Ant Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 Thought I'd pop in and say g'day. I've not been very active due to a ball an chain oops......getting married (all jokes, my wife is awesome). I've passed more than just this mile stone as I've officially kept the same species of cichlids for over 2 years now without purchasing new tanks!!! This is proof for those that feel this is impossible...lol. Have only 2 tanks. Main tank has Ps.Elongatus *Mphanga*, O.Lithobates and N.Brichardi (both albino and non). My other tank is a grow out with an albino male bn and normal female bn. I apologise for spelling issues I don't remember exact spelling! Once upon a time I would have modded this post and made all corrections...lol. Will add pics soon!Ant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ant Posted October 5, 2012 Author Share Posted October 5, 2012 Sorry about the poor quality. Especially the last one, however it does show the natural colour of my male lithobate (not photoshoped). You can also see he's had a decent growth spurt since the first pic a couple of months ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ant Posted October 6, 2012 Author Share Posted October 6, 2012 Here's one that shows his yellow blaze better: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogboy Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 hey Ant, looking good mate ! welcome back Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ged Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 Ant great to have you back online.I love the depth of the male O. lithobate but I can never go past Ps. elongatus. "Elongatus Mpanga" is one of the nicer variants Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ged Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 Are you still teaching in South Australia? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ant Posted October 6, 2012 Author Share Posted October 6, 2012 Cheers Richard. Hows your setup going?Gday Ged, yes mate. In my 7th year of teaching. Looking now at introducing Aquaculture into the school through the middle school. We have been doing fishing as a useless subject for a few years now and we have heaps of kids interested in fish. The aim in the long run is to offer cert 1 & or 2 in Aquaculture. You still running the Aquaculture program at your school? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimB Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 Nice fish mate! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogboy Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 hey ant,still trying to buy the new house and then i can think about setting up a new fish room, currenty in a rental with a few small tanks shoehorned into it and have fish at work and a few fish friends are helping babysit fish for me. will be great to get them back under one roof again.good to see you are looking after my babies well. they are looking stunning. that lithobates looks amazing, its father was always hiding so never got to see it in all its glory Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ant Posted October 6, 2012 Author Share Posted October 6, 2012 Yes, he is very different than yours in that way. He is centre of attention in the tank, always out and about. It probably helps that he's got 4 girls to tend to. Also got a lot of competition for space, with the brichardi and elongates. I have not actually lost any from the original batch I bought from you. The only fish I lost was one of the off spring males I introduced to the tank (bad move). The elongates colony keeps on expanding due to several fry surviving in amongst the slate. This is amazing considering the crowded nature of the tank. There is one smaller male I need to remove and a small female that I will likely keep with them, but have already removed several in the past that I have sold off. No luck with the brichardi yet, both albino are female, I have introduced 2 normal males in the tank but they are a bit confused about which team they bat for I think. So far both females have paired up and the two males have paired up also...odd. Did you have to sell off many of you fish?Ant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogboy Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 all the malawis went about a year ago, and had to thin out the tangs a bit but have managed to keep most of them, too hard to get Tanganyikans in SA to sell them off, lost a few of the more delicate species whils moving them around and i have somehow managed to buy more fish and squeeze them into tanks, addict for sure. wish i had your willpower to have just one tank! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 ANT! Great to hear from you! Welcome back into the fold... Andrew. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ged Posted October 8, 2012 Share Posted October 8, 2012 I am not running the Aquaculture program at my old school anymore. I now provide advice to schools delivering VET courses such as aquaculture here in NSW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ant Posted October 8, 2012 Author Share Posted October 8, 2012 That's good. I've seen lots of money wasted by schools by just doing it wrong. I plan to have stand alone small systems for kids to run. Minimal fish. I want to avoid needing an Sso to run it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogboy Posted October 8, 2012 Share Posted October 8, 2012 you guys into aquaponics at all? my old ap system is now at uni sa or tafe. cant remember which but being used as a teaching aid there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ged Posted October 8, 2012 Share Posted October 8, 2012 Had a great hydroponics setup growing lettuce under lights and tomatoes in a 20 metre tunnel that was fully automated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ged Posted October 8, 2012 Share Posted October 8, 2012 That's good. I've seen lots of money wasted by schools by just doing it wrong. I plan to have stand alone small systems for kids to run. Minimal fish. I want to avoid needing an Sso to run it.Always better to start with something that is manageable. If you want to see a great system you can't go past Newman Senior Technical College at Port Macquarie. They supply most of the Clown Fish on the east coast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Link2Hell Posted October 8, 2012 Share Posted October 8, 2012 great fish Ant and so good to here of someone happy with what they havewhen everyone else wants the world Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ant Posted October 8, 2012 Author Share Posted October 8, 2012 I have looked into it. It would make an excellent project for year 12 students. Amazing growth rates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ant Posted October 9, 2012 Author Share Posted October 9, 2012 great fish Ant and so good to here of someone happy with what they havewhen everyone else wants the world Cheers. I got them from Dogboy a couple of years ago. I swear I could supply the state with these things. Prolific breeders and even the smaller Lithobates females have 50 fry per mouthful. I just harvest the odd mouthful. It works out perfect, I sell to one particular shop and by the time the next lot is ready they have sold out. Enjoy it much more than when I was on the constant hunt for new species. It good to fry grow and see them in their full glory as adults! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogboy Posted October 9, 2012 Share Posted October 9, 2012 i did supply the state for a while, i built the litho colony to 3 males 14 females and had up to 11 mouthfuls a month. TOOOOO many fish. the elongatus gave me 4 or 5 mouthfuls a month. i gave up in the end cos the market was flooded, 1 year later you cant seem to find them !!! glad there is someone still breeding them, nice fish, and such a sensible way to do it rather than having a fish room taking upall your spare time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Link2Hell Posted October 9, 2012 Share Posted October 9, 2012 great stock you passed on Dogboy makes a statement on the quality of theoriginal line you startedit's a sad fact that things you think will always be there seem to dissapearwhen you go to look for them again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ant Posted October 9, 2012 Author Share Posted October 9, 2012 So true. The quality of blues and even yellows these days is bad. One of my first successes was with Ps. Lombardoi. I managed to scrounge some really nice fish from around the place and only harvested fry from the best females. I managed some very good quality fry with thick even bars and great colour. I look now and most have too many bars, or broken and thin bars and very washed colour. I wish I continued with them. Now they are almost a pest that no one wants, like the convict. My next step is to sorce some females from a different line, the only issue is that I can't be certain (even interstate) that they are not related or poor quality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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