started treatment, things did not improve in 24 hrs so I repeated the treatment. The next day my fish were all on the bottom of the tank when I thought the filter must be impregnated with something toxic. So 3 almost complete water changes later, I ended up loosing all my dammi except one and a few kieneri. I share your loss but I realized it has been a long time since. I myself have access to Mad cichlids and regularly breed them. The one jewel I keep looking for is the one I lost, Psretroplus dammi, ironic!
Good luck

[duanestuermer]

You may have already sen this, but just in case you haven't. I noticed on the ACA site, that Dan Ye Jennings has a list of Madagascans for sale.
On a side note, I have had a group of P maculatus that have been spawning regularly for the last couple years, fertile eggs (at least in color) but never fry.
They have always chosen a spawning site so large to manage hatching artificially, such as a 4' log

In an effort to change this scenario, I have moved them as of yesterday from a glass tank, to a stock tank.

We shall see if the dark walls sense of security can make a difference.