Seeking input on petro articles

[The_Watcher]

This is all for Frank man. He has more collections then most people know of on this forum. I'm just happy I could help him out.

Thanks Thai, but the trick here is to breed all of these guys before they kill each other

Also another link to another one of leigh's (Apex) articles.
(Care and Maintenance of Petrochromis )

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/care_main_petro_pt1.php

[myjohnson]

This is all for Frank man. He has more collections then most people know of on this forum. I'm just happy I could help him out.

[billansor]

Hi guys

The below link is an article that Leigh (Apex) wrote and he may have written it a way back.... but I thought that it would provide a good jump off for this discussion on articles and input on the articles...

Please read the link first and then scroll past the link for the discussion.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/petrochromis_myth.php

Everyone remember that game show... Lets make a deal or
What is behind door number one, number two and number three??

Well... Leigh almost kinda scared my wiggins off with the idea that we, in order, to get into petro's should spend thousands and thousands and maybe more money on petro's.

While its true that many of you all have spent thousands and thousands... What has it gained???? For some of you, it has been fun... for some of you it has been disasterous and for many of you almost been a swamp of frustrations.

But having said that...

The idea of what is behind door number one is say a Wild Caught group of Longolia... about 6 inches or so... 3 males 9 females. 75 bucks a pop because of their larger size... 900 dollars behind door number