[Melanochromis]

I've not posted on the forum for a while, as I moved house and sadly due to the move I had to sell my aquarium and most of the fish (all my cichlids ) as there just wasn't the space for it at my new home. So I thought I'd share a few pics of my fish and the aquarium before I put it away in the memory box.

Full tank pic (Juwel Rio 240)

Yellow Lab male (about 4 inches)

Yellow Lab female with Synodontis aterimma

Rusty male (full size at 5 inches)

Red Zebra male (4 Inches)

Socolofi female

Socolofi male (not sure if he was completely pure)

Fryeri x Aulonocara Hybrid male (5 inches, amazing colours!)

Synodontis Decora (small at 2 inches, I still have this fish )

Synodontis Decora and Synodontis Ocellifer (both about 5 inches, sadly was unable to keep them)

Synodontis Aterimma (5 inches)

and two previous inhabitants which were both Labeotropheus hybrids, possibly with pseudotropheus mixed in somewhere along the lines,

Male (4 inches)

Female (2.5 inches)

The labeotropehus hybrids bred several times and I have a few pics of the fry which I will post if anyone wants to see, I sold these two and three others of the same or similar origin last summer after the male began showing interest in the female Red Zebras. I'll post some more pics of the fry and of some of the other fish when they were housed in my 100 litre tank before I moved them to this tank in January last year. Enjoy the pics, any questions just ask! :wink:

 

[Elijah]

Awesome fish and excellent quality of pics Melanochromis. Do you still have these fish?

 

[Melanochromis]

Thanks Elijah. At the moment I only have the small syno decora, plus 3 more of the same fish, and 4 other small synodontis which I think are hybrids of syno multipunctatus x syno notatus. The synos that are kept were all 2 inches or under, so I have them in a 2ft tank for the time being. I'll be buying them a new larger tank over the summer. I'll try and find some more pics of the other syno I had.

Here are some pics of the fry from the Labeotropheus hybrids, I had over 30 plus of these fry over the course of 1 year, but the fish pictured are from the first batch -

(From left to right) Male, female, and two females. The fish like their parents have the blotched Labeotropheus markings and colouration, but the shape of a pseudotropheus. The male on the left was about 1.5 inches when the pics were taken, he was very aggressive. They shared the tank with Yellow Lab fry. One of which is pictured below -

Here is the pic of the fry tank (breeder net contains very young yellow lab fry) and a pic of two young fry from the last batch of hybrid fry.

:fish:

 

[Melanochromis]

Awesome fish and excellent quality of pics Melanochromis. Do you still have these fish?

Here are the synos I have which I think are hybrids of syno multipunctatus x syno notatus, I have four, these two are about 2 inches -

 

[Elijah]

I really like the synos :thumb: It always sucks when you raise a fish and move and have to get rid of it. I feel ya, I had a nice Dempsey a few years ago and moved so I had to sell him.

 

[Malawi_Marc]

Nice looking tank!

What do you do with your Hybrids?

 

[Melanochromis]

I really like the synos It always sucks when you raise a fish and move and have to get rid of it. I feel ya, I had a nice Dempsey a few years ago and moved so I had to sell him.

Yeah it does, I'm glad I've still got all my small synos. Most of the bigger ones I had to sell were about 4-5 inches anyway so I didn't see too much growth. I'm sure I'll see this group I have now grow to a decent size.

What do you do with your Hybrids?

I used to trade all my fry/juvies in for credit at my local LFS. Don't worry as all the hybrids were sold in a tank labelled 'mixed african cichlids'. They were never passed off as pure species. I think for the time being I'm sticking with synos and other catfish, so no more hordes of baby mbuna! :lol:

 

[Melanochromis]

Well good news, I went to the LFS today, and guess what my Syno Ocellifer was still there, so I bought him back and he's back home :dancing: -

 

[Elijah]

Cool. They probably had him in a cramped tank and bad over all environment. He's probably much, much happier now!

 

[Melanochromis]

Er, actually they didn't... :lol: He was in a spacious display tank with large community fish and some Blood Parrots. The LFS is very good with their ethics and care about the fish they sell. Not all aquatic stores are bad you know. :wink:

 

[Elijah]

Yea I find it's much more "miss" then "hit" on the quality of the LFS. Once in a while, you'll come across one that has at least 1 knowledgeable person working there, and keeps all the tanks clean, but more then not they have a bunch of Forrest Gump-like people working there.

 

[Melanochromis]

There are a lot of good and well established aquatic stores with knowledgeable staff in my area, I can only think of one bad one which fits the description of what you were describing Elijah. I think what you refer to are the large chain stores in the US which have an aquatics department, who most people believe have staff who are inexperienced in fishkeeping or care little for the welfare of the animals their selling.

 

[Elijah]

There are a lot of good and well established aquatic stores with knowledgeable staff in my area, I can only think of one bad one which fits the description of what you were describing Elijah. I think what you refer to are the large chain stores in the US which have an aquatics department, who most people believe have staff who are inexperienced in fishkeeping or care little for the welfare of the animals their selling.

Yea, you're right. I was referring to the big chain stores. And my GF works at walmart, and she tells me that they hire someone to work at pets with absolutely no knowledge at all.

 

[Melanochromis]

And my GF works at walmart and she tells me that they hire someone to work at pets with absolutely no knowledge at all

See I knew that was where you were going. :lol: I've heard that for a long time on this forum. The Walmart company own Asda in the UK, but they don't sell pets, it's just a supermarket. The laws regarding trading are different here which is a good thing.