Changed up my regiment a little after last night. The monster-lings received chunks of freeze dried jumbo krill. I think they "liked" it. (Hard to tell if they like anything; quite a grumpy species.) I really want to make their diet as natural as possible. No more processed foods. I'm thinking frozen krill and silversides. Maybe some home grown feeder guppies once in a while.
I understand it would be a bit more costly but after seeing this fluffy excrement I want to change up the feeding routine. Is there a good place to buy bulk frozen fish? And if anyone wants a pair of 3 inch Mesoheros Festae let me know. I think I'm just going to stick with the Dovii and my Bala/Catfish community for now. lol
I understand it would be a bit more costly but after seeing this fluffy excrement I want to change up the feeding routine. Is there a good place to buy bulk frozen fish? And if anyone wants a pair of 3 inch Mesoheros Festae let me know. I think I'm just going to stick with the Dovii and my Bala/Catfish community for now. lol
And axs377 as I said my biggest is only maybe 3 inches at the moment. They're merely the size of platies right now. Planning on selling off seven of my stock when I can find some takers and settle with a pair. As soon as the pair hits maybe 7 or 8 inches (which I really don't see happening for another 6 months) they will moved to a 120 or 150. Trying to find one 24" wide, seems pointless with anything thinner imo. I'm not some no brain fish twerp, I got into this species knowing that I would need to build at least a 300 gallon within the next year or so. Honestly, I thought I was a generous guy growing out my fry in a 75, am I right? As far as I've seen it looks to me like many breeders grow out fry in 29s, 40s, and maybe 55s which is cool but I've always been one to give my fish lots of swim space.
Frozen foods require vitamin supplementation on a regular basis, on their own they miss the mark nutrient wise. Just in case you hadn't considered this - a presoak a few times a week in Boyd Vitachem or similar would be a good idea.
Didn't mean to be insulting just curious. I've done the same thing in the past, started with a small aquarium and bought bigger and bigger ones... I wish I would have just bought the large one to begin with, would have been much cheaper...lol anyways good luck
Thanks axs377, I didnt mean to be so snippy. Have you kept young Dovii before? Im wondering when I should serparate a pair from the other youngsters. My biggest is now reaching 4 inches.
I kept dovii for maybe 13-14 months. I bought 6 of them around 2" put them in a 55 until they started nipping at each other alot (maybe 3-4 inches or so). They got transferred to a 125 after that. I never pulled them prior to a pair forming... Basically they killed or severely beat each other up until 2 were left, which ended up pairing up around 10-11 months of age. During the following months I had to separate the tank with a divider because the smaller female was INSANE. When I saw their tubes down I removed the divider only to have my male nearly beaten to death while I was at work. I ended up selling them to another hobbiest. My advice would be to pull the others after you can clearly identify a male and a female, not necessarily a pair, as mine didn't pair up until they were more in the 7-10 in range f/m. The other thing that surprised me is how fast they can f each other up.
Thanks for the info, Adam. Really helped me confirm my decision on whether to try and crossing my fingers and hoping a pair miraculously happens or to just keep my biggest male and grow him out to a solitary monster. I will go with the latter. When did your male start showing color? What was your lighting situation like? I keep lights on one side of the tank, (15w T8 daylight) because the large male keeps a den on the side with no light. Seems to only like venturing into the light when he's hungry.
