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Petrochromis Talk Time :)


Craigo

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Evening all. It seems my fish keeping has hit a really stale patch over the last 12 months.

I have downsized due to other circumstances & only have kept colony's that are important to me. Being P. Spilonatus Tanzania, P. 'Chimoto Yellow' Haplochromis 'Redback Scraper' & a group of all female Buccochromis, which Im not attached to but are really pleasant fish to keep :)

So. The opportunity has arisen to purchase some Petrochromis at a price I can actually afford. And seeing as there is really limited info around that I can find, yes I did join Pertrochromis.com, I though I would throw it out on here & hope to get a conversation going about these beasts.

I guess, I would like to discuss about diet specifics (other than they are herbivore) good & bad tank mates, aggression (is it really that bad?) towards conspecifics & different fish, How they deal living with Haps (if I choose to go in that direction) and do they produce that much waste that all the US sites beat up about. I kept & breed a large group of Cichla Sp. together about 8 years ago & was able to keep pretty good water for those messy buggers, so I guess is any one who keep these fish doing anything special with filtration? What Sp. are actually here being kept in AUS?

Anything & everything would be good to discuss in here, if you have questions or answers OR PICTURES! go for it. :)

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Recently Jim sold his beloved Yellow moshi to Benny Short. But you can still contact Jim for F1 Petrochromis red bulu fry and other trops. Red bulu fry are selling really quick so you have to act very fast.  Or contact Brendon Clark from Newcastle for Petrochromis Katetes.  

 

Thanks

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^ heaps I'm sure.

I made the plunge, a colony of P. Tricolour Mvuna came up so I took the opportunity. Made it home last night safely. Currently separated into 2 tanks to try and avoid aggression as the is only 5 adults. One pair in one tank & a reverse trio in another, both tanks full of large haps. Checked this morning & everyone seems OK, no D.V issues yet all taking food. I like having established colony's for new additions, seems to calm everyone down & helps with getting them to feed straight up. Although these fish seem less than shy, easy for old mate to catch out, they were trying to spawn even as he did. One subdom boy tried to breed with 2 girls in their transport Esky & even when first introduced into the tank they were very inquisitive about their new owners. 

Also received 3 5cm juvies & they are doing well in a another tank with a smaller colony until they are big enough to go with adults. I was interested in asking owners at what size they introduce juvies back into the colony?

Hopeful this all ends well. Fingers crossed. 

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Craigo - good luck with the new fish mate. Whack up some pics when you get a chance. 

 

On a side note - I have seen Petrochromis 'yellow moshi' 4-5 times now in the last 6months. All i can say is I have been very underwhelmed by them. I'd probably rename them 'custard moshi' or 'brown moshi'. Nothing like the pictures of the 'electric' yellow ones I have seen pictures of. Very average looking fish indeed. 

Can anyone explain this to me? Is it diet? how they are being kept? etc

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Alex saw my one as he has others,, I bought a heap of Jim but lucked out with basically all males,,, this was ages ago,,, 

The one you saw Alex was seldom one that's left,,, in a tank full of Malawis,, so not feeling at home and not belonging maybe subdues it, but relates to what Chris said, fitting into environmental factors catorgorory,,, but I personally thought before I ever owned these, was that when they mature they are a solid yellow, almost like a electric yellow.

If I remember correctly ages ago reading on a American site, is that most individuals are patchy,, most natural recordings are patchy dirty ones,,, but some better yellow ones are always in tanks,,, possibly pure natural nice yellow ones occurring very occasionally then line bred to continue this selection.

My water is usually 11-12 GH KH.   Automated water changes every second hour.

unless it's a patience thing, where the dirtynes slowly breaks down into patches then slowly dissolving into solid yellow maybe.

 

most petros, sex ratio and carefull attention to colony building is needed

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Hey guys. I rehomed these pretty quick. For the limited tanks I had available they were too much & I was paranoid about them all the time, so they have gone to a very experienced local Tang keeper/breeder. 

