Beani conversation thread.

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dirtyblacksocks

dirtyblacksocks

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Jan 25, 2008
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Moreno Valley
So obviously with the advent of all these new beani's in the area, and the very little to non existant literature on their care available. I thought it would be a good idea to share eachothers progress with these guys - I'm really hoping we can all get some breeding projects started and spread this species around a bit.

From what I've gathered the fish is rare in the hobby moreso because it is prone to bloat at a young age, rather than being hard to collect (although I'm sure it's not easy to collect either.).

I'll be getting 8 peices off Joe this weekend and putting them in a 180 gallon bare bottom tank, temperature at around 80 degree's and feed spirulina waefers with blood worms to help move their guts...I'd like to slowly move them onto hikari massivore and mealworms that are gut loaded with healthy fruits.

What is everyone elses thoughts on these guys?

I'm also going to try and get in touch with Dr. Tim A. Hovanec who is responsible for discovering the nitrifying bacteria that create nitrate in waters, and one of the foremost experts on water chemistry world wide to try and get information on the water parameters in their locality.

If anyone else has anything to add - I think we can really help eachother out here. I'll post more as I get the information.
 
i hope ronnie can breed some of these............ for me :)
 
This will be very interesting to check in on.I believe I read on here not to long ago that you have to be careful with water quality no sudden changes in water chemistry.Spirulina is a good start and always soak pellets when they are small or they expand in the stomach texas cichlids suffer the same fate when small.
 
I posted this on the ACA forum so I decided to post it here too so as to get some responses.

I have never had beani, but I have fought bloat in haits. With haits I think it relates to stress. I'd put in several hiding places, keep the temp up in the 84F range, and don't be afraid to use some Epsom salts. I use Epsom salt at 1 tablespoon per 10 gallons, but I've heard of 2 tablespoons per 10 gallons being used. I guess you could feed veggie-based foods, but I'd personally just try to feed a variety of foods.
 
i personally don't buy the food expanding in their tummy thing... that happens to ALL fish and obviously some foods are worst than others, but if you get good pellets or flakes to begin with - hikari, nls, ocean nutrition (which is what i use for my beani and discus) there should be no problems.

jason - i would personally stay away from bloodworms. i think bloodworms MAY cause bloat more so than other worms. i would be more inclined to feed my beani red worms, which are small earthworms people use for composting or what not. i'm taking a lot of cues from the discus forum i go to. i figure what's decent for discus (not ALL things, mind you, but certain cues... i'm not a dummy or a newb ;) ) can be applied to other fish i keep. if my discus are doing well, heck my other 'easier' to keep fish should be thriving.

having said that, great idea for a discussion which i hope we can get numerous contributions on. i think the bloat from aggression thing is true for haitiensis and would probably apply to beani as well. i am keeping mine all separated from one another. no contact for them for months to come. they can see each other, but no contact, no fighting etc.

the thing i am doing now with water changes, which i've mentioned a few times, is to age my tap water outside for a day or two. i add the water conditioner, put the water in those styrofoam boxes we get from buying fish, and let that sit outside for the next day or so. i also do smaller 10-15% water changes every other day. my experience with altum angels and changing massive amounts of water straight from the tap was miserable and a very expensive mistake! even my wild discus were fine with that approach, but altums are even more sensitive to water conditions it seems. in any case, that is what i intend to do with my beani as well. no margins for error from my side.

let's get this thread going.
 
I'll go along with all Darths suggestions, and like him have only coveted beani. But my hait and cuban experience would suggest a tank with each beani separated with egg crate until a pair bond is sure. I believe the stress of togetherness is a killer for these loner type cichlids.
Dan Woodland wrote an article excellent in the April 03 issue of Cichlid News magazine about his experience spawning beani, I wouldn't be without it if I could afford some.
 
im subscribing to this thread, ive not got beani but if i ever do i will have the knowledge, thanks for making!
 
I'll have to dig into the archives for that Cichlid News Magazine, thanks for the heads up. Do you happen to know what month it was released in?

As far as bloat - I think I might separate two of my six into a 60 gallon and do some tests with low amounts of epsom salt, which keep the guts moving.

Ewok, I've bred discus for many years in the past, and would always feed blood worms once a week. They continue to move inside te guts and help push things through the intestines. If you feed them on a daily basis they will cause bloat, if you feed them once or twice a week they seem to enduce bowel movements.

I'm sure there are a lot of different methods on how to care for these guys, and I think finding out the cause of bloat in them will be a major step forward in their captive care.

I plan to keep 8 in a 180 gallon - for a day or two I'm going to leave them together and monitor how aggressive they are, with a ton of driftwood for line of sight breaks ect.

If I see too much aggression they're going totally bare bottom with a clay pot each and dividers.
 
wow! I'd like to commend you guys for your efforts, I can tell you that the rivers where these Fish come from are relatively short and receive large amounts of rain water in the mountains. While they also tolerate brine water you must keep-up with water changes. In the wild these guys love fresh water shrimp and algae/plant detritus for small invertebrates.
Regards
José
 
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