Nanochromis teugelsi

[anewbie]

The Enigmatochromis lucanusi are driving me crazy - just went i think all the frys must have died off they bring out 30 of them to show off - i inject some bbs - they gobble it down and 10 minutes later the parents are up front asking for food and the frys are all gone.
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Very very different from the teugelsi where the frys are out all the time with at least one parent grazing. I did discover via a pen light that the Lucanusi did dig an extensive network of caves under the drift wood but the fact that the parents stuff the frys away after a short feeding period is bizare - has anyone seen this before? The ones i did see looked healthy and eager to eat but still....

 

[anewbie]

This shows you their cave - when i shined the light in the female dashed in and you can see her nose in there - i'm fastinated by these guys not so much that they are cave spawners but that they will park the kids in the cave and then come out to forge for food and make faces at me for long period of times. I did see the male with the kids this morning and injected some bbs and they gobbled them down but i never seen parents leave the frys in this fashion though as i noted they always park the kids in the cave when they leave them un-attended.

The teugelsi are much more traditional herding the frys around the tank to eat with always one parent sitting on top of them - no new pictures of the teugelsi because it would be same old same old but the frys are growing fast. The one different is the frys are much more into swimming (teugelsi then the lucanusi pretty much stay near hte bottom - they will go up a few inches to chase and eat bbs but the teugelsi will dash to the top of a 29 in their chase where as the lucanusi never go more than 1/2 to an inch up).

 

[anewbie]

Took a few pictures yesterday - nothing too exciting:

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One of these days i'll have my phone with me when the e.l. brings the kids out - as i've mentioned before they seem to bring them out briefly to feed then stuff them back in the cave and do parent stuff leaving the kids behind. I think there are around 20 of them - this after noon when i went down a few minutes ago to put them to sleep - the parents were out doing parent stuff and then 5 minute later all the kids were up front with the parents. I think the N transvestitus I have do a similar thing.
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These guys (teugelsi) are always out somewhere - in fact as the frys get older they've begun to split up more across the bottom (the parents have spent a lot of time telling them to stay low because those that go high get picked off by the tetra); the parents have started to split up more to watch different groups. Hum. We shall see if anything interesting happens next week or the week after.

 

[anewbie]

Today i wanted to look at a few of the plants which were first added on may 1st so approx 2 months. You can see them here:

Nanochromis teugelsi

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I typically say it takes 12 to 18 months to say anything useful about the plants steady state - so take this with a grain of salt:
Full tank:

As we suspected the grass is growing fairly well but hasn't started to spit out runners (when this happen all misery will break out):

And that crypt willisii is really doing well (very pretty plant can't wait for another year to see how it shapes out)

Sort of par the e. rose is struggling but it might still take off at some point; historically it takes e's the longest to adapt and decide what to do though the low light doesn't help a lot.

I forgot to take a close of of the e. vietnam but it is doing well and you can see it in the full tank picture next tot he e. reni (note the reni still hasn't converted to submersed form).

Sadly the h. salicifolia purple never converted and went to well nothing.

I forgot to check on the crypt nurii but i think it died - c. nurii has been a trouble spot for me - it is suppose to be a blackwater plant but i can never get any of the variants to grow in blackwater. Though in my tap water they grow fine without co2 - heck i just gave someone 10 of them the other day because they were spreading too fast - though i'm not sure if this c. nurii is the same thing as c. nurii rosen.
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I think the java fern is laying somewhere in the back but it never really has a chance. Next time i go down i'll try to get a better picture of the e. vientnam and double check if the nurii has even a tiny stub.

Unrelated finally got this nice picture of the e.l. frys:

And once in a blue moon the parents remember they have kids:

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And a nice clean picture of daddy n.t:

 

[anewbie]

Tuesday is water change day for the downstairs aquarium of which there are 16 including this aquarium. While doing the water change I made the bold decision to remove the orange tetra (common name: "Yurimaguas" "Peru Orange") of which there are 8 because (a) they were driving the parents mad and (b) they were eating too many frys. The problem with these suckers is when startled they will hide low under leaves, under driftwood and what have you. So.... it is sort of a cat and mouse game to wait for them to come back up and then try to snag em before they go back down.

The first three were easy enough (very pretty tetra):

This little devil as you can see is hiding in the very back between the driftwood and sponge filter on the right:

In the end i snagged 7 of 8 and saw the 8th one but he was too wise for me to snag - maybe later.

I also checked on the e. vietnam:

Not sure if it will make it or not - not a lot of growth so too early to tell.

And the e. reni:

Same deal but i think it has one nice submersed leaf.
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I also found the c. nurii - it isn't dead but it is unclear if it will grow.

 

[anewbie]

Just a small update:


mom watching some of the frys from under a leaf (which is normal for her):

and zoomed out a little you can see how much the grass has grown in a week; gonna need to find that lawn mower in another month or so:

(there are around 30 frys left - a bunch are on the far left with dad - you know some are mom's little ones and some are dad's little ones):

And a couple of pictures of the el:

Frequently in the morning i can't find the el fry but if i take a quick look go off for a minute the parents will bring them to the front for me to give bbs - then take them away again.... such good parents....

 

[anewbie]

So been nearly two weeks - just a couple of updated pictures from today:

The male seems to still watch the frys a bit but not seriously - the female no longer watches them and avoids the male (probably doesn't want to breed again quite yet). This is very different from the el where the male and female are always together 24/7 - they weren't like this before they paired but now that they have paired they almost never separate. Rather amusing how species differ. I took a couple of pictures of the el but they didn't come out hence no posting - nothing really new to report - all the frys i saw have made it they all are quite bold and well behaved kids though nothing in their aquarium can bother them.
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For the n. teugelsi - every now and then they will all collect and swim mid level like a school but mostly they just scatter around the tank doing their thing - the very smallest might still be vulnerable to the tetra but most of them are much too large.

there is a bit of cyano but nothing i consider serious and i consider the tank still relatively new so just monitoring for now.

 

[anewbie]

I mentioned the other day they will sometime form a large swarm and here we have one:

Kind of disrupted them when i walked over so 10 or so left the group - you can also see how large they have gotten in a short period of time relative to the jelly beans and what used to be the orange monster.

 

[anewbie]

Minor update since i took an ok picture of the el's:

 

[anewbie]

Well been two weeks - kind of reluctant to post an update since nothing is really new - this is near dust just after evening fry feeding (they get fed flakes twice a day). They remain with the parents in the 29 though the parents at this point mostly ignore them - kind of different then the el where the frys spend all their time with the parents. The el behave more like a real pair while the n. teugelsi behave more like breeding partner but not really pairs in quite the same sense.

The only actual change to aquarium has been addition of purple repens on the edge yesterday but it came in bad shape so not sure it will take - and for the first time i added a touch of fertilizer with a little (1tds) of ca.

You can compare to an above picture for growth in plants. Might treat for cyano this weekend - not sure it is necessary but still a tad more then i would like:

I'll probably give away the frys in sept or oct when it cools down; finger crossed leaving them with the parents the parents will be reluctant to breed too soon.

As you can see they will soon be able to terrorize the tetras that once terrorized them.