Any Tangled Up In Cichlids Midas pic
- Thread starter 87buick
- Start date
Not TUIC, but Dan at COTA has some good stock. Here’s a male and female I got last couple months or so. Dan won’t do pictures but was willing to try and match color/look for my fish to a picture I sent him
If you tell TUIC exactly what you are looking for I have no doubt that he'll work with you and try to keep you satisfied with your purchase
But don't forget they are capable of going through different color stages so a 4" orange Midas might look completely different by the time they are 10"
But don't forget they are capable of going through different color stages so a 4" orange Midas might look completely different by the time they are 10"
Hi guys, this is Kevin, owner of TUIC. someone directed me over to this post.
Ahhhh the never ending pic request emails.. lol (not from you specifically)
I try to send pics when I can but specific pic requests are hard to accommodate. On certain random days it may be more feasible than the very next. It was mentioned above that even Dan at COTA doesnt regularly do pic requests either. The reason, for people like he and I and the amount of stock we have it is difficult. We may net 'A' fish and send a photo but it is likely almost impossible that we will net that exact same fish again when we have dozens or even hundreds to sort through. I ship dozens of boxes daily, 5 days a week, as do the other vendors of course. Stock sells out or sells down. A specific fish someone asks about today may be sold a minute later while the person requesting the pic is on the fence (it happened to a client today). We also try to not net fish when it really isn't necessary. Why stress them out or even injure them? They dart away and crash in to sides of tanks, pots, pipes, etc no different than you catching them in your home aquaria just for a photo op.? Best time to take a quick photo is when we net the fish for bagging and even then our goal is to get that fish from tank to bag asap. For TUIC since I am more importer than breeder. The best time for photos for me one would think might be when they arrive and I am acclimating them. key word. acclimating. when they arrive they are STRESSED. I generally take measurements as I unpack every single fish and get them into a safe clean tank asap. So not exactly the right time.
I think vendors like myself(TUIC), Max @ maxcichlids, Dan @ COTA, try our best and really are the very few commercial vendors that even have photos of actual stock and most certainly are the only ones at least willing to attempt to get a photo for you. The larger vendors use general pics and no way will they send you an actual photo.
For what is basically one-man-show companies like myself and the other vendors I mentioned we simply do not have the man power to fill every photo request. Like every business we have set daily schedules, operating hours, that involve answering emails(hundreds a day!), calls, cleaning tanks, feeding fish, handling new imports (or spawns), packing fish to ship etc. Taking specific photos of fish that may not even be purchased just is not a good or practical use of time. Plus, we generally aren't set up for taking pics. We have fairly bare tanks or vats, no specific tank lighting, dozens of pots or pipes in the tanks, my tanks particularly, are heavily water stained on the glass making it very difficult and add to that that being an importer of wild fish many tanks are medicated and would be yellow, green, or blue tinted. Out of water pics.. whole other topic! but, I have gotten and Jeff before me have gotten hate mail about fish out of water pics!
I update my website with photos weekly and as some have complained "that's an old pic from Jeff" .. well yes the photo might be but its from the same breeding stock, collection locale, etc. I source most of my stock from the exact same sources Jeff did. I've added a few sources from long time friends in the hobby that are consistent reliable breeding sources. I've purposely sent fish to some of them to better my chances of getting spawns. No eggs all in one basket type of thinking. If i lose my pair i know where I can still obtain some. The photos on website are the best representation of the current stock. Many of the newer photos on my page are of current stock particularly the ones I post on the TUIC IG and FB pages.
That being said. The A. citrinellus i have here in stock are from an older F0 Lake Nicaraguan male and an F3 Lake Nicaraguan female. The wild male was imported by my mentor Jeff Rapps many years ago. Jeff was the sole importer of Nicaraguan cichlids and new stock as not been collected in nearly a decade. Nicaragua does not allow it. Any new "wild" Nicaraguan fish are either not "wild" or were smuggled out. Just the fact of it unfortunately.
A. citrinellus and A. labiatus are extremely difficult to determine what color they will be. They go though MANY color morphs as they develop from fry to mature adults Sometimes in a day or two they completely change.
