dwarf cockatoo cichlids eating

[lucky62]

Hey
I'm rehydrating my brine shrimp and bloodworms. The new little ladies are coming out now, but not to the top yet. I just got them Sat. afternoon.
I've been reticent to start on frozen, because I like to get my supplies on line. It's cheaper. But frozen requires special shipping--costs more.

The new gals don't show any color, and the boys in the tank were showing just a tinge on their tail fins. But I did get the smallest in the tank. My cockatoos look like Fish Freak"s picture.

Lucky 62, you need to open your own lfs. Are fish in all your tanks? Are you selling? Who to? Do you make any profit or cover your expenses? I'll slowly hunt down who all you've got. I didn't recognize bunches. How old is your son?

Rockford Fish Freak, I'm checking out what kind of algea eater that gets about 3 1/2" I might like. I'm definitely interested in the bushy/bristle nose pleco. So far I haven't tracked one. I may have to order. How much should I pay? How many should I have? I have 3 brevriostris cory cats, 2 peppered cories, 3 otos and 3 clown loaches. Would I be over doing my bottom fish yo add a pleco or 2? The otos seem to keep the algae on the driftwood in check. My wood in the quarantine tank is growing hair. It just occurs to me I can switch the wood instead of the fish. Duh

At work we just got a 10 to 12 inch Frontiosa (with the head) to keep company with a 10 to 12" orange Oscar that we've had for years in a 20 gal tank. The house finally invested in a 55 gal and so a 2nd fish. They are not showing signs of friendship yet. Oscar started harassing the Frontosa, but now the Frontosa has Oscar backed into a corner. Neither is eating. A goldfish had been swimming around for a couple hours when I left this morning.

My Son turned 14 yesterday , most of the fish we have are fish I got for him/them [ some he buys with his own money [ his brothers are 10 and 5 ] he is Dwarfs ],also a member here .

I switched to dwarf cichlids from mid sized cichlids about a year and a half ago , and have slowly acquired the fish I now have , they breed and this is enough for now , I need to have 3 or so more tanks for breeding and as many more for raising fry .

I have some peacock gudgeon fry in 1 tank , and some nannacara in another .

I have yet to sell any thing , I have brought fish in for store credit , but it doesn't amount to all that much .

It's a hobby to me , It would great to make a living at it , but I still have my day job , once I have room to raise more fry I will , like I said the fish are breeding , the problem is predation most of the are with other species of fish in community setups ............my cockatoos will be getting a place to them selves in the near future .

And like pnyklr says ............hiding places , hiding places , hiding places , the more the better .....females may/ or not have speckles of color on them , will have a stripe down the flank running the Length of the body [ mine do], and most likely become a nice yellow/gold color when ready to spawn .

With frozen food , it might be best to see if you can buy it locally .

Also get some freeze dried daphnia and mix it with the other food .

The best way to control algae is through weekly water changes .

 

[jollysue]

Both of you: Some very useful info there. The color changes related to breeding, feeding, decor and homes, algae and water changes....

I just saw a scary sight Monday evening: My male cockatoo was flicking himself on the bottom. I was leaving for work. I didn't have much time. I'll see if I can check it out. It is so hard to net fish in a planted, decorated tank. I treated the tank with a dose of aquasol, but I didn't have time to fool with the filters. I'll look it all over more.

Perhaps I'll have time to change water, filters, and dose with either aquasol or the next step up if it looks needed. Annoying. I thought this tank was uninfected.

By color I was referring to the orange color that develops on the male's tail fin of this species as he matures.

Right now I have quite a few caves and cubbyholes: 4 large and larger caves; 3 large driftwood with lots of nooks and cranys; a sunken junk car. I will look for something more. The quarantine tank has two pices of drift wood and a med. lrg. cave. It's more than they had in the lfs.

 

[lucky62]

Flicking , he could be marking his boundaries ......or it could be parasites , add the aquarisol daily for a few days , also raise the temp [ no more than 84 degrees] .

Are the plants live ? , some won't handle the aquarisol well , that is why I keep anubias , cryptocoryne , java fern , and java moss in my tanks ..........they seem indestructible .

 

[jollysue]

He is not showing any more flicking signs this morning. This tank should be pretty clean. I also treat every waterchange with aquarisol. Of course my canaries are my clown loaches. They are not showing any symptoms. I am releived to hear that it could be a species behavior,

Hurrah! The little lady went to the top this morning to feed with him. Later he cruised around the bottom and picked up tidbits--I'm thinking brine shrimp. I added some high grade cichlid color bits to their mix this morning. I was giving them their space, but I think he might have taken a bite from the apple. I will probably order the daphnia tonight. Anything else? I will take a look at the ornaments/decor. Can I use super glue on an intank ornament or would it be toxic? I just added a foot x 5" x 5" cave for the loaches--looking ahead to the day when they grow up. I could check out some more drift wood. It would further improve the water condition for my soft water babies.

