Today I got to tour a very sweet CA/SA fishroom.
The highlight was by far his pair of dovii, just the pair of them in a 600 gallon. The male is 3-4 years old and is the son of some of the other dovii Mel has bred over the years. A conservative guess would be 20". He has no teeth as he knocks them out all the time. Mel showed me a scabbed over finger from where the male hit him a week ago, even without teeth.
He's saturated the market here in Washington with dovii fry and can't even give them away. I saw a tank full of his fry for sale at 99 cents each at 3" a month ago!
I apologize for the photo quality, I only got about 10 shots total so didn't have much to pick from.
And on YouTube
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Not quite as visually impressive but even more amazing in it's own right were these little guys in between two 600 gallon tanks. ExCichlasoma ornatum! I believe Mel is the only one in the states to have these guys. He has 5 of them, hopefully he'll get a pair. Way more rare than beani, and they don't bloat and look better too.
Sorry for the terrible photo. They're still shy and the camera died on me.
And on YouTube
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Mel's also growing out several umbee and has a hopeful pair in what looked like a 125. Once they get some more size on them they'll go in his other 600. Mel said he's about 8", but that he's terrible at estimating size as everything is small when compared to the dovii. I think it's about 10".
The fish I didn't manage to get photos of include a large festae pair, big pair of pantostictus, giant H. psitticus, several massive red devils with a 15 year old uro and a pair of beastly A. zaliousm in his second 600 gallon. I'm running out of words that describe huge.
If you want to read more check out this Aquamojo link HERE
You can also see the dovii and ornatum in action on his YouTube channel HERE
The highlight was by far his pair of dovii, just the pair of them in a 600 gallon. The male is 3-4 years old and is the son of some of the other dovii Mel has bred over the years. A conservative guess would be 20". He has no teeth as he knocks them out all the time. Mel showed me a scabbed over finger from where the male hit him a week ago, even without teeth.
He's saturated the market here in Washington with dovii fry and can't even give them away. I saw a tank full of his fry for sale at 99 cents each at 3" a month ago!
I apologize for the photo quality, I only got about 10 shots total so didn't have much to pick from.
And on YouTube
[YT]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Sy9APu9jE_E&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Sy9APu9jE_E&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/YT]
Not quite as visually impressive but even more amazing in it's own right were these little guys in between two 600 gallon tanks. ExCichlasoma ornatum! I believe Mel is the only one in the states to have these guys. He has 5 of them, hopefully he'll get a pair. Way more rare than beani, and they don't bloat and look better too.
Sorry for the terrible photo. They're still shy and the camera died on me.
And on YouTube
[YT]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/YTC6KV5b_Pw&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/YTC6KV5b_Pw&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/YT]
Mel's also growing out several umbee and has a hopeful pair in what looked like a 125. Once they get some more size on them they'll go in his other 600. Mel said he's about 8", but that he's terrible at estimating size as everything is small when compared to the dovii. I think it's about 10".
The fish I didn't manage to get photos of include a large festae pair, big pair of pantostictus, giant H. psitticus, several massive red devils with a 15 year old uro and a pair of beastly A. zaliousm in his second 600 gallon. I'm running out of words that describe huge.
If you want to read more check out this Aquamojo link HERE
You can also see the dovii and ornatum in action on his YouTube channel HERE