I just wasn't willing to risk them to be honest. I will upload some pics later if you need. 

All credit to the last owner. My have stronger nerves than me :)

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On 24/06/2016 at 9:06 PM, Buccal said:

Alex saw my one as he has others,, I bought a heap of Jim but lucked out with basically all males,,, this was ages ago,,, 

The one you saw Alex was seldom one that's left,,, in a tank full of Malawis,, so not feeling at home and not belonging maybe subdues it, but relates to what Chris said, fitting into environmental factors catorgorory,,, but I personally thought before I ever owned these, was that when they mature they are a solid yellow, almost like a electric yellow.

If I remember correctly ages ago reading on a American site, is that most individuals are patchy,, most natural recordings are patchy dirty ones,,, but some better yellow ones are always in tanks,,, possibly pure natural nice yellow ones occurring very occasionally then line bred to continue this selection.

My water is usually 11-12 GH KH.   Automated water changes every second hour.

unless it's a patience thing, where the dirtynes slowly breaks down into patches then slowly dissolving into solid yellow maybe.

 

most petros, sex ratio and carefull attention to colony building is needed

Yeah that was one that I had seen that didn't look great. But i figured it was down to what you have already mentioned, environmental factors being a solitary fish in with a heap of Malawis. 

I saw a decent group (maybe 20 fish) at a store in Perth - again this is a store so maybe they had been moved recently plus the usual stressful factors associated with a store tank had subdued their colours. I then went to another hobbyists house within the last month who has a small 'breeding' colony, all these were the same muddy colour.

In short, I was just curious as to the major difference in colour between the canary yellow moshi I have seen online and what I've seen in front of my own eyes, which has been a fairly drab/muddy yellow/custard coloured fish. Didn't make for good viewing coupled with the difficult nature of keeping this fish effectively due to aggression is just a recipe for another lost cichlid to Australian hobbyists. Pesemistic or realistic.

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3 hours ago, Alex said:

....

I saw a decent group (maybe 20 fish) at a store in Perth - again this is a store so maybe they had been moved recently plus the usual stressful factors associated with a store tank had subdued their colours.....

if it is the store I saw them in, the pH in that tank was running around 7 I reckon.

agree, they looked very disappointing.

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Hi Guys,

Thought I would share a few pics of my Yellow Moshi, the males are the more color full one, I think they are beautiful, dominant males close to 20 cm.

Mine are in 6x2x2 with Duboisi and Red Moliros and all seem fine.

IMG_1554.JPG

IMG_1553.JPG

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1 hour ago, BengaBoy said:

if it is the store I saw them in, the pH in that tank was running around 7 I reckon.

agree, they looked very disappointing.

and dosed hard with Prime :)

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Yeah last night, my mosh did drop a fair whack of dirt look, and the yellow appeared glowing behind,, but he was picking on other fish lol.

See now, looking at Frank's his is much older with the head looking very beefy and I can just tell with that fleshy lump on it head and also it's thickened fin extensions ,,,,, that beef on top reveals its full maturity.

But Frank,,, your other one looks like it's been rolled in brown mud tho.

To me, it appears similar to Frontosa or even longer to get to minimum maturity, mine may need another year,,, but there are Definetely dirty individuals as are just about every pic I see (not the glorified selected best of best on Google).

It could be these may need continual line selection to remain a percentage of solid yellows.

I wonder if Jim or you Frank or anyone else has actually kept their fry and grown out to all solid yellows,,, interesting.

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I took a heap of pictures cause they are so awesome and I doubt they will ever grace my tank space again. 

These were still stressed from the initial move. I miss them but I know I could not care for them properly & that means it only ends badly for the fish. Aggression is maximum!

IMG_20160623_202607427.jpg

IMG_20160623_202502844.jpg

IMG_20160623_202605421.jpg

IMG_20160623_202445682.jpg

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