help identify this calvus

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keiferd

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Nov 4, 2003
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Hey hopefully you guys can help me out. I bought this little guy a few days ago and he was sold to me as a black calvus; however, since I purchased him he has developed a little bit of yellow on his fins and his head. Is this actually a yellow calvus? Is this to early to determine since he is only about 1" long?

 

toddnbecka

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Dec 17, 2004
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Either way, not a good choice for mixing with mbuna. Calvus aren't nearly as active or aggressive in general, and will have a tough time competing for food.
 

keiferd

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Thats what I was worried about at 1st, but he's pretty tough. He's by far the smallest fish in my tank, but whenever an mbuna wanders close, he sticks his fins up in an aggressive stance and holds his ground and the mbuna just swims away, even the alpha male of the tank thats almost five times his size ignores him but chases almost everything else. As for feeding, he gets the food but refuses to eat flake. He aggressively chases it and eats it, but only consumes a portion of it and spits out the rest. he loves the frozen emerald treat I feed them which consists of spinach and mysis shrimp, But I've heard It's not healthy if you feed them that everyday.
 

toddnbecka

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Dec 17, 2004
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The diet is the other problem, unless you can get the little bugger to take NLS. Mbuna in general need a veggie-based diet, while calvus are stricly carnivores by nature. Mysis is too "rich" to feed very often, frozen abult brine shrimp is much less fatty, but still not good for mbuna as a daily diet.
I have an overabundance of small cichlid pellets, could send you some to try out for the cost of shipping. I bought a big jar on e-bay, better price than the small ones at the lfs, and ended up splitting it into smaller portions and freezing for long-term storage. Every time I open the freezer I'm reminded that the pellets aren't dwindling nearly as fast as the flakes. :shakehead:
My yellow Lab's, Hap's, lone Julie, BN pleco, and Syno's all thrive on a main diet of HBH African Attack flakes, with spirulina flakes twice weekly. The multi's and buescheri in the other 55 grow and breed on the same diet, though a little lighter on the spirulina flakes. The small NLS pellets are mainly fed to the multi's and HRP's, but it looks like I still have enough for another year or so at the current rate of consumption.
 
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