[dotbomb]

After weeks of courting my Cyn. Lions finally spawned today.

I noticed the female holding and had her stripped and eggs tumbling within 20 minutes. No rocks removed for the catch! Huge victory :thumb:

11 eggs tumbling right next to 12 polits tumbling. I am going to need more plastic tubing soon

 

[dielikemoviestars]

Congrats! :thumb:

 

[esparzar1]

dotbomb,

totally off subject but I wanted to ask how your mix of species was working for you. It's very uniquie and looks like it would be very fun. I myself have a polit and love him and I also really like the Cheweres but I decided to go with the Zebra Long Pelvic (which I also absolutly love) but if I didn't get the ZLP I would have gotten the Chewere. Anyway, I also wanna know how your Cyno's hold up in the tank with the rowdy Polit/Chewere/Troph.....

 

[dotbomb]

I don't mind off topic. Discussions are discussions :thumb:

Currently my Cyno's rule the tank. I have 2 mature equally dominant males that are absolutely stunning. They've been great to watch the past few weeks as the dominant female was getting ready to spawn. During this period they chased the rest of my tank inhabitants into about 40% of the tank.

I think the right side of my tank is now the lover's side as my dominant rusty has taken up his den on that side.

In general though I think my fish are still to immature to make any final determination.

The Polits are not showing color yet. They fight among themselves and the rusties. Right now I view them as 2nd from the bottom in terms of tank dominance. This is definitely going to change as they get bigger though.

The Chewere seem to mainly just fight among themselves. They are slowest growing group out of my mix. I have 2 males that display constantly and fight every once in a while.

My 7 Tropheops Elongatus Boadzulu are now down to 3 and my hunch right now is 2m and 1f. I lost one fish within 24 hours of a 50% water change. I then lost 2 more 48 hours after upgrading to my 100g tank. Then another one broke out with a bacterial infection that ate a hole in its side. The LFS guy believes the 3 recent deaths are all related to aggression and territories being sorted out after I upgraded to the 100g tank.

Since I'm not sure as to who/what killed these tropheops I'm actually starting completely over with the group. Another 7 juvies arrive tomorrow and I'll probably rehome the 3 I have in case there was a male picking off the others in the group. The 3 I have now chase around the tank and do some mouth locking fights but nothing serious... it seems that whenever a serious fight breaks out the whole tank gets involved and it breaks up pretty quick. They do a lot of lurking in the shadows compared to my other fish.

My 7 rusties are happy, healthy, and mellow. The one dominant male is the biggest fish in my tank but he doesn't ever challenge the Cyno's for top dog. They do play referee though a lot and break up fights.

I will be adding Petrotilapia Small Blue to this mix in a couple weeks. They arrive tomorrow and will be in quarantine for a while.

So all that to say... the next few months should be interesting.

I really enjoy this mix of fish. There is always something exciting going on. Yeah these fish are aggressive but if I ever think they are too aggressive I just go look at my pearly ocellatus tank. Then the mbuna seem like peace lovers

 

[esparzar1]

wow, it's a little suprising to hear that the Cyno's are the top dawgs ....My polit is close to 4in so I doubt he will grow much more.....the troph (from what I've heard/read) are usually pretty mean so it's probably good that you're adding them last. If I upgrade (when my wife will allow it....lol)

I'd like to get at least a 6ft/125gal with a mix similar to yours but I haven't quite decided what I want in the tank. The "For sure" species would be Polits/ZLP/Met. Sp. Msobo. beyond that, I don't know what I would want.....still thinking, lol

Anyway, good luck with everything, it's a pretty cool mix of fish :thumb:

 

[dotbomb]

Thanks.

The source I bought from always tells me that the cyno male is always going to want to fight.

It seems every time I talk to him he mentions this and he strongly recommends multiple males to help absorb that aggression.

Perhaps the mara rocks strain is a bit more aggressive? I honestly don't know as this is the first one I've kept.

I do not expect them to remain top dog and that will be part of the fun of this tank is seeing how the power dynamics change over time.

I definitely see the wisdom in over stocking aggressive fish though. Everyone wants a piece of the action when a brawl breaks out which keeps the aggression scattered.

In a 6' you have lots of fun options :thumb:

Msobo was on my short list of fish to buy this week. When I called to order the first words out of the sellers mouth was "You didn't want msobo did you? Because I just ran out". So thankfully I had already settled on the Small Blue They arrive today. Can't wait.

 

[nick a]

Perhaps the mara rocks strain is a bit more aggressive

Absolutely! IME. Definitely more than any other lion type and probably more than any other Cyno type.

Hopefully, you'll be able to keep the current

2 mature equally dominant males

in your large & diversely populated tank. I often found that 2 or 3 were the worst numbers...1 or 4+ seemed to work better. You've got some tough and durable tank mates tho so it should be interesting & fun to see how they all settle out. :thumb:

 

[dotbomb]

Cool, thanks for confirming my suspicion about the mara rocks.

Yeah, we'll see about the males.

Oh and it looks like these eggs are a bad batch. A few turned white, I removed them, and this morning the rest are showing signs they are going white too.

The female is holding some more though. I'm glad she got all her eggs out. She was looking like she was going to explode!

 

[dotbomb]

And... sometimes things go wrong.

1 DOA on the Small Blue and 1 dead Small Blue this morning. I think shipping fish is just too stressful for them. I've had dead loss in every order. Vendor is great so no worries but it still kind of stinks to be down a couple fish right out of the gate.

 

[natedgg]

Great dotbomb. On the thread I started you warned me, now I'm getting cold chills about ordering fish online! Now I'm not sure I should order at all

 

[DJRansome]

I almost never have DOA's on shipped fish. In fact, maybe the only time was one shipment of Tangs.