Bigg(ish) New Worlds For A 180

[tenohfive]

The far left most one definately is - worse for wear having lived in a bag for two weeks. The other three...I don't know in all honesty. Think one of them was marked as vallis, the other two I'm not sure about - I know very little about planting. Will see if they've still got their cards downstairs and look up the scientific names.

 

[tenohfive]

Just looked up the one you were talking about - its called Chlorophytum Bichetti. Only real reference I can find to it is that its not ideal as an aquatic plant, and will normally grow out of the tank.

Think I'll grab a couple of pots and have them as pot plants - and replace them with some vallis.

 

[tenohfive]

Okay, have just gotten back from Wildwoods. Got to say, there were some absolutely stunning fish there - the electric blue JD's were enough to get my ever reluctant other half interested, which is saying something. I could have spent alot more money on alot more fish very easily. But I restrained myself.

The Blue Acara's for sale were wild ones, and the one I picked up looks like he'll colour up nicely. The c.sajica (Jade Eye?) is of a similar size to the acara - three and a half / four inches long I think. The t.ellioti was a bit smaller (but looks stunning) closer to the three inch mark. They didn't have any pictus, so I'll probably pop to a different LFS and get them on Friday or next week. No rush on that count. The guy in the shop wasn't totally confident about the ID's, so when everythings settled down I'll post some pic's on here to get a confirmed ID. I'm reasonably happy the c.sajica is right, but I've mistaken juvi GT's for blue acara's before so hopefully someone on here will be able to put my mind at rest.

I also got some food while I was there - Hikari cichlid gold, frozen bloodworm and some form of prepackaged frozen cichlid food - seemed to be meaty, fish and shrimp etc being main ingredients. Is the Hikari cichlid gold the best staple for them? I got a small packet with the plan being to buy a larger quantity of the best quality staple I can get for them online, so I'm open to suggestions.

I'm acclimatising them at the moment - well, two of them. Either I didn't roll the bags out properly of the Jade Eye is a jumper, because after 15 minutes and a couple of small glasses of tank water added to bag, he was swimming around in the tank. Slowly acclimatising the others though.

Anyway, soon as they've settled down I'll put some pic's up.

 

[tenohfive]

Okay, they're all in the tank now and surprise surprise, the Acara's made himself known as the dominant one. In all fairness he is much bigger than the ellioti, and about an inch bigger than the Jade Eye. Shall watch them and see how they get on, and in an hour or so switch on the lights and see about getting some pictures. I might look at getting some sort of floating plants - worrying that the T5 lighting might bother them. Have put a spray bar in the Fluval 4+, I'm assuming they don't like too much flow? And pointed the outlet for the Eheim external at one of the side, so hopefully be alright on that count.

 

[minxfishy]

Looking forward to seeing the pics

The Acara will be the more dominant anyway, as the Elioti and Sajica are fairly placid cichilds.

The flow will not bother them one iota, a current is appreciated, obviously not so its blasting them around, neither will the lighting be a problem. You could put some floaters in, you may find them eaten though.

 

[tenohfive]

Fair enough, will leave the lighting as is. Leaving the spray bar on though, I prefer it when they've got a bit more freedom of movement rather than swimming along and suddenly being half a tanks length further on, even if they're happy like that.

Pic's below, taken on phone so quality not great - and they're all abit camera shy at the moment. The t.ellioti seems to be the most confident - the acara occasionally sends him on his way, but he's the most happy to come out in the open. The jade eye has taken to hiding from the acara behind the filter, so the pic's of him/her were rushed for the minute he came out before being chased back behind the filter. Been quite busy since they settled in, so not had much chance to watch their behaviour - but as predicted, the acara's the boss.

Correct me on the ID's if I'm wrong:

T. Ellioti:

T. Ellioti and Blue Acara in background:

C. Sajica:

C. Sajica:

Blue Acara:

Camera shy Blue Acara:

I appreciate the pic's aren't great quality - on Friday I'll set up the camera and tripod and try to get some proper shots of them.

 

[minxfishy]

Yeah looks right to me, a better full on side shot of the Acara would be good just to confirm

 

[markandhisfish]

lovely fish great looking sajica . id love a couple of those but dont think they would mix with my spirulus.

 

[Davo86]

Very nice selection of fish you now have, love the little Male Ellioti

defo a blue acara,

 

[tenohfive]

Ah good stuff. They seem to be settling in okay, and they look lovely. Just waiting for their confidence to build up a bit more - at the moment the acara and sajica go running for cover when I come into the room, while the ellioti comes to the front to see whats going on. Hopefully that'll change once they've settled in a bit better.

What cichlid staple do you guys feed yours?

 

[minxfishy]

Tetra doromin sticks, tetra prima, tetra pro crisps.

 

[markandhisfish]

yeah my acara was shy at 1st but now hes out and about posing as if to say hey look how sexy and blue i am

 

[tenohfive]

yeah my acara was shy at 1st but now hes out and about posing as if to say hey look how sexy and blue i am

Lol. Mines still very shy - quite happy to push the other tank occupants around, but as soon as he see's movement he's straight into his bogwood cave. Unless any of the others go into his territory (i.e 60% of the tank.)

Strangely enough, the Ellioti is by far the most confident of them - despite being half the size of the others. The acara generally leaves him alone, and he's quite happy out in the open - which is great, because he's stunning. The Sajica is reasonably happy in the open but as soon as the Acara spots him the Sajica ends up back in one of his two hiding places...real pity, because I think he's gorgeous. Will try and get some proper pic's up soon, once I've attacked the algae again (having issues with algae, think I need to leave lights on less.)



Might go and get the Pictus tomorrow...I was thinking that having three of them in there may have the effect of dither fish to some extent. Thoughts?

 

[markandhisfish]

only thing i can really think of checking out as far as that gos is comoetition for caves etc. as the cichlids and the pictus will all want them . maybe provide some more retreats. id watch the acara with the pictus as something attacked my pictus ripping its whiskers off which resulted in a dead pictus. im 99.9% sure it was the acara.

 

[tenohfive]

Fair enough - got a few days off now, so probably better to get them now than any other time as I'll be able to spend some time watching them properly rather than leaving them while I go to work. If theres problems I'll take them back though.

Will see about adding a couple more caves - the Acara tends to stay in one of two, the sajica's laid claim to another one (and a hidey hole behind the internal filter) and theres only a couple of others so will do a bit more aquascaping before I go shopping.