Falling In Love All Over Again (gold cacatuoides)

[fishgrrl]

After about 5 years of stepping away from the freshwater part of this hobby, I decided I wanted to set up a small fw community tank. To me, a community tank means one small pair of peaceful cichlids. I always loved cacatuiodes, so decided to see what new strains had been developed, and find the FABULOUS yellow/gold cacatuoides. I swooned.

Any idea of how common / rare these guys are? I find mention of them all over the internet, but none actually offered for sale. Yet I searched the forums here, and it sounds like some people have even gotten them in thier LFS's. And do they cost an arm in a leg? I live on a modest budget. Of course that only means saving up longer, because I think I *have* to have them; I'm smitten.

 

[Sallywally]

Ray McCaleb out of Athens, GA is actively pursueing a breeding program with these beauties. I don't think he has any available right now, but you can check with him at
www.raymccaleb.com

 

[Neil]

fishgrrl,

WELCOME TO THE FORUM

Any idea of how common / rare these guys are? I find mention of them all over the internet, but none actually offered for sale. Yet I searched the forums here, and it sounds like some people have even gotten them in thier LFS's. And do they cost an arm in a leg? I live on a modest budget. Of course that only means saving up longer, because I think I *have* to have them; I'm smitten.

They are not particularly rare, but because of their inbred propensity for deformation, it is difficult to get good ones. Be careful who you get these fish from. It is worth it to find stock that is carefully managed. They are not all that expensive and are pretty popular right now. Seems like alot of people are "smitten" also. There is an article on this site about them that you may want to check out.

Good luck,

Neil

 

[Zapisto]

ho yes
take care of who selling this fish to you.

it is not everybody who will remove bad specimen from the cluch and leave only a very few specimen there.
money can turn the best person into a bad person.......


and neil yes they are very difficult to breed no in term of breeding , but in term of getting good fish without any probs....

 

[fishgrrl]

Thanks so much for the info. I'll keep in mind the health issues when looking for them. Hopefully they won't be too tough to find.

 

[fishgrrl]

As a fabulous stroke of luck, the fish store I work for got several of these in... My boss claims he didn't order them, they were just added to the shipment, but it seems a little "fishy" to me.


The male isn't as colorful as the ones posted here, but he is young, and otherwise looks healthy with good body shape, no bent rays, etc . . . (female looks good too). And if I have a problem with them breeding or their offspring, I have a friend who is breeding triple reds and we can try swapping partners out for diversity, seeing if I can improve the line. I got them more for display anyway (but I know I won't be able to resist trying to breed them, . . . )