Mr. Ed's Aquatics

Yellow labs and Red Zebras are OK to do 2 males and 4 females, but Demsoni are more like 1 male and 5-7 females and Purple Acei also less males (like 1:3). I'd skip the Demsoni and Yellow labs and go with Saulosi (vibrant blue and white stripes for males, deep yellows to orange for females) along with some red zebras and purple acei. If you really want a 4th type/color, another Pseudotropheus like Socolofi, they are either called powder blues (regular) or snow whites (albino), makes a good option. That combination can also produce blueberry OB's or orange spot OB's depending on which of them cross breed. Here's my 75 with Pseudotropheus Saulosi, Acei, Socolofi (white) and some of the OB's. What ever mbuna you pick, definitely an active and colorful tank.

I have used them also, got a lot of good mbuna species but out of 30 "unsexed" peacocks in groups of 6 I somehow got 29 females and 1 male of a species I hadn't ordered. Now I'm leary of ordering unsexed and no color fish from them.

I've been thinking about getting some Zebra Obliquidens Cichlids (Haplochromis latifasciata) and some Gold Head Compressicep Cichlids (Altolamprologus compressicep) from LiveAquaria.com to expand my breeding room and add to the display tanks. They have some cool Lake Tanganyika Cichlids as well so haven't pulled the trigger yet.

Sometimes the airflow is too high and it leaks out around the top even if it is setup correctly. If it is already on a gang valve or similar, just turn the flow down until it stops leaking from the wrong place. If you don't have a valve, they're pretty cheap, pick one up and put it on so you can turn down the flow.

I'm just popping in a couple root tabs into the rock wool and dropping them in. I did make sure that the rhizome wasn't covered, but otherwise it is in the pot how it came. The sides are solid and the bottom is empty, so you could fill it with aqua soil if you wanted to.

I would like to, but the happy couple are bigger and in perfect shape. She's much smaller and recovering from all the nipping. I'm afraid moving her out in a weakened state to a community might make her an easy target. I actually have an opportunity to trade her to a friend who has 1 little male (I tried to trade for his) for a mated pair of electric blues... so not sure what I will end up doing.

If you're trying to get closer to neutral for your shrimp and South American fish, I would use both Mopani driftwood and almond leaves. Big pieces of Mopani release a good amount of tanic acid to soften the water as do the almond leaves. Remember to add new leaves after water changes and you can get fairly stable results with minimal swings. You can achieve the same effects if you use boiled peat in a filter bag in a filter chamber, sump, or even in the tank hidden from sight if you don't want to see driftwood and leaf litter in your tank. But if you have shrimp anyway, they love both the Mopani wood and almond leaves so I'd try to go that route.

I recently picked up a trio of Midnight Rams and have noticed the same thing. The person I adopted them from thought that the other fish in her tank were bullying the females, but once I got them home and in the 29g hospital tank I could see the bully is the male. Thankfully, he seems to have claimed the cave I put in for them and has paired with the bigger female. Sadly, now they both chase her. I think I am going to take the same route and keep them all. I think adding the pair early to their display tank and adding in more plants while I fatten up the small female might work. Or, I will have to add a 2nd male if it seems to continue or rehome her. Daniel's option #3 is reserved for mercy reasons only in my house.

I see your ottoman and raise you a queen size bed... From where I am sitting, looking right Looking left ......nerm

Life goals .... "I need a few shipping containers for my extra fish stuff that doesn't fit in my warehouse of fish stuff" *Jealous* Really looking forward to seeing all the great content you guys will make there, everything is looking good. I like the natural wood look, and that property is gorgeous. Keep up the good work Cory, and thanks for all the cool content and products. Co-op package day is always an appreciated pick me up.

I added them to my mbuna tank as well. Think I will add a few to my shelly tanks too.

I was really excited to get some of the easy planters and keep working on converting a few of my African cichlid tanks to planted tanks. Top tank is Pseudotropheus Malawis and the bottom is Neolamprologus Tanganykians. Added some easy planters and Valisineria for the mbuna. So far, Anubias, Hornwort, Java Fern and the Val do well in the hard water. The easy planters blend in well with my rockwork, and are very natural looking. My wife likes the middle one the most because it looks so real (it is real btw). Added some more Anubias for Brichardi. Have Pogo Octopus, Anubias, Amazon Swords and Crypts doing well. The Dwarf Hairgrass is not doing well and is my 3rd attempt, so I don't think it likes my water. I am enjoying adding in more plants and natural elements to the tanks, but I will still keep some with easy/artificial scapes like this one, as some cichlids redecorate the tanks so much it kills the plants. And I kinda like trying to do a few theme tanks. ^Pirate's Cove^

You can safely use the Xtreme foods with your mbuna. I feed mine a combination of the spirulina and krill flakes along with the big fella and 1.5m sinking pellets. A good example of the warning against high protein diets would be like "never feed mbuna frozen blood worms, tried giving them a treat and killed a bunch of them". It doesn't mean they don't like to have any protein, just that it can't be the only thing that they get. The vegetable and algae helps them digest food, so only protein foods like blood worms can cause Malawi bloat. If the ingredients list is a good mixture and not all protein, you can feed it to your mbuna.

