# Finally...the 40



## Guest (Dec 7, 2007)

Okay...so I've waited long enough...Today is the day!!!

I'm going to the lfs in about an hour to pick up my stuff...

My mom and I had a long talk last night about it, and she doesn't not want me to have saltwater or live plants, because it is too expensive, too much work, etc. And with me working 5 days a week, and school, she thinks that I don't have time for it...But I'm still going to have live plants, she just doesn't no it:lol: 

I'm stocking it with 7 P. saulosi. African cichlids. 1 male, 6 females. Black Gravel, black background, and grey/light black slate or maybe even lace rock. 

For plants, for now I'm sticking with a few fake, but later down the road, I'm gonna throw some onion plants and anubia in it.

Feeding is going to be mainly veggie matter...Omega 1 flakes, I forget the exact name, but the first 3 ingredients are all algeas. Supplemented with zuchini, and romain lettuce. Live foods once a month or so, and just a few at that.

That's all for now, I'll get picks of before and after, and in the process of as well while I'm setting up the tank...

Just one question...Slate, or lacerock?

http://www.malawicichlidhomepage.com/panis/pseudotropheus_saulosi.htm


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## Guest (Dec 7, 2007)

Nice 

I'd personally pick the slate rock or shale. The lace rock may be too much of a contrast. I like the look of slate better


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Lace rock will help keep your hardness up, but it is sharp and that pretty white will be green or brown overnight. I like river rock because its smooth and round and cheap. Slate is great, but I alway put it in with substrate spawners (great for julies). Toss in some hornwort, its more a weed than a plant, tell your mom it's fake. Anything else will get dug up. P. saulosi are great fish. They are one of the few I'd keep in under a 55 gallon.


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## Guest (Dec 8, 2007)

Okay...it's up...pics tonight!!

I used slate...the tank looks AWESOME

the pics do not do it justice


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## Guest (Dec 8, 2007)

Here's the pics...Sorry their so bad...my camera (Nikon D-40X) ran out of batteries, and I couldn't find my other camera, so I had to use my moms...whish is a piece of sh*t...I"ll get some with my nikon when the battery is charged.

They're all in order of how I built the tank up...


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## Guest (Dec 8, 2007)

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## Guest (Dec 8, 2007)

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## Guest (Dec 8, 2007)

Thanks beki...I'm very proud of my work...but I need to buy more slate...they didn't have enough at the lfs...gonna build up the right side a bit more


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## joe kool (Jan 24, 2005)

you can mix the rock types as well ... I like to mis the lace rock (which is usually a dark grey) with the slate and throw in some holey rock for contrast. Africans love holey rock because it gives more hiding places, territory, and cover. being a very dense rock it can be expensive to get shipped but you can sometimes find deals on ebay or other places ... sometimes different rock quarry companies will have it shipped in as something different (sometimes called "estate rocks or boulders" but those are usually huge and you might get lucky and find some that have broken chunks. Holey rock, being limestone, will also help to buffer you waters hardness and PH. 

don't be afraid to mix rock types to help gain the height you need and want in a shorter and taller tank like that. AND as an added bonus that will give your fish more hiding places and hopefully keep aggression to a minimum


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## Guest (Dec 8, 2007)

*moremore*

more pics...this time with my good camera

still not the greatest quality...still tryin to learn how to use the stupid thing...lol

Alse all the black in the tank isn't helping much...lmao

there's more...I just have to re-size them..stupid things


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## Guest (Dec 8, 2007)

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## Guest (Dec 8, 2007)

more pics as soon as the saulosi get here...hopefully by the end of this week...


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## Guest (Dec 8, 2007)

Oooh, I love it!  Looking great, Andrew. Out of interest, how much was the tank? I'd just worry about the fish knocking that vertical rock to the left down.

Oh, and the leopard/animal print wallpaper...interesting...just interesting


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## Guest (Dec 8, 2007)

It looks great, Andrew! The fish are going to look great and really stand out against all the black in the tank.  

I was going to suggest more rock, but looks like you were already planning that.


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## dolifisis (Sep 27, 2006)

The tanks looking good. I'm getting that jealous tank fever again  .


