[JessiLou]

Yesterday I bought 7 more demasoni. They are very small. I put them in a 10 gallon tank until they get bigger. I have fry in my main tank that are bigger than these. One of them has a very large chunk out of his fin and a couple small pieces are missing. I added a lot more rocks and everyone has several choices of hiding spots now. The little one with the bad fins seems much happier. I changed half the water, turned the temp up a little and added a little salt. Is this enough or should I medicate? They are all happily eating crushed flake. I paid a small fortune for these and don't want to kill them with medicine. One of them is bigger than the others, just over half inch. Maybe he would be better off in the main tank soon? How big should they be before I move them over?

On another note: they are the cutest things ever. They actually hop from rock to rock like grasshoppers. Now I get nothing done because I can't get myself to stop watching them lol

 

[cichlidaholic]

Nothing any cuter than a baby demasoni! :wink:

Salt should be sufficient, unless you start to see further fin deterioration or fuzzy growths on the fins. Keep up the water changes, as well, and only replace the amount of salt applicable to the amount of water you remove.

 

[JessiLou]

Thank you. I was really hoping you would say that. Even with the bites out of his fins, he is the most active out of all of them. Do people normally sell them when they are this small? I am not positive the damage happened in the 10 gallon. They were all packed in the same bag and it probably happened then.

 

[cichlidaholic]

Mine were anywhere from 1/2 - 1 inch when I got them...They grow fast, and if you increase the frequency of their feedings and do lots of water changes, they will grow even faster. I had females holding at 1 - 1 1/2 inches, males were a bit larger at maturity.

They are very tenacious little fish, you'll be surprised how tough they are. I've seen fry that were just a couple of days old squabbling and fighting worse than my adults.

What are you feeding them? Mine did great on HBH Veggie flake alone...I had a tank of Tropheus at the same time I had the demasoni, and so it was really easy just to feed them both the same food.

 

[JessiLou]

right now all I have is flake TetraCichlid. I could try crushing some NLS pellets if that would be better. I have one that is about half an inch the rest are considerably smaller. I just can't get over how cute they are. The smallest one has taken the largest hiding area and is pretty good at keeping others away from it. It is so funny to see him/her shake and look all tough. I think I am now obsessed with them lol