Your water parameters don't seem to be an issue that would cause fish to die. I am surprised that you have 0 nitrates in a cycled African Cichlid tank, but that would not be harmful for fish either. Most often, the cause of fish loss for me is that they age out. They can live quite a long time, but for the most part I would expect a store purchased African cichlid to live 3-5 years. If they don't look ill, or bloated, or like they were in a fight... probably just their time. Now, if this is the beginning of a trend, and you got your fish about the same time, you can watch the whole tank age out. A big reason I move fish around and keep the stock at different ages.

I'm on #teamcoarse for a number of reasons. I am not using them as primary filters as much as back ups. I have decorated or planted tanks with substrate and that is the main source for beneficial bacteria. I don't like having to clean them more often than once a month. I mostly want mechanical filtration to keep debris out of my canisters or HOBs. Now, if I wanted to use one as the only filtration, in a bare tank, with no other source for beneficial bacteria, that I didn't mind clean every week... the fine filters are better. They do have more surface area for beneficial bacteria and capture finer particles and should be rinsed in tank water to keep the bacteria alive. Like Cory said though, that's not what most people use them for. If you are setting up a 50 tank fish room for YouTube, and your family will work in it for free, and you're planning extensive weekly maintenance like Jason does. I would also suggest fine filters. If you have less than a dozen, that's not an income generating business, and have substrate and decorations / plants then you'll probably like coarse ones better.

I take in a bunch of rescue fish and almost always see them on Craigslist. I do see them on Offer Up and Facebook sometimes, but since it's specifically against their rules, they're usually taken down pretty fast. Definitely give Craigslist a shot, just keep in mind that you are prone to getting some odd replies from there. I remember one lady that was moving and needed to rehome her fish was also very interested in making me aware that she also offered "in home massages" that "ended happily". For the most part though, it usually is just another hobbyist looking for a better home for their fish.

The eternal question. My golden rule is 1 fish per gallon... or no wait, 1" of fish per gallon... or no wait, it's there is no set special way or rule. Every tank is different. I like to try to pick out the stock I want to keep and then make an aquarium that is well suited to handle the bioload. Or, if I already have the aquarium setup, I try to pick what it can accommodate. I still have to adjust, sometimes I don't have to maintain it very much and can add stock. Or I will have to maintain it too much and have to remove stock. I think you just kind of get a feel for it with time. Setting up your 1st aquarium involves a lot of guessing. Setting up your 100th, or 1,000th, etc, not so bad.

I would not be too worried about the babies and the maintenance. When I work on the fry tanks, they always hide. But as soon as I finish, they're back to business as usual. The only problem I ever had is that they're really sensitive to chlorine. As long as you treat the water 1st and keep it close to the same temperature, you could probably do less water changes and use fresh water. In my 10 gallon grow outs I do 50% water change every other week. In my 5 gallon grow out I do 50% water change once a week. I don't have a 2 1/2, but half the volume = twice the frequency. I would do 50% twice a week (or every 3 days). Overall, most African cichlid fry from Lake Malawi are easy to raise. Some species are difficult to spawn, but once they do, not too bad. Just avoid feeding all high protein foods and you should have a healthy little school in no time.

It's cool, I used my web history and figured it out. Content is removed and nothing denotes it or explains why.

So I had mentioned to a friend something about a post here and was told I was crazy and there was no such post. When I came back to the forum to just get a direct link, I couldn't find it either. Seems multiple posts were removed, the conversation no longer made sense as you could tell stuff was removed. Anyone else had this happen? Do mods just delete/alter content without notice or explanation?

I'm kinda lucky with this one. I kinda have a lot of fish to feed and like @Dean’s Fishroom I have a menu with measurements that others can use to feed if I'm not home. All the food's in 1 place, grab and go. Container in 1 hand, measuring spoon in the other. I don't have to put the container down until it's time to put it back and grab the next one. My problem is the BBS and net. Sometimes I get like a little bit, sometimes I get a giant cloud. Still working on this lol

I don't know if we're calling them gold or orange, but I have the ones you and Dean have that you featured in a couple videos. Kinda like koi, they're fun to watch from above. Been looking for a 50 lowboy to winter / display them in and add other colors. Very cool little fish, I hope the popularity continues growing around here.

I get this question a lot too. To raise the KH (assuming your water source is insufficient to increase it with water changes) you need to add natural buffers such as crushed coral, Aragonite sand, dolomite or soda ash. I always suggest either crushed coral or Aragonite sand in addition to the substrate or instead of it all together (depending on how much you are trying to raise it).

I think we're all assuming that they are easily sourced there and @Ryo Watanabe has a source. Even though I've only seen him keep the same variety we have here. Probably have to have a connection to get the cool, popular strains. Supply and demand means if they have more than enough people there to purchase their supply... there is little incentive to reach new markets. 😞

I was thinking that too. @Cory could see how he enjoyed that care package, maybe send him a couple pink crypts and a prepaid envelope... and there ya go 🙂