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## Guest (Dec 8, 2007)

> Oooh, I love it! Looking great, Andrew. Out of interest, how much was the tank? I'd just worry about the fish knocking that vertical rock to the left down.
> 
> Oh, and the leopard/animal print wallpaper...interesting...just interesting


Yes...I'm worried about that rock

The stand, and tank, and some crappy filter, and some crappy heater, and a fake plant, and some crappy air stone=25 bucks

I'll prolly sylacone it together so they don't knock it down...it looks really cool that way tho

I'll take a pic of ym room...it's an "african" theme...so the tank completes it I have a leopard print comferter on my bed, I have that wall paper think, 5 or 6 african wooden masks, and some live plants, pothos to be exact, wood dressers, book shelfs, etc., and some other stuff...it's really cool...I'll try to grab some pics...



> I was going to suggest more rock, but looks like you were already planning that.


Yup...like I sid..I bought all the slate they had available, so I'll buy more next week when we get more in...lol


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## Chaos553 (Apr 2, 2007)

25 bucks for all of that? is that a steal or what?

i really like the setup, black gravel/sand with decor in a tank looks very stunning no matter how advanced or new you are to the hobby. i was going to comment on the slate saying you should get more, but that topic has already been covered. just wondering, what fish are you using at the moment while the tank is cycling? looks like feeders or some kind of mollie/platy.


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## Guest (Dec 9, 2007)

feeders

their actually their to keep the bacteria alive...I've had the filter running for 2 months on my turtles tank, with lots of feeder fish, so the filter is full of bacteria. I also put some media in my other filters, and once the tank was up, transfered that media to the new tank, so it's kinda like a insta-cycle...lmao...it did get a little cloudy today tho, so I added another filter for the time being.


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## Chaos553 (Apr 2, 2007)

haha "insta-cycle"

i got lucky with my slate for my tank. my grandparents had a lot leftover from their previous walkway, so they gave me a bunch of it to use for my tanks. i only use some of it and i have a lot left over but i plan on designing some kind of new landscape with the rest of it.


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## Guest (Dec 9, 2007)

Okay...so I tried to set up a pay pal account, but I clicked some button that will make me an extended user...whatever that means...so now I have to wait 3-5 days for some number to come on my statement. until then, I can't use paypal. Si I e-mailed him asking if I could just send him a personal check or cash...and guess what?! I can send him a personal check!! so it's going out in the mail tomarrow...cause the mail dude doesn't come on sundays so I should have my fishes by the end of the week!


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## Guest (Dec 9, 2007)

btw...what is he?

He's not mine, but he's for sale at the lfs...and kinda cool


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## Guest (Dec 12, 2007)

Somebody brought in a female pearl of likoma cichlid today at work, so I bought her...lol she's only about 1-1.5 inches long, and her colors are awesome.

Melanochromis exasperatus, or more comonly known as Melanochromis joanjohnsonae...she's in hiding, and still camera shy, so I"ll get better pics when she;s out more.


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## Guest (Dec 13, 2007)

I still haven't gotten a reply about him getting the check yet, so I might be getting the fish alter than I thought. I'm gonna send him an e-mail when I get home from school to see if he got it yet....just my luck it gets lost in the mail.


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## Guest (Dec 13, 2007)

Its only been 3 days since you sent it.  Maybe he'll get it today or maybe he just hasn't had time to email you yet.

Patience, my friend.


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## Guest (Dec 18, 2007)

YAY!!! he called me yesterday, HE GOT THE CHECK!!

He's shipping out the fish today, so I should get them tomarrow. I'm calling the post office when I get home to have them hold the fish for me until my mom or I can go pick them up. They way they aren't sitting in the mail truck, or out on our front porch. And seeing as to how the temp. hasn't getten over 20 degrees in the past 4 days, not even heat packs will keep them warm...lol. I'll get picks up as soon as I can...I have to work tomarrow after school, but then I have off till jan. 3rd, so I"ll deffaintly have pics up on thursday.


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## Guest (Dec 19, 2007)

todays the day!! I'm at school now, but I called home at 10:30, and they still hadn't arrived, so hopefully when I get home their be there. Unfortunantly, I have to work tonight, so I'll only be home for about an hour and a half today...


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## Guest (Dec 19, 2007)

Awesome. Post lots of pics when you get them in


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## Guest (Dec 19, 2007)

Awesome! Hopefully they make it there today. I'll be looking for pics too!


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## Guest (Dec 19, 2007)

They're here!! I just dumped them in...I'll get picks up tomorrow!!

5 females, 2 males...he sent me an extra...lol

I put the stamp and the return address label on the wrong side of the envolope, so that's prolly why it took so long...lol


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## Guest (Dec 19, 2007)

PICS!! the dark one is the male....


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## Guest (Dec 19, 2007)

more.......


