Some pictures of my recent purchases

Here are some pictures of the recent purchases that I made over the last 3 months.

I usually post them right away but I been way too busy. All are cichlids except for the hoplo cat. Since we are moving in the next few months I have shut down some of my tanks. I'm now only running seven.

Once the new house is bought though. Skies the limit on setting the other four up as well as any other ones I spontaniously purchase. Man I love working at Big Al's.

Here are the pictures.

I''ll start with the Hoplo cat. This is my second one. My first is about 6 inches now. I love this fish. Granted it is not a very good picture though.



My new Blue Acara


My dwarf Texas. I call him this because he's a runt. The store got 15 Texas in a few months back. They all grew and are around 2 inches now. This little guy is still just under 1/2 an inch. I saved him from getting eaten and is now in my 20 gallon long planted tank on a heavy protein diet. Hasn't grown a lick in 1 month. I'm really curious to see what happens.


My new firemouth. Mean little S.O.B. fits in nicely.


Some more baby blue dempsey's. I picked up a few weeks back. Got them for $10. Just more for my breeding experiment. These guys are eating like pigs and are roughly an inch and a half now.




Now for the big boys.

My Buttikoferi. 4 inches and living up to the name Butt-Kicker. what a fish.... What an attitude. COOL!


Herichthys Urophthalmus. Female I think. Roughly 6 inches now. I have in my tank with my big male JD (8 inches) they go at each other whacking the egg crate daily. A month or so more and I will remove the egg crate and see what happens. This fish has no fear.



That's them. As soon as the move is done and the rest of the tanks are back up I should have more. Hope you like them.

Pictures

Joe:

Here is an older picture of my bigger Hoplo. I will try and get a better shot of either the big or small one and post it for you.



Rich.
Blue Jd's are cool. They are however a bigger pain than they are worth. I'm presently trying to breed them. It's tough. It is almost impossible to breed them true. Only 3% of males are fertile and crossing with a regular JD will only get you blue fry after about 3 generations of breeding and cross breeding. They also tend not to be as big or tough as the regular JD's. Which has it's good points as well as it's bad.

Here's a lousy shot of my big 5 inch female in her breeding colors. She is mating with my big regular male. Three nests so far with the eggs eaten everytime. Funny thing is. She will only lay eggs when the water is murky and in rough shape. (see the picture) The complete opposite to when I bred regular JD's. They wanted clean perfect water.
Next time they spawn I am however prepared to remove the next batch of eggs when they arrive.



I'll see about getting some clearer shots of her to post as well.