My fish room for Malawis

[Wy Renegade]

Very cool - you gonna start trading/selling your offspring? You got a very nice collection going there.

[mattrox]

Thanks guys. Just posting a few pics.
This male Red Top Ndumbi is starting to colour up nicely.

Spot the baby afra!

Male kingsizei showing off.

afra Cobue defending its patch.


Yes Wy Renegade I'll be selling fry locally, and thanks.

[mattrox]

One of the lithobates Zimbabwe Rock is starting to show some yellow colouration.



And a little Aulonocara stuartgranti (Cobue) is really starting to get blue.


They seem to changing everyday.
And there is a Lab. Nkahli holding! Just put her into a fry rearing tank.

[meegosh]

I failed at your Where's Waldo. I cannot spot the fry!

They all seem to be coloring up nicely. You'll have more fry than you know what to do with soon! Congrats and keep the pics coming!

[mattrox]

Originally Posted by meegosh

I failed at your Where's Waldo. I cannot spot the fry!

[meegosh]

Wow! Looked like another piece of gravel to me. I thought for a second you were playing a sick joke on us! LOL.

[Fastfossil]

Me too keep posting pics

[mattrox]

I was doing some filter maintenence an thought I'd post a pic of the coral gravel I am using in the filters as a buffer medium. It is "10mm coral sand".
It looks like it has good surface area for bacteria to grow too.



And on a side note, my kingsizei male was seen breeding with an afra Jalo Reef female. The kingsizei will have to go into a different tank.

[Fastfossil]

I was in a very bad car crash (not my Fault ) and will be getting half a million pounds for it in 10 months and Then will set up a fish room of note to breed and look after. Keep posting I am learning for all of you all the time for the day I buy all the gear and will post pictures of the set up. Going to start with 15 tanks then when they running and all is well will get another 15 and then another 15 and will stop at 60 tanks in different sizes. I love this hobby.I cant wait for the delivery's.lol

[mattrox]

Sorry to hear about the accident. I hope you have recovered!

The fish room is very rewarding but it is time consuming and hard work too.

[mattrox]

Swimming in formation!

Now a maingano is holding!

[mattrox]

Bought some 120cm white LED strip lighting from e-bay today. I'll have to experiment to get the light levels right, but 16 strips will get me started. I hope to do 2 strips per 4ft tank.

If it works, this will leave 2 more 4 ft tanks to light up and then I need to think about the 3ft and 6ft tanks. I think they do 96cm strips and these will be ideal length, just need to see how the first lot go. I might have to do 3 strips per tank, but I am not doing display tanks so I doubt I'll need it "bright". Hopefully the LEDs will show up the fish's colours better for photography.

[Tarkus2112]

My mind has been officially blown.


You have an amazing setup that looks better than most fish stores I've been in. I'm just trying to figure out how you managed to pull this off. Do you skip eating and sleeping? haha

[mattrox]

When setting it up I skipped sleeping.. hehehe I never skip eating. If I pwc a few tanks one day a few the next, the weekly maintenance isn't so bad.

So far I have fry from:
Kadango red fin
Benga peacock
Red Shoulder Peacock
Yellow labs
afra Cobue
Lab. nkahli

And Holding eggs,
afra Cobue
elongatus mpangha
Lab. chisumulae
maingano
Benga Peacock
Red Shoulder peacock - might let this lot get spit in the tank, I over 100 fry from these

[mattrox]

A couple of pics of the O. lithobates "Zimbabwe Rock" colouring up.

[Marconis]

You have gorgeous fish. Your photos make me want to get back into cichlids asap.

[mattrox]

Thanks Marconis.


I got a phone call on my way to work. The LED lighting has arrived! I am excited because now it will look like a real fish room, and I will be able to see fish properly without moving around light fixtures. Hopefully I can show some progress on the lighting soon.

[Aquarium1]

That's awesome! Can't wait to see how it looks with the new lighting! Your fish look amazing btw .

[mattrox]

I took the LED lights (1 strip) into an electronics store. They tested it, the strip draws 330mA. So I bought 2 transformers, 240V AC to 12V DC at 5A for $30 each. This means I could feasibly put 15 strips per transformer linked in parallel. I will use double sided tape to fix the strips to the rack.
I tested them out and two strips produce adequate lighting on my 4ft x 14"W x 20"H tanks for the fish room. For a display tank you would need 3 or 4 depending on width and depth of the tank. They show off the fishes colours well and enable me to take photos without a flash. I will install properly when I get double sided tape.

Transformer.


Test run. The photo makes the lights look brighter than they are.


The tank all lit up with the LED lights.


A shot of the fish under LED lighting.

Clearly these were just quickly taken, my photo skills need work, water need polishing and the glass was dirty, but not a bad result.
The beauty is I can put in a 3rd strip later and the transformer will have the capacity to take them.

[Aquarium1]

Wow, that's some pretty cool lighting!!! How many more do you have have to do? lol