Small Rift Tank...

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E

elevatethis

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 14, 2005
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Richmond, VA
I had a bunch of extra parts laying around and realized that I had enough to set up a small tank, so I basically have a 20 long running with a bunch of rocks and new gravel.

I'm planning on stocking it with a pair of brichardi. I'd like to see them breed so if anyone has any suggestions on what kind of water parameters I should be going for to do so, I'd appreciate it.
 
You could do some Saulsi(sp) or Demasoni. They are Malawi's and you could probably do like 1 male 2-3 females in a 20L, plus they are a very popular fish and could make you some money on the side. just my 2 cents
 
OscarHook;503790; said:
You could do some Saulsi(sp) or Demasoni. They are Malawi's and you could probably do like 1 male 2-3 females in a 20L, plus they are a very popular fish and could make you some money on the side. just my 2 cents
Click to expand...

I would advise against that.

Sticking to brichardi you shouldn't be disappointed. ;)
pH should be at least 8.0. There are substrates you can use to keep pH and hardness up but to tell you the truth, so long as your water is hard and higher than neutral they'll do just fine.
Any good quality flake or pellet will serve well in their diet as well the varied treat of frozen krill, mysis, brine shrimp, worm, etc.
If you start with young fish you want to end up with a single pair. They can start spawning surprisingly early (2" for males, a bit smaller for females), and they can quickly populate a tank. Set it up with a stack or two and scatter of cobble and sand to make the tank look like something straight out of the lake. :D
 
Sounds good, thanks jacketstar......

I got it all set up. I have a whisper 20 filter (off of a tank about a year old) running on it now, while it cycles through I put 2 giant danios in there to get it started.

MFK won't let me upload any pics..."unable to process format"...wierd


I'm going to be patient this time and let it cycle completely before adding the brichardi.

Next question: Adult (or at least sexable) brichardi around here are very expensive. One LFS wants $50 each. Should I just buy 3-4 fry and roll the dice and hope I end up with at least one pair?
 
Definitely let the tank completely cycle.
I'd personally take my chances with the juvies. You'd be saving yourself a heck of a chunk of change!
Buy at least 4 but with 6, statistically speaking, you have better chances of getting at least on of both sexes.
I took my chance with 4 fry on my pulcher, all from the same brood so I felt comfortable enough buying 2 larger and 2 smaller fry. I ended up with a perfect 2 males and 2 females.
$2 per fry sure beat $50 a pair! And just for kicks:
The fry: http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y2...pulcher Daffodil/DSC01430-DaffodilFryDay1.jpg
The preffered breeding pair: http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y2...s pulcher Daffodil/5-4-06045-DaffodilPair.jpg
That's always the way I go with monomorphic species. I did the same with my Neo. "helianthus", Juli. dickfeldi, and Alto. comps and have so far gotten very even ratios.
 
why are you against my suggestion? I posted a question about what to put in a 20g and i was told by several people to do Saulosi or Demasoni, i even know people who have breeding colonies of Demasoni in two 20gs, both with 8 fish, 2 males 6 females. They have been that way for like 2-3 years.
 
Even 8 small africans in a 20 gallon (less about 5 gallons of water if there's any good amount of rockwork) just sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.

I used to overstock tanks and had constant cloudy water, disease, dieoffs, etc...after going through that I'm definitely a fan of a lightly stocked tank....
 
i stand correct one was a 40g and the other was a 29g. Sorry for my stupidity.
 
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