Also!! He came up to the glass and looked at me for awhile! TaDa! He gave me a good opportunity to check him out. I could see nothing suspicious.

I will treat again with aquarisol and turn the water temp. up. My plants are the hardy types and have survived aquarisol before. They are just begining to respond to my new lighting. They have been getting scraggly. I actually accendentally gave a double dose last night. But it all seems good.

 

[pnyklr3]

No super glue, but you can use aquarium-grade silicone sealant (either buy aquarium sealant from your lfs, or go to Home Depot and get GE Silicone II).

If you want your male to color up quickly, I have found that live and frozen food really do the trick. I feed frozen and flake to my community. Flake only comes in every now and then. My male WILL NOT eat flake...only frozen. He has been this way the entire time I've had him. The females, on the other hand, do not care what goes in their mouths.

EDIT: Also, "flicking" or what I call "shimmying" can also be a spawning ritual. The male will fan out his fins, and then shimmy and flick his tail at the female. The female then does the same.

 

[jollysue]

My male will taste something different but he spits it right out if it doesn't meet his requirements. They have been quite spoiled I think. They've been picky from the beginning too. They seem to pretty much ignore everything I feed the others (flake). In fact he ignored the dehyrated blood worms for a long time looking for something else. He finally tried them out of pure hunger. I'm sure. They are now his first choice. But I haven't yet gotten frozen. I still haven't seen the new ones do more than come out of the cave and look. Certainly not go to the top. I expect them to be bolder tomorrow.

Will order aquarium glue tonight and hideaways.

Later, back to sleep now.

P.S. I have decided to wait on turning up the aquarium temp. It will add stress, and a 100 gal. tank at 84 degrees in Fresno, Ca., in the summer is difficult. It will just make the air conditioner blow harder and may cause more temp. fluxuation in the tanks. I actually dilliberately turned the temp. down a little in the big tank a couple weeks ago because it was giving off too much heat. The next couple of months we will get lots of triple digits.

The quarantined ladies came out tonight, looked for awhile at the top, then went back inside. I think that the five tetras and two peppered cories is too big a gauntlet to challenge yet. I believe that I did see them scavengering at the bottom before I left for work, though.

 

[jollysue]

Everyone was waiting and watching in both tanks this morning, even a shy brevriostris (or whatever) cory and an oto. I'm delighted. The lil'lady and gent are going to the top, while the two gals are cruising the bottom. I think he may lead them all to the top when they are all in the big tank.

I'm really satisfied with your help and patience with me. Thanks to you both.

I ordered two more small caves, three pieces of small drift wood (African), and a midium size Malaysian driftwood and some daphnia.

 

[lucky62]

Everyone was waiting and watching in both tanks this morning, even a shy brevriostris (or whatever) cory and an oto. I'm delighted. The lil'lady and gent are going to the top, while the two gals are cruising the bottom. I think he may lead them all to the top when they are all in the big tank.

I'm really satisfied with your help and patience with me. Thanks to you both.

I ordered two more small caves, three pieces of small drift wood (African), and a midium size Malaysian driftwood and some daphnia.

You're quite welcome in my 70 gallon , most of the caves are red/orange clay flower pots
1- 1/2 " and 2-1/2 " size [ 15 in all ], also coconut shell half's [3 ] , and a whole lotta rocks, plants...[ I'm a cheap , but affective kind of guy ]......
And yes aquarium grade silicon is best ..........some silicons have mildew inhibiter's in them , not sure what affect if any this has on fish though ...........if it's made for aquariums or says safe to use on aquariums you're good to go

TURN THE CAVE ENTRANCES AWAY FROM EACH OTHER......TO BREAK THE LINE OF SIGHT BETWEEN NESTING FEMALES , they seem to feel more comfortable with this situation .

 

[jollysue]

Hey! Here's an update.

The lady and gent are cruising the tank together, touching noses outside a driftwood hole, going to the top together. Sometimes he'll start for the top, see she isn't following and go back for her. If she still balks, he takes her around the back through the underbrush. He flicks his tail for her, and she responds.

She appears to have yellowed up from her grey and dark. They are still smaller than the largest I saw at the lfs, but I believe they have passed puberty or whatever it's called in fishese.

The new little girls still show no signs of male coloration. They stick to the bottom and have another week in quarantine.

Yeah, most of my caves are larger than needed. I'll not get more now for awhile, when I get the new ones.

I'm starting to push the limits of my hundred gal. As some guys mature and I aquire the guys I want, I will have to expand. I have started heating the 20 gal coldwater now, just in case. Don't know what I will do if anybody actually hatches. I've chosen the tetras I'll take out to a different tank.

I do waterchanges most weeks; I don't know if I ever waited three weeks.

