Bummer? Not so much..........

[DizzCat]

Long time no post peoples

So, due to severe cut back in my hours and thus my income, my poor fish tanks were suffering. I had to cut back on water changes due to no money for declor, etc. So I made the decision to go from 4 tanks to 1. Because I was starting to get stressed at taking care of so many tanks, the fun of it was going away.

Now, anyone who has an African Mbuna tank will know why that tank won without a second thought!

I loved my planted tank and my Bolivian Rams, but it is the Mbuna I am always watching and interacting with. So yesterday I found a good home for my Bolivian Ram pair and their tank mates and I am going to try adding some of my bigger plants to the Mbuna tank. I dropped 4 Amazon swords in there yesterday and they are leaving them alone. They LOVE the algae that is on the driftwood pieces I dropped in there too.

So, I packed up my 10 gallon, 20 gallon and 30 gallon tanks until a later time. I will keep the 10 handy in case someone gets sick, but other than that its just the big, colorful and extremely active 55 Mbuna tank. I will no longer try to save fry. I have my stock the way I want it now, so its time to stop stressing and start enjoying.

Its a bummer but a real load off my mind now. I just have the one tank to take care of, and its the easiest one. Once I redo that tank with the driftwood and plants I will take a new pic to show you all.

Hope everyone is doing great!

 

[mfdrookie516]

Glad to see ya back around. Hate to hear about having to dismantle some of the tanks, but im glad you kept the best one Glad there is no stress involved, now you can finally enjoy your masterpiece (and my favorite of all your tanks)

 

[DizzCat]

Thanks. I tell you, by the time I was done with all the other tanks my back hurt so bad I could hardly move. That is another reason for my decision too. I would do my WC's and the next day I could barely move my back would hurt so much. Even using my python. This is another reason I would go too long between WC's.

My 55, I just do a quick change and its done. No plants to prune, hardly any algae to scrape. Once a month big clean. The other tanks were smaller but 4 times the work.

I just love my Mbunas! Everyone who comes over glances at the other tanks, and then their attention is caught by the Mbunas and they completely forget I have others LOL.

I also have a few new additions to that tank. When I took my Bolivian Ram kids to my LFS I told the guy I wanted to try a couple Kenyi now that the rest of my fish are adults. I figure (I hope anyways!) that since Kenyi are so aggressive, if they grow up as the tiny ones, low in the pecking order, by the time they reach adulthood they will not be as aggressive as if they grew up with others small like them. So, the guy gave me 6 of them! He caught the most bluest with the darkest bars. They are beauties! There is 2 I suspect may be males and the others females. Once they hit maturity, I can return the extra male. Yay! I finally have my blue fish!

I will be getting a canister filter the end of Dec. A guy I have been selling fry to is going to give it to me for $30. He has a huge 200 gallon tank he is slowly filling, so what we do is when one of my mom's is holding I catch her on day 21 and strip the fry. He comes and gets them and raises them for his tank. He usually gives me about $20 for them. Last time he took home 23 teeny-tiny Yellow Lab fry. I have a Red Zebra mom that is holding and when I strip her, he will give me the canister filter (which is worth about $150). So I will probably have a lot of questions about that type of filter in a month. Right now I have 2 HOB filters that are made for 60+ gallon tanks. I am hoping a canister will add more water movement to the bottom of the tank too. I will also be on the look out for a used wooden stand then too. I have an iron one, but I hate it! Its way too tall for short me. It is about 10" taller than your average wooden stand for some reason. Oh well, a kid sold it to me for $10, and it got the tank off the floor. I do miss it being on the floor at times tho. I used to lay in front of the tank for hours!

 

[mfdrookie516]

my male kenyi rules my tank... everybody told me the bumblebees and auratus were the nasty guys, but the kenyi is the boss. never fights or anything, all the other fish just move when he comes around. He has also grown bigger than all the other fish. you will love them the females are some of the prettiest fish you can have imo... here is a pic of my male (sorry for the horrible quality)

 

[DizzCat]

He's a beaut! I think both the males and female Kenyi are beautiful!

 

[mfdrookie516]

you need to post pics of all your fish

 

[DizzCat]

Here is a link to my PhotoBucket site. On the left side is links to individual group pics.
African Mbuna pictures by dizzcat45 - Photobucket

This one has short vids of them. I will be making up a remix of all the Mbuna vids someday soon.
Afican Vids pictures by dizzcat45 - Photobucket

I will get new pics when I get the camera back from my daughter

 

[dkpate]

Wow, you're tank is beautiful.

 

[DizzCat]

I have the perfect example why I choose to keep the tank I did........
My family is out visiting me and yesterday they spent the day. Well, my parents have seen my Malawi tank during the day time, but its at night that they are most active. So, this was last evening while they were active.

Before people would look at my planted tank and say "OO, pretty, are those real plants?" and that was the end of it. No more interest. The Malawi tank on the other hand.......

"What kind of fish are those?"

ME: "African Mbuna, from Lake Malawi. Its a huge lake in Africa and the only place in the world you can find Mbuna. They are they closest cousins to salt water fish."

"What the heck is that fish doing to the dirt??"

ME: "Cleaning out a cave to entice the girls"

"Now what are they doing??" Male doing the shimmy shake and everyone laughing.

ME: "Trying to get the girl LOL"

"Why is that fish staring at me?"

ME: "Because they are really smart fish and she's probably trying to figure out what you are haha"

*THUMP!* "What was that??"

ME: "One of the females hitting the tank lid as she gets away from the male"

"What is wrong with that fishes mouth?"

ME:" she has a mouthful of babies" (Explains the process)

"And you find LIVE babies in there???"

It went on and on like that

THAT is why I kept the Malawi tank up and closed the boring Tetra, Danio, platty, guppy, ect. tank down.

I have some new pics to share.

#1 This first one is a tad blurry, so hard to get a good pic when they are constantly zooming back and forth! This pic has the live Amazon Swords now. I have a cool driftwood piece to add soon.

#2 is one of my new babies. A female Kenyi
#3 is my male Kenyi changing color to yellow. I lucked out, 4 females, 1 male!
#4 My beautiful Sciaenochromis fryeri, he is developing a white blaze and red fins. So pretty!

 

[mfdrookie516]

wow... beautiful fish and awesome play by play

 

[Lynae]

I dont know much about mbunas, but I really enjoyed this thread!!

 

[cwt]

nice pics! and good way to make lemonade out of those job lemons. You stuck with it while so many other people are just giving up their tanks to Craigslist or whatever.

 

[newfound77951]

Your tank and fish look fantastic. I recently had to do a similar downsizing...went from 4 tanks (55, 36, 10, 5) to two, just the 55 and the 10. Much easier and I can devote more time to the two remaining tanks - and they look better for it.

 

[DizzCat]

Much easier and I can devote more time to the two remaining tanks - and they look better for it.

I totally agree with you! Sometimes the tanks get a bit neglected, not to the health of the fish, but over run with algae, etc when you are trying to have too many tanks going. I now have the big 55 and a small 20 gallon that has 2 holding mom's in it. Once the guy pics up the fry I will close that one too.

I don't know about you, but it has been a load off my mind knowing I have enough food, declor, etc to last now. Plus I don't have to feel guilty evey time I run past a tank on my way to do something else.