Few Pics of my DC's

[Scree]

Krib Pair with young;

Cacatuoides;

Electric Blue Ram;

 

[Scree]

Few more pics of the Cockatoo tank i took today;

Also, my MacMasteri;

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Fish look fine. The gravel is a bit coarse, if you can swap it for silica sand the fish will exhibit more of their "earth eating" behaviour, and it also makes tank maintenance easier. I'm not sure which country you are in, but in the USA and Australia, swimming pool filter sand is readily available, cheap and good.

Also I'm not sure about the light coloured rock in the cockatoos tank, it looks like it might be limestone (fossil traces?), which will raise carbonate hardness.

I know I'm sounding really picky now, but are all the plants fake? if they are it is really worth trying to grow some live ones, mainly because they make management of water quality easier. If you are in the UK, PM me and I can donate some suitable "easy care" plants to you, I've always got spares.

cheers Darrel

 

[Scree]

Cheers for the input Darrel,

I have used sand in tanks before now and always found it a nightmare to keep clean, always siphons out on cleaning. I have considered on swapping the coarsest gravel you can see in the Pulcher pics for something finer although i never like to disturb that tank while they are parenting (which seems to be constantly lately). The Cockatoos seem quite happy with the finer Gravel, picking up and spitting out both while foraging and also while the females are 'decorating' their hides, although if i could find something between that and sand id go for it.

Good point on the Rock, it does seem to have fossil like marks in it, however, would a high kH not stabilise the water ensuring less chance of pH swings?? Excuse me if ive interpreted this wrongly :/

As for the plants, in the first post yes, all plants are fake. I have rectified this in two of the tanks, cockatoo tank now has roughly 80-20 in favour of live (you can probably see this in the second post pics) and also, after the passing of my first Elec Blue Ram who made it to 2 1/2, I swapped the plants and that tank is now about 90-10 live.

However, i do have a 170L community tank (my first) which is pretty much completely fake planted, perams have been stable for years in there now so i would be pretty hesitant to disturb it. I think it may be best for mr to let the fish in there live out their life and rescape once its empty. If you fancy donating plants at that point id be more than happy to take them from you lol

Once again, cheers for the input, ill do some more reading up on kH effects and just check ive not got it completely messed up in my mind

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
PM when you want some plants, I've always got spare, that I can donate to a good cause.

I have used sand in tanks before now and always found it a nightmare to keep clean, always siphons out on cleaning.

The real advantage of sand is that you don't need to syphon the sand itself, because there aren't any gaps where food, faeces etc can fall through. You can just occasionally remove any build up of mulm from the top of the sand. I know a lot of people don't like snails but I have MTS in all the tanks, and Red Ramshorns in any where the pH allows it. The MTS are very good for keeping the substrate clean and aerobic.

Good point on the Rock, it does seem to have fossil like marks in it, however, would a high kH not stabilise the water ensuring less chance of pH swings??

That is a bit of a misinterpretation, have a look at these, with apologies for the cross-post <http://www.britishcichlid.org.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4608&p=27387> and <http://www.tbas1.com/Exchange/The%20New%20England%2011.pdf>

The BCA is well worth joining if you are interested in cichlids.

cheers Darrel

 

[Scree]

A couple of pics of my mac pair.

If anyone could confirm they are macmasteri from these pics itd be much appreciated.








And a few more of the cockatoo flirting with both his women.

Male and original female;







And with the newer female;

 

[Mike Wise]

Yes, A. macmasteri. I has similar colored wild specimens back in the 1980s.

 

[Scree]

cheers Mike, trying to determine that from google pics seems pointless. Keep getting pics of Viejita labeled as Macmasteri and vice versa.

I take it Macmasteri lacks the red face of the Viejita?
scratch that, just found this post.. http://www.apistogramma.com/forum/showthread.php?8551-viejita-rio-meta-or-macmasteri/page1

 

[Scree]

Came home to a dead male cockatoo yesterday, gutted. The most unexplainable death of my time in fish keeping this far.

Would it be an issue adding a new male now the females i already have will most likely be bigger than it and have established their territories?

 

[Scree]

Quick update,

Ended up replacing the Male with this fella;

Got rid of one of the females as i realized the tank was probably too small to house two.

Anyway, went to feed this morning and was pleasantly surprised to see the remaining female guarding some fry