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## Guest (Dec 22, 2007)

Okay...so on cichlid-forum.com, it says that P. saulosi are herbavorious fish......they weren't kidding. The other day, I put sopme italian val in their tank...it was free, so I wasn't worried if they would eat it or not. Anyway...yesterady, at around 10 in the morning, I put a piece of lettuce in the tank for them, thinkinging, maybe they'll eat it, but they prolly won't, but it won't hurt...boy was I wrong....about the eating it, not the hurting them...lol The piece of lettuce was about 5 inches long, and 3 inches wide, at 3:45, when I was leaving for work, I went up to check on them, and there were 3 little holes in the lettuce, so I thought yay! their eating it! when I got home at 10 that night, the lettuce was gone, completely gone, like it never existed, and my vals....they ate all the leaves half way down. They were more than 2 feet long, and they ate them from the top down, leaving no scraps. In 6 hours, my 8 fish(7 saulosis, and a joanjohnsonae)m all ranging from 1-2 inches in length, at more than 100 inches of italian val....hungry little buggers :lol:


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## Guest (Dec 22, 2007)

Wow, they're so pretty! Congrats


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## shade2dope (Jan 21, 2007)

very nice andrew when are you inviting me over to see them lol


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## Guest (Dec 23, 2007)

Lmao ruben....soon....lol 

their not that exciting yet...they mostly just hide, eat, poop, then eat some more...lol They haven't finished off the vals yet...but I've been feeding them prety well...lol They ate 2 poeces of cucumber yesterday on top of their flakes and a few black worms, so today I'm gonna try greenbeans...lol


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## Guest (Jan 5, 2008)

I got a gold nugget pleco for christmas, so I finally got him home today. He's about 3 inches long, same size as most of the cichlids. His name is Bink, as in Bikini, like a yellow polka-dot bikini...lol I didn't name him, my unt did. She said that she would only get him for me if she got to name him...so she named him Bink...lol


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## Guest (Jan 5, 2008)

sorry for the bad pics....he was hiding under a rock...I just dumped him in the tank, so he was hiding.


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## Guest (Jan 5, 2008)

Aww....he's cute!  Glad you finally got him!


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## joe kool (Jan 24, 2005)

fishbguy said:


> btw...what is he?
> 
> He's not mine, but he's for sale at the lfs...and kinda cool



OB peac0ck :mrgreen:


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## joe kool (Jan 24, 2005)

fishbguy said:


> I got a gold nugget pleco for christmas, so I finally got him home today. He's about 3 inches long, same size as most of the cichlids. His name is Bink, as in Bikini, like a yellow polka-dot bikini...lol I didn't name him, my unt did. She said that she would only get him for me if she got to name him...so she named him Bink...lol



gold nuggets are decent algae destroyers to boot. Not as lazy as some of the other ornamental plecos. Treat him/her to some zucchini once a week or so and it'll stay healthier for you. Some folks use green beans or peas but I like to quarter the zucchini length wise and stick a fork in one end. the cichlids will chop it too after a day or so


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## Guest (Jan 6, 2008)

Actually, I feed the cichlids some veggie flakes every day, and every day on top of that, well, at least I try every day, to give them some fresh veggies. Normally they get fresh romaine lettuce, but they also get an occaisional cucumber, and it's all gone within hours...lol He'll have plenty to snack on. I also got an algae bloom when I was in cozunel, so there's no sortage of that either...lol I'll try to get some zuchini, because I know the cichlids will love it as well....but like I said earlier, the fish get fresh veggies nearly every day.


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## Guest (Jan 9, 2008)

Here are some pics of my fishes....The dominent male is coloring up quite nicely, another of Bink, and a pic of one of the females. They all have white noses...it's so cute. They came that way, so I don't think it's from them rubbing on anything.


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## Chaos553 (Apr 2, 2007)

the gold nugget looks awesome =P


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## shade2dope (Jan 21, 2007)

Is it true that its hard to get the gold nuggets to live.I wastold that there hard to move as they like to die right after...Friend of mine bought three then gave up.NOt sure if it was something with his tank or what but I he had bad luck with them.alway wanted one thou.


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## Guest (Jan 10, 2008)

So far, he's doing fine. He came into the store about 2 weeks before christmas, and was there for a week after, now he's been at my house for just under a week, and I haven't had any problems...I'll look into it though.