But, attached is a photo of the father to my stock
Kevin
Ahhhh the never ending pic request emails.. lol (not from you specifically)
I try to send pics when I can but specific pic requests are hard to accommodate. On certain random days it may be more feasible than the very next. It was mentioned above that even Dan at COTA doesnt regularly do pic requests either. The reason, for people like he and I and the amount of stock we have it is difficult. We may net 'A' fish and send a photo but it is likely almost impossible that we will net that exact same fish again when we have dozens or even hundreds to sort through. I ship dozens of boxes daily, 5 days a week, as do the other vendors of course. Stock sells out or sells down. A specific fish someone asks about today may be sold a minute later while the person requesting the pic is on the fence (it happened to a client today). We also try to not net fish when it really isn't necessary. Why stress them out or even injure them? They dart away and crash in to sides of tanks, pots, pipes, etc no different than you catching them in your home aquaria just for a photo op.? Best time to take a quick photo is when we net the fish for bagging and even then our goal is to get that fish from tank to bag asap. For TUIC since I am more importer than breeder. The best time for photos for me one would think might be when they arrive and I am acclimating them. key word. acclimating. when they arrive they are STRESSED. I generally take measurements as I unpack every single fish and get them into a safe clean tank asap. So not exactly the right time.
I think vendors like myself(TUIC), Max @ maxcichlids, Dan @ COTA, try our best and really are the very few commercial vendors that even have photos of actual stock and most certainly are the only ones at least willing to attempt to get a photo for you. The larger vendors use general pics and no way will they send you an actual photo.
For what is basically one-man-show companies like myself and the other vendors I mentioned we simply do not have the man power to fill every photo request. Like every business we have set daily schedules, operating hours, that involve answering emails(hundreds a day!), calls, cleaning tanks, feeding fish, handling new imports (or spawns), packing fish to ship etc. Taking specific photos of fish that may not even be purchased just is not a good or practical use of time. Plus, we generally aren't set up for taking pics. We have fairly bare tanks or vats, no specific tank lighting, dozens of pots or pipes in the tanks, my tanks particularly, are heavily water stained on the glass making it very difficult and add to that that being an importer of wild fish many tanks are medicated and would be yellow, green, or blue tinted. Out of water pics.. whole other topic! but, I have gotten and Jeff before me have gotten hate mail about fish out of water pics!
I update my website with photos weekly and as some have complained "that's an old pic from Jeff" .. well yes the photo might be but its from the same breeding stock, collection locale, etc. I source most of my stock from the exact same sources Jeff did. I've added a few sources from long time friends in the hobby that are consistent reliable breeding sources. I've purposely sent fish to some of them to better my chances of getting spawns. No eggs all in one basket type of thinking. If i lose my pair i know where I can still obtain some. The photos on website are the best representation of the current stock. Many of the newer photos on my page are of current stock particularly the ones I post on the TUIC IG and FB pages.
That being said. The A. citrinellus i have here in stock are from an older F0 Lake Nicaraguan male and an F3 Lake Nicaraguan female. The wild male was imported by my mentor Jeff Rapps many years ago. Jeff was the sole importer of Nicaraguan cichlids and new stock as not been collected in nearly a decade. Nicaragua does not allow it. Any new "wild" Nicaraguan fish are either not "wild" or were smuggled out. Just the fact of it unfortunately.
A. citrinellus and A. labiatus are extremely difficult to determine what color they will be. They go though MANY color morphs as they develop from fry to mature adults Sometimes in a day or two they completely change.
But, attached is a photo of the father to my stock
Kevin
Pulled the trigger and ordered from TUIC. Man first of all I never had fish shipped to my door step. That's a game changer. The fish arrived fast and looking great. Looking FWD to my new Midas. Thanks for the speedy and great service.
And yet, as I can attest to based on a recent order-- just as Jeff did, Kevin somehow manages to make you feel like you're getting individual attention-- answering questions, arrangements to fit your schedule, etc.
I have a 4 inch Citrennelus I got from Kevin @ TUIC a few months ago. F0 and F3. I'm assuming the pic Kevin posted above is his daddy. Pretty cool to see what mine will look like as he matures! I bought about 10 fish in my 1st order from TUIC and all are doing wonderful. Couldn't be happier. Here's mine from TUIC....
