and i seen some beautiful 6" red empress males stunning color , good for show tanks so dont count them out cause "when they get big they are not as good looking"
what do you think of my stock?
- Thread starter AquariumLover
- Start date
well the problem with empress cichlids is i can only pay cash and no fish store in my area sells them. is there perhaps a way i could keep a jag or JD (whichever is less agressive) in the tank once my red zebs get to a fairly good size?
ikevi;1882393; said:Huh? Anyways I agree on not mixing the two types haps/peacocks with mbuna. Not that they wont work with a lot of luck, just that even when they do work the more expensive haps/peacocks never look as good as if there aren't any mbuna.
Now maingano was the old name. They are now called Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos. I doubt you will be able to find these fish very easily.
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=756
I have a breeding colony+ there fry and im in Austraila, i bought a breeding colony of 32, sold them except 2m 8f (lots were holding) . How hard would it be to get them over there?, Mangiano is the common name, even in the ad konings book it has: Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos and under common names: mangiano.
Now then, why the 4 female labs? These are some of the few mbuna that if you get good quality you just can't tell them apart aside from venting. But it doesn't matter since 1 f to 4 m is just fine.
I have just bought 20 yellows from the most respected breeder for yellows around here and that was a 3 hr drive. I am going to grow them up and pull the excess males out to make a breeding colony. Since hes not making a breeding colony i would just get 5 and see what happens.
And ontop of that good luck on sexing Pseudotropheus socolofi (Albino).
He already has a couple of definite girls as far as i am aware (they hold).
Finally I have to disagree on the comment of the Protomelas taeniolatus. But well to each there own I guess.
Look under the protomelas genus and see their competiton
(Note I see the question about switching to eyebiters. I would say it is going to have to be an all or nothing thing. But again with a lot of patience anything can be made to work...) And BTW the females while at least having some color are not as nice.
My old Eye biter breeders (male is avatar) were in a 6x2x18.
and still had rows 1m 5f.
I have seen a huge 30cm (12") one and he could eat mbuna like they were specks lol. a 4ft is too small i believe. he should stick to his original stock.
AquariumLover;1882700; said:
I wouldn't,
i can say a Jag would be a stupid idea he would kill them no problems,
A JD wouldnt be as severe but still a bad idea and could easily kill them once bigger.
The water conditions are way different too!
Up to you, your money, your fish,
but their lives
.lol
Now whoever thinks maingano are hard to get just hasn't tried to find them. Maingano, especially wild caught, are actually easy to find. I have two but again the agression of these guys is fairly high. They don't compare to the red zebras but my big maingano killed the other 9 mbuna that were in the tank with him one by one. He now resides in my peacock/hap tank and isn't a trouble maker anymore. I guess trial and error is the best way to go about this. I do agree with johnny, the eyebiters would not be able to stay in that tank too long. Their average size as adults is around 10"+ so they would need a 100+gallon tank to themselves. I also agree with not getting a jag or jd. Water parameters are totally different and while they may survive they would not thrive. Keep africans with africans. Only reason my red zebra is in with the oscars is because I don't have a separate tank for him and I also don't believe oscars could eat an adult red zebra. My oscars are full grown and wouldn't have a prayer of getting that fish in their mouths.
I am saying locally Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos they are hard to get. And if he is having a hard time finding a Protomelas taeniolatus, they will be very hard to get. (Note as for the comment on checking the competition... I have almost all of them.) I still say a nice 8 inch red empress looks great. (Mine is only 7 inches, still a stunner.)
Now as for the name, you really do have to be careful when suggesting a fish. I know people still refer to them as maingano, (and occasionally the misspelling of mangiano.) But if you are going to look them up you would search Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos first, hence when I suggest fish or even talk about them I try to remember to put the scientific name. (Heck sort of like saying zebra fish, or sunshine peacock. There are so many different fish that fall under them that you just have to at least include the scientific name with the common name.) And honestly I have never seen these fish in any of my local LFS. So I would have to buy via shipping. (Which is what I do but obviously AquariumLover isn't willing to do.)
The rest of the comments don't really need a reply. But I was stating the obvious that the only way to tell a Pseudotropheus socolofi (Albino) is M/F is if they hold or by venting. And that Yellow labs and even Pseudotropheus socolofi (Albino)) really don't need the 1 M 3 F, which makes life much easier. (And with either fish well I guess I wouldn't want to breed them together anyways, too much change for crossbreeding.) But thats a different story.
