I used to keep fish back in the late 70's - early 80's. I kept and bred mostly CA Cichlids, but I had an assortment of other fish such as alligator gars, knifefish, puffers.
I just got back into raising fish again in November when a business acquaintance wanted to get rid of his 110 gallon tank set up and I thought "What the heck".
First, I put in four Firemouth juveniles, an algae eater and an albino bristle-nosed pleco followed shortly by 4 juvenile Jack Dempseys. I soon realized that those young fish in a big tank spent most of their time hiding, so I went in search of some dithers. At one of the first LFS', I saw a tank that said "Cobalt Zebras $7.95; Mixed Africans $1 each special". Since all of the juveniles in the tank looked similar, I asked the manager which ones were juvenile Cobalt Zebras. She said that, although she knew, she'd sell me whatever fish I wanted in the tank for $1 each, so I bought all five fish in the tank. I, also bought two more juvenilke JDs that were in the adjacent tank for the same price. My thinking at the time was that the Mbunas would act as dithers and the other fish would come out of hiding.
It worked, they all got along swimmingly (pun intended).
As they began to mature, I thought that I would begin to have real problems, but the only problems I had were intra-species chasing. The JDs didn't bother anyone else, the Firemouths occasionally chased each other, but the Mbunas spent most of their time in pursuit or each other and digging like Bob the Builder.
Now, 9 months later, I have a breeding pair of Cobalt Zebras, three hybrid? Mbunas, 4 colorful FMs, 6 colorful JDs a larger algae eater and an albino pleco living in relative peace.
I just got back into raising fish again in November when a business acquaintance wanted to get rid of his 110 gallon tank set up and I thought "What the heck".
First, I put in four Firemouth juveniles, an algae eater and an albino bristle-nosed pleco followed shortly by 4 juvenile Jack Dempseys. I soon realized that those young fish in a big tank spent most of their time hiding, so I went in search of some dithers. At one of the first LFS', I saw a tank that said "Cobalt Zebras $7.95; Mixed Africans $1 each special". Since all of the juveniles in the tank looked similar, I asked the manager which ones were juvenile Cobalt Zebras. She said that, although she knew, she'd sell me whatever fish I wanted in the tank for $1 each, so I bought all five fish in the tank. I, also bought two more juvenilke JDs that were in the adjacent tank for the same price. My thinking at the time was that the Mbunas would act as dithers and the other fish would come out of hiding.
It worked, they all got along swimmingly (pun intended).
As they began to mature, I thought that I would begin to have real problems, but the only problems I had were intra-species chasing. The JDs didn't bother anyone else, the Firemouths occasionally chased each other, but the Mbunas spent most of their time in pursuit or each other and digging like Bob the Builder.
Now, 9 months later, I have a breeding pair of Cobalt Zebras, three hybrid? Mbunas, 4 colorful FMs, 6 colorful JDs a larger algae eater and an albino pleco living in relative peace.
