C.Grammodes.... any tips?...

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deano7104

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 26, 2010
21
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London, ENGLAND
recently obtained a nice group of 8 grammodes fry... approx 3/4"-1"...
feeding well, and have settled in nicely..... anybody out there keeping/kept these and got any advice.... anything the species is succeptible too (bloat etc)... i understand they are slow growers, so im prepared to be patient!!!... any info appreciated, these are pretty rare in the u.k so i want to get it right!!
cheers
Dean
 
Great choice mate, you wont regret keeping these fish. I have been keeping Grammies for 5 or 6 years, like you say, they are extremely slow growers with the odd report poppin up now and then of a rapid growing monster. I have had a lot of bad luck with Grammies and have lost many over the years to one accident or another, but the largest pair i have at the moment are 3 years old and doin great.

Ive found them to be pretty hardy, and not really prone to many diseases, but i would note that, if i am to let my tank maintenance slip, the grammies are the fist to show signs of parasites and flick themseves on the rocks etc. Feeding wise they can sometimes be picky, but as you have a small group of fry, you souldnt have much hassle with fussy feeding. They enjoy/love high protein, meaty foods such as Mussels, prawns, white fish etc. I feed mine a varied diet including all these, plus massivore pellets, hikari sticks and even prima.

All in all a cracking species to keep, you just need plenty of patience with them.

Were did you get yours from??

Heres my biggest male.

gram1.jpg
 
hello mate, thanks for that. got them from sonia guinane via kenny. (im on the ea cichlid site as well!)...not sure of the background of these i'll have to ask sonia..
the'yre taking crushed tetra prima, ground krill flake and they graze on jmc catfish pellets, so luckily ok food wise...
that male is a beauty...
they in with anything else?... or just a species tank?...

thanks again mate...
 
Mine are in a 300G 96x30x36" LxHxW community tank and get on pretty fine.
I have a group of 16 or 17 x .5"-1" fry off Sonia too, i asked her about the history of her pair at the last EACG auction, and she said she just picked them up at her LFS and doesnt know where they origionated from.
I have my fry in a 36x15x15 tank at the moment, what size tank are yours in? It will be interesting to compare notes on the growth rates.


Wayne
 
she actually gave me 12, but kenny picked them up and couldnt catch 4 of them!!!
the'yre in a 4x1x1 at the moment... got a more permanent home for them on pallets in the garden, but obviously in no rush to get it set-up... would be too tempting to put some other fish in it, especially now ross is back in the game!!!
 
The only issue I had growing them was aggression towards each other especially if they pair up at an early stage.
 
They'll get along pretty well together until one of them hits 3.5-4" and kills the rest.

I've never had any problems with feeding them or growing them out individually...but they're death on each other (literally)...

Matt
 
I've got a F1 pair from Conkel, about 3" that are in a 10 foot long tank. Not rough on each other at all but there are a lot of fish in the tank and given its length there is plenty of room for now. But yeah, very slow growers. Not that particular on food but I give the majority of my cichlids NLS thera and Nutrafin Spirulina sticks.

They once had a contimanant Grammodes in the snakehead tank at Steinhart Aquarium years ago that had to be over a foot long. Give this fish credit, it had to be small when it was dumped in with a bunch of africans as food. To this day I count it as one of the prettiest fish I'd ever seen.
 
Female Grammodes can be the meanest of cichlids when they want to! Everyone in my 8foot tank shows my 5" female respect, even the Flaveolus, Lyonsi and Carpinte all of which are 9"+! She is a demon when spawning, i have a 5" male that has half his jaw missing thanks to her!! Even after this, kept in a large enough tank, their aggression is minimal and more territorial, rather than damaging.
 
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