Cacatuoides Free Swimming,, Yeehaa!!

[Brown.Victoria@ic.gc.ca (Brown, Victoria: TMI)]

Hi Folks,,

Just thought I'd drop a note to let everyone know how the Cacautoides   
 are doing.

Bill Vannerson says,,

>Sounds like fun.  Congratulations.  Soon you'll be selling those fry to   
pay
>off your Harley. ;-)

Thanks for the congrats,,  I'm kinda feeling a bit like a proud parent!!
Yup, the way these little guys are breeding, I'll have that $32,000   
Harley paid off in no time

GRIN!!


Tim Ellis asks about the steps I go through to condition the water,,

Hi Tim.  I really haven't done very much to my water, I don't have a RO   
unit. I use Prime to break the chloramine. I use a Python on all my   
tanks, and I put the Prime in when re-filling the tanks. The water out of   
my tap is about PH 7, with a hardness about 45 DGH.

I have put a bag of peat into each Apisto tank, (I just float it in the   
tank, tied to something so it won't drift), and with the peat the PH   
drops to between  6.4 and 6.6. The hardness drops to about 35 DGH.

And that's all I have been doing. I water change all my tanks 30% twice a   
week, and that about it. I guess the Cichlids like the water conditions,   
cause they are spawning up a storm. I have only had them for about 3   
weeks now, and they seem very happy. I feed lot's of brine shrimp, OSI   
flakes, Tetramin Flakes, freeze dried Daphnia, freeze dried krill, freeze   
dried red grubs, and white worms once a week for a treat. They all eat   
very well, even their flakes.

The first female Cacatuoides, living in the 5 gallon tank with her babies   
is doing great.  The fry went free swimming yesterday morning, and they   
sure love brine shrimp.  Mom leads them around the tank, and is very   
happy.  This morning, she had all her babies in their little flower pot   
home, and when she saw me, she came out to look at me, then went back   
into the flower pot, to get the babies up. They all followed her out, and   
I then fed them their brine shrimp breakfast.  I think there are about 20   
to 25 fry.

They are really amazing to watch, the mother is doing a very good job.   
It's wonderful to watch the way mom takes care of the little ones. And   
the babies, seem to watch their mom for directions. One little guy took   
off on his own yesterday, and she went and picked him up in her mouth and   
brought him back to the group. He did it a couple of times, and mom   
brought him back each time.

I did the tank shuffle, and moved my angels to another tank. I set up the   
15 gallon for Apisto's and planted a whole bunch of live plants in it.  I   
moved the male, (dad of the freeswimmers), and the other female into the   
15 gallon and they promptly set up home.  I also moved the 2 other   
Cacatuoides (that my friend gave me) into the 15 gallon also, and the   
first two started to beat up the second 2.  I ended up taking the second   
two back out, cause the male and female really didn't want them there.

2 days later the pair living in the 15 gallon spawned. The male prances   
about the tank, attacking bubbles, leaves, protecting his wife and kids.   
She moved them to a new pot, this morning, and they will probably be free   
swimming tomorrow. I will leave them in the 15, and eventually I will   
move the brooding female in with the other male and female.

In the process of catching up the fish out of the 20 gallon, to move to   
the 15, I pretty well had to take all the plants out to catch them. I   
decided to give the tank a good cleaning, and started to pick up the pots   
to clean under them.  Well,,  this was a very bad idea.  2 of the   
Bitaenia's got kinda upset when I picked up a pot, and I didn't notice at   
first.  I looked into the pot, and saw a whole pile of eggs,,  I put the   
pot back really quickly, and the pair went back to the pot.  I guess they   
were too upset, cause a couple of hours later, the eggs were gone,,,

wwaaaaahhhh!!

Hopefully they will spawn again, last night the male Bitaenia was doing a   
funky dance for the female, and they have staked out the same pot. The   
male Bitaenia got in a big fight with the male Agasizzi, he had gotten   
too close to their pot.

The Agassizzi  ended up getting pretty beat up, the side of his face was   
chewed up, and 2 hours later he croaked.  Bummer!!

The Bitaenia couple, are very busy to-day. The female in the pot, and the   
male patroling the perimeter.

Now I will have to find more Agassizzi, cause I want to try to spawn them   
also.

I picked up some new cichlids over the past couple of days. I found 6   
Paletaenia's at one pet shop. I lost one, jumped out of the tank.

They are getting really colourful, I figure I have 2 male and 3 females,   
and the females are getting more yellow by the hour.

Yesterday, I found some really beautiful cichlids.  I bought 3 Tucurui's.   
1 Male and 2 females. They are much more colorful this morning, and have   
pin stripes on their bodies. They are beige, with beautiful markings.

After 3 weeks with these tiny little cichlids,, I am now a cichlid nut!!

I guess I am totally hooked now,,,,  next step,,,, furniture starts to go   
for more tanks,,,,,,,,,,,,


An update on vicious angels,,  my black super veils have spawned again. I   
water changed all the tanks on Sunday, and the male was really nasty.  He   
bit me 4 good times, and when I looked at my hand, I had tiny drops of   
blood!! Yesterday, I had what looked like tiny hickies  with little round   
scabs, (teeth marks),on my hand.  This morning I still have the hicky   
marks, and when I rub across the area, my skin is all rough, kinda like   
road rash.

Tough fishys!!

Later,,

Vicky and her fishy buddies