Those are amazing fish that make me want to keep a pair. I like the intense yellow, red and black combination and the specially the tiger stripes on the head. I have never kept Salvini because I heard that they are nasty fish for their size and is not good community fish. Is there any truth to it?
Super Red Salvini - The Quest for the Holy Grail
- Thread starter auratum
- Start date
My experience with these is that they are very agressive and intolerant of tank mates. They tend to be shy to people but terrors to tank mates. I bought a group of these and the dominant male wiped out every one of his brothers and sisters over a 3 month period in a tank with lots of hiding places. I have heard the strain from Rio Chacamax is more docile as well as beautiful. In my experience, every fish is different. I have or have kept Dovii, Umbi, Festae, Jag, Red Devil, Grammodes, Uro's, Texas blue & green, Dempsey's, & different species of Vieja. Some are mean when little, others get mean when big, still others are just mean at any size. The Salvini I have kept would out pace the Dovii, Umbi, and Festae of the same size, but are not as mean as the Grammodes of the same size, but again every fish and strain is a little different. The Grammodes I have were shipped at 2" and in a single bag. 2 of the 6 individuals were DOA because the biggest one in the group went psycho on them in the bag during shipping (scales were floating in the water like glitter). I have not seen this with other fish that were shipped in the same way. In my tanks, the Grammodes have been the same way - just a menace - pushing around and actively attacking a group of Festae of similar size. The male Sal that killed all his sibs is with my old female of similar size in a tank with a breeding pair of Red Bay Snook and they seem to be OK with them. The pairs are tollerating each other with flaring but no out right battles at this point. Both pairs are settling in to spawn at this point. Red Bay Snook are not that agressive on a relative basis but there size helps them carry themselves pretty well against the more agressive fish. The Sals are around 6" and the RBS are 8" & 11". I am standing by to separate them at any point if necessary.
In general - don't under estimate Salvini and don't turn your back on them...
In general - don't under estimate Salvini and don't turn your back on them...
I agree with Auratum's. Salvini are almost like bullys. They pick on other fish regardless of their size. IMO, they need a big tank even for a small pair. Space is important.
My first pair of cichlids were Sals and they decided to breed so I figured why not try to get more reds and blues out of them. Here are a couple growouts from my 2.5 batch. I've been trying a funky flowerhorn breeding technique to try and get the traits that I want out of them. Mind you these pics are from my phone and HORRIBLE. In real life without the algae on the glass, the bubbles from the filtration and better lighting they look RED...They're also still quite small.
The first 2 pics are of a female, you can see the black spots on her operculum and dorsal fin.
These last pics are of two different males, I know you can see a black dot on what looks like their operculums but it's actually past it. They both have the same spot. I have some other growouts that I keep at my father's house but unfortunately I don't have pics of them.
The first 2 pics are of a female, you can see the black spots on her operculum and dorsal fin.
These last pics are of two different males, I know you can see a black dot on what looks like their operculums but it's actually past it. They both have the same spot. I have some other growouts that I keep at my father's house but unfortunately I don't have pics of them.
Nice Sals! This is more along the lines of what I am talking about. The males do look like females, but can't argue if they are producing fry. Can you describe the "funky flowerhorn breeding technique" you are employing in your breeding program?
The original group was collected from southern Mexico. I don't have the exact location as the original member where I got them from is no longer in the hobby.
So I kinda took a little turn from this idea but this was something that I found online. I think it's pretty interesting and I'm sure there are a million and a half different theories out there. I think there is something to be said about oversees flowerhorn breeders and the job they've done so I figured I could learn a little from them. I think in this example what we commonly refer to as "wild caught f(0)" is just f(0) meaning the starting point.
MALE (F0) + FEMALE (F0)
FEMALE [1] (F1) + MALE (F0)
FEMALE [1] (F2) + MALE (F0)
MALE [1] (F3) + FEMALE [1] (F3)
FEMALE [2] (F1) + MALE (F0)
FEMALE [2] (F2) + MALE (F0)
MALE [2] (F3) + FEMALE [2] (F3)
FEMALE [3] (F1) + MALE (F0)
FEMALE [3] (F2) + MALE (F0)
MALE [3] (F3) + FEMALE [3] (F3)
What I've done for culling to to keep EVERYTHING until about .75" to 1"
I then split them into 2 batches, the better half and the lesser half. I keep both because I'm never really sure I missed anything. I just keep culling from ther on out basically.
MALE (F0) + FEMALE (F0)
FEMALE [1] (F1) + MALE (F0)
FEMALE [1] (F2) + MALE (F0)
MALE [1] (F3) + FEMALE [1] (F3)
FEMALE [2] (F1) + MALE (F0)
FEMALE [2] (F2) + MALE (F0)
MALE [2] (F3) + FEMALE [2] (F3)
FEMALE [3] (F1) + MALE (F0)
FEMALE [3] (F2) + MALE (F0)
MALE [3] (F3) + FEMALE [3] (F3)
What I've done for culling to to keep EVERYTHING until about .75" to 1"
I then split them into 2 batches, the better half and the lesser half. I keep both because I'm never really sure I missed anything. I just keep culling from ther on out basically.
The original group was collected from southern Mexico. I don't have the exact location as the original member where I got them from is no longer in the hobby.
Ruck! I want! I wanna mix more blues into mine...
Ruck - those are awesome! Do you currently own these fish and if so are you breeding them? These have a very different look to them than the other strains I mentioned. Very stunning with all the blue spangling. As stunning as these are, I am most interrested in the strain with less blue overall and extreme red on both male & female, but I would love to own some that looked like this!
It would appear that the breeding technique you quoted here by the flowerhorn breeding folks is done in this fashion to manage the male sterility in the male hybrids - at least that is what it looks like to me. Not sure of the specific benefits of this for breeding within a species. I guess it can be applied in line breeding - sort of a recombinant selection process. I've typically thought of line breeding by making your initial cross and then breed the best F1 to each other and repeat for F2, F3, etc. The problem with this is that if none of the F1 are as nice as either parent then you are going in the wrong direction which would push you towards the model you described. So if the F0 parents are the nicer, breed them back to the F1 and see what the F2 looks like. If F2 is nicer than F1 and F0 use them, if not breed back to the nicer of the F0 or F1. By nicer I mean the fish that moves in the direction of your breeding goals whatever that may be. In any case you need some tank signicant space to do this is a serious way. Can't be messing around with too many species if you are going that crazy with any one.