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## Guest (Jan 11, 2008)

*Off Topic*

Andrew, you should fix your signature. lol


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## tania_storom (Dec 23, 2007)

Man I'm so JEALOUS lol... We're working on our 55 gal slowly and building it up.... im impatient lol


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## Guest (Jan 12, 2008)

I know:lol: I"m workin gon it...lol

thanks! I have pics of where Bink ate alggae off the side of the tank


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## Guest (Jan 18, 2008)

here are some pics of where Bink ate some algae off of the sides of the tank. He's not doing so well with keeping it all gone tho, so I'm looking for a bushynose for the tank as well...lol

the dominent male is amazing...he's so blue. After I'm done here, I'm going to go clean the tank to get the algae off so I can get some clear pictures of him.


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## Guest (Jan 18, 2008)

whoops...forgot the pics:lol:


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## Guest (Jan 19, 2008)

k...so I finally got som epics of my male, and one of my johnjoansonae.


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## Guest (Jan 19, 2008)

more..........


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## livebearerlover (Jan 21, 2008)

it is a really cool tank nice job


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## Guest (Jan 25, 2008)

The male looks amazing. I have a half day today because of exams, so I'll have all afternoon to try to get some decent pics of him. 

I put more anubias in it yesterday. so now I have 2 anubia nanas, and 2 anubia cognesis. When I tried to put the slate back together after I was dont tieing them to the rocks, it wouldn't stay up, so I took ll the slate out, and redid the scape. Now, the slate is lower to the ground, and more spead out, so now it looks more natural, which is good, because now I have alot more room to add more slate.

I have green water in the 40. it's not bad, you can still see through it, but it looks unatracktive. How do you get rid of green water? I did a 25+% water change yester day, so it's better now, but it's still green cloudy. how do you get rid of it?


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## shade2dope (Jan 21, 2007)

Hey Andrew the tank is looking good.The fish are looking good too.I would change 20% aday till its gone then go back to your once a weeks.I had that happen with my 55 when I got it going.I am having some problems with my tank and algae right now.I think its in the water.havent changed anything and all my tanks at the same time are getting it so....I still have to test for nitrate from the tap I am thinking that the cause.


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## karazy (Nov 2, 2007)

dude, is that like a 40 extra high or sumthing? what r the dimensions of it?


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## Guest (Jan 27, 2008)

just a 40 high...

30 inches long, 12 inches deep, 24 inches high.

Sorry about the lack of pics...I"ve been really sick this weekend, so I haven't had much time to do much, let alone waterchanges to get rid of this stupid green water crap.


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## Guest (Jan 29, 2008)

I started a blackout on Saturday...I feed my fish this morning, abou 5 minutes ago, and I thought the tank looked kinda clearish, so I turned the lights on...I haven't seen this tank look so clear since, well, ever! I'm so glad I can finally see the fish...lol I have a snowday today, so hopefully I'll be able to get some decent pics now...lol

still sick btw...but now I have pink eye as well :lol:


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## Guest (Jan 29, 2008)

After I turned the lights on today, my male saulosi started displaying for about 10 minutes strait. I'm gonna have babies soon!!!


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## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

Woo Hoo  Congratulations!!! PICS PICS PICS PICS!


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## shade2dope (Jan 21, 2007)

wow thats cool I just got a Aulonocara sp maleri.Got a good deal on a trio have had my eye on them for some time.The female is holding thought shed spit them before I got them home but she's still holding strong.Iam going to post pics of tank and fish some time this week maybe


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## Guest (Jan 29, 2008)

I got some nice pics of the male, and a few of the john, now I just have to get some of the females, and the tank, then I"ll download them.


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## shade2dope (Jan 21, 2007)

well post then post them lol jk Wont be able to see them till tomorow


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## Guest (Jan 31, 2008)

okay..sorry it took so long...I took the pics sunday I think, but I just now have time to upload them due to no work or homework today!!



more coming once I resize them


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## Guest (Jan 31, 2008)

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## Guest (Jan 31, 2008)

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## Guest (Jan 31, 2008)

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## oliesminis (May 7, 2007)

amazing tank, great fish.

any signs of baby's yet?


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## Guest (Jan 31, 2008)

nooo...I've got patientce tho...lol

They're still kinda young, but the ,male never stops displaying.


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## Guest (Feb 2, 2008)

What do holding females look like? I think I know...lol

I have a female, who's gotten male coloration, as in dark, verticle bars, and a black dorsal, but no egg spots. In her mouth, she's obviously holding something...her chin is protruding and her gills don't "close" all the way. Every so often she looks to be moving stuff around in her mouth as well. I haven't checked to see if she eats anything yet. She hides alot behind the filter output. Is it possible she's holding? I remember reading that female saulosis, when holding, devolope non-dominent male coloration to help with the aggressivness from the dominent male, and this female deffaintly looks like a non dominent male.