 

[lucky62]

Yellowing could mean she's ready to spawn, what else ya got in that 100 gal ?

That's a nice [ great ] size for dwarf sized fish , at least to me .

Keep us updated , Sue .

 

[jollysue]

B)

 

[jollysue]

All my babies are doing very well. The gent is an inch and a half or two. They both come up looking at the surface waiting for breakfast when I come in. She definately has a yellow tint to her fins.

Welll...the hi-fin serpae have been in fin nipping overdrive, even dragging a couple of black phantoms into the fray. Everone's fins are ripped and ragged. A couple of the phantoms have lost most of their tail fins.

In my 100 gal. I have some plants just begining to fluff up to their new lighting (a 216w T-5: 2 plant bulbs and 2 blue bulbs--I also have 2 10k bulbs to trade out with the blue) with an added 32w T-5 daylight strip. I have some kind of willowy swordish plant, anacharbis (or something) and a small plump leaf one--all low light.

Fish are predominately tetra: 6 hi-fin serpae, 3 bleeding hearts (w/three in quarantine), 5 black phantom, 5 lemon, 6 glo lights, 6 gold and orange somethings about the same size as glo lights (more fin)(A-Ha! they're silvertipped tetras), 8 diamond neon, 4 green neon, 1 unknown flounder-shaped silver tetra (Ta-Da! it's a two spot tetra), 3 brevriostris (spotted) cories, 2 peppered cories, 3 otos, 3 clown loaches, a male and female cockatoo (w/2 females in quarantine.)

I have two 300w heaters and 2 Emporer 400 filters. There is also an air pump and a couple of bubble wands/curtins that stretch the length of the tank. The tank is 60" long and 15.5" wide. I used Eco-plant substrate (a wet substrate with bacteria cultures in it.

I may remove my glo-lights and the orange and yellow tetras with the little white bulbs on their fins to the twenty gallon. Then maybe chose out the phantoms or the bleeding hearts. I would like some more algae eaters. (I had considered a pleco but at least some more otos.) I would also like to increase the green neons and the lemons. The lemons are spectaclular schoolers.

But for now I think the Inn is full. I had better let it get used to itself and get more plants going. I think at some point I would like to increse the size of at least one shcooler group so that it is a little showy when schooling across the tank. The lemons and diamonds/green neons are candidates. I have always wanted a school of hatchets too. But these are long range and will require adjusting the community and perhaps another tank. I may at some point want to enlarge my goldfish community. That tank is 40 usg.

The tank seems to be holding. The tetras were fussing with each other. I'm not sure why. It could be fin room, but more plants and hidy spots could solve that. The water is acceptable, but I get ammonia testers this week. Meanwhile I continue to do frequent water changes.

I plan to set my filters up using black diamond carbon and chemi-pure. I'm hoping that is a good mix.

 

[pnyklr3]

*just a note* Spawning yellow shows on the body as well as the fins.

And this is a bad-quality pic of what happens when TWO spawning females run into each other's territory!

This had a whole lot of tail flicking and chasing, until a female dominance order was made between the three in my tank.

 

[jollysue]

Don't know why my novel posted twice, Like it's not long enough!

Pnykir3: Thanks for your post. The Lady with The Gent has definately got a yellow tint all over. The Gent actually does too. They are very cute together. He is becoming quite the looker. The little girls in quarantine are grey with dark stripes on theur sides. One is a little darker than the other, but they are a third or less The Lady's size. I don't think I have much doubt who will dominate. Their quarantine is ending soon. Should I put both in together or one at a time?

I may wait to put in the bleeding hearts b/c the serpaes are so stressed out. They are way more torn up when I came home today. I may have to try to take them out and into hospital. They are so torn up I may have to put them on Melafix and maybe some stress therapy to calm them down.

What will be the best way to introduce the cockatoos?

Sorry I can't find my camera cord pluggy thing to the computer. I hadn't had too much luck getting good fish photos anyway. Yours are Way

 

[pnyklr3]

Pop them in at the same time if you have the caves for them. You will def find that their is a female hierarchy! My male prefers on particular female, and actually was protecting her when I tried to net them both back into my tank after switching to sand!

Watch the male and female. The will both spread open their fins, line up alongside each other, and "shimmy" back and forth. The male will then generally go to a cave with the female. The egss will be at the top of the cave, and the female won't leave them. She will only eat if food comes close enough t grab wuickly. SHe will also defend her brood, and peck at any fish (including the male) that gets too close (though generally she'll just snap her tail as a warning to him). The eggs will be there for three days before they fall to the bottom as wrigglers. A few days later they become free swimming, and the female will parade them around looking for foos.

If at any point the female feels that the babies are threatened, she will eat them. I have lost quite a few batches of eggs due to a nervous mother who didn't like the loaches swimming by as often as they did.