As for the Zebras with other fish that aren't malawi, I agree with everyone. It just isn't wise. It sometimes works it sometimes doesn't. Like I said I had it working for ~6 months and then came home and my O's had just decided to bite all my zebras to death. (Didn't try eating them but just killed them, and the Zebras were ~5 inches.) The zebras tended to be faster and able to hide, but they can't keep away 24/7, and one or two good bites by these bigger fish means death.
That said I would suggest doing a mbuna tank, but since you don't know what is around go searching and find out. There are a lot of great ones out there, just don't go with the misc african tanks, you never know what you are truly getting. After checking out the different places look up the fish and decide what ones you want. Then go back and get them.
THOUGH I just noticed where you live... You can get any fish you want there. You might have to drive a little bit but there has to be a decent amount of LFS stores there. And in fact I am sure some of them will special order for you if you want. (And yes they will take cash.)
Now as for the name, you really do have to be careful when suggesting a fish. I know people still refer to them as maingano, (and occasionally the misspelling of mangiano.) But if you are going to look them up you would search Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos first, hence when I suggest fish or even talk about them I try to remember to put the scientific name. (Heck sort of like saying zebra fish, or sunshine peacock. There are so many different fish that fall under them that you just have to at least include the scientific name with the common name.) And honestly I have never seen these fish in any of my local LFS. So I would have to buy via shipping. (Which is what I do but obviously AquariumLover isn't willing to do.)
The rest of the comments don't really need a reply. But I was stating the obvious that the only way to tell a Pseudotropheus socolofi (Albino) is M/F is if they hold or by venting. And that Yellow labs and even Pseudotropheus socolofi (Albino)) really don't need the 1 M 3 F, which makes life much easier. (And with either fish well I guess I wouldn't want to breed them together anyways, too much change for crossbreeding.) But thats a different story.
As for the Zebras with other fish that aren't malawi, I agree with everyone. It just isn't wise. It sometimes works it sometimes doesn't. Like I said I had it working for ~6 months and then came home and my O's had just decided to bite all my zebras to death. (Didn't try eating them but just killed them, and the Zebras were ~5 inches.) The zebras tended to be faster and able to hide, but they can't keep away 24/7, and one or two good bites by these bigger fish means death.
That said I would suggest doing a mbuna tank, but since you don't know what is around go searching and find out. There are a lot of great ones out there, just don't go with the misc african tanks, you never know what you are truly getting. After checking out the different places look up the fish and decide what ones you want. Then go back and get them.
THOUGH I just noticed where you live... You can get any fish you want there. You might have to drive a little bit but there has to be a decent amount of LFS stores there. And in fact I am sure some of them will special order for you if you want. (And yes they will take cash.)
ok. ok. i'm willing to stick with a mbuna tank, but just all my life i have wanted to get a big fish, like an oscar or full grown JD. but when i got my africans, i had no idea they weren't ganna get as big as an oscar cuz petco ppl SUCK! i mean i'm willing to try out mbunas, but i still would like to get one big fish in there. which is why i was considering the empress because wen i did research on it, it looked unique from my current cichlids, and it looked like it got bigger than my other cichlids.
Well honestly if you want to do just a big fish I wouldn't even go with any african fish. They only get big after 5+ (or 10+) years, and even then they still aren't likely the big that you are looking for. (Yes some will get over a foot but I am assuming you are saying Jag size or whatnot.)
If that is what you want you are going to have to pick. Either keep with mbuna, which still get a good 6 inches, or sell them and go with a single O or something. (Of course you can always just get another tank like I did and many other people do... which leads you down a road that is very hard to stop. Heck at the moment I am what over 1250 gallons of tanks...) The only thing that is stopping me from getting more is I don't have the space till I move.
If that is what you want you are going to have to pick. Either keep with mbuna, which still get a good 6 inches, or sell them and go with a single O or something. (Of course you can always just get another tank like I did and many other people do... which leads you down a road that is very hard to stop. Heck at the moment I am what over 1250 gallons of tanks...) The only thing that is stopping me from getting more is I don't have the space till I move.