Speaking of non dominent males, I currently have 3 males, and 4 females. one dominenet, 2 non dominent. All of the saulosis like to hang around at the top of the tank when the light is on, and the johnjoansonae is always hanging around on the very bottom of the tank. Bink just stays in his hole all day and night...lol


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## guppyart (Jan 22, 2005)

looks good andrew but you seem to be missing something very very important.
were are the black morphos gosh boy thought you would get this right this time.
and you think you can lecture me:O

hehe


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## Guest (Feb 2, 2008)

What do black morphos have to do with this?

I can prepare a whole lecture about how your being stoopid...lol


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## Guest (Feb 3, 2008)

okay, so first pic...One of my non dominent males is decideding to turn blue...not that great of a choice on his part, seeing as how he's gonna get his ass kicked by Rudy(the dominent male). He does look rather pretty tho...lol

Second and third pic are of my "holding" female.

fourth is Rudy, just decided to snap a pic of him, cause he wasn't moving, so the camera would actually focus on him...lol


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## Guest (Feb 8, 2008)

I think she may have spit/swallowed the eggs  

But on the plus side, kinda, my other 2 males are turning blue...which will look cool to me, but not to Rudy(the dominent male). They are almost all blue now, still a little dark, but the yellow is almost gone:chair:


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## Guest (Mar 3, 2008)

Everyone is getting along....both of my other males(I have 3 total) are still coloring up, but they are sort of a yellowish blue, with no stripes, so my dominent male isn't bothering them. 

I just took a look at them, and I know have for sure 1, and possibly 2 holding females. If I can catch them, I"m gonna try stripping them before they can swallow the eggs, and look into tumbling.


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## Guest (Apr 10, 2008)

Still no babies....I"ve had a couple of females holding, but something happened to the eggs/fry while I was gone for spring break. The green water is now gone, but I lowered the lighting as well. My 2 anubia congnesis isn't doing too hot. I had to trim all the leaves off because they were rotting, and now, as soon as another leaf grows and is about an inch long, it dies. My Anubia nanas are doing wonderfully tho. 

Cichlids are growing. Still no fights. Well...just kidding. My male that is second in command got beat up...badly. All of his fins were gone and the base of all of his fins were white. Their all grown back now, and he must have learned his lesson because he's blue, but has some yellow in him. My dominent male looks really nice still, as do all my females. Bink(the gold nugget) is fine. He's growing, kinda, but he's still alive. There hasn't been algae on the side of the glass since, ever, or on the rocks. So I drop cucumber and zuchini in every third night or so, along with some frozen krill every other week. I don't think he get's too much of it tho because the saulosis eat most of it...lol He has a nice fat belly tho, so he has to be eating something.

I haven't re-arranged the tank since I last took pics, but I might have to to get those trouble anubias out. I"m getting more slate as well from a costumer from my work in the next few weeks as well.


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## shade2dope (Jan 21, 2007)

Sounds good.I strip my females after about 2 weeks from the time I see there holding.But I dont think your's held them that long.Sounds good cant wait to see new pics.


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## Guest (Apr 10, 2008)

They hold for between 4-6 days...then something happens to the eggs.


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## shade2dope (Jan 21, 2007)

My old female aurtuis did that her first few times


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## Guest (Apr 10, 2008)

Haha...they probably find that the eggs are tasty. 

Glad they are growing....fighting is part of being Mbuna, unfortunately.

Any new pics?


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## Guest (Apr 14, 2008)

pics of the plecs


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## Guest (Apr 14, 2008)

more......


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## Guest (Jun 27, 2008)

Okay...All are doing well.

I'm still have green water, so I'm getting a UV sterlizer from work to get rid of it.

But the fish are fine, and I have 2 more females that I need to strip now.

All my baby saulosis are doing well. I'm moving them into a 5.5 gallon today.

Oh, yeah, IO forgot. Since we lost all of our data up to april, here's a update in a nutshell:

I have green water, always have had ti, nothing will get rid of it. 

I finally managed to strip a female saulosi before she swallowed the fry, and they are all still living. when I striped her, the fry still had yolksacs, but luckily, they all lived.


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## Guest (Jun 30, 2008)

one of my male saulosis died last night.

It was the 3rd in command...so it was prolly killed by my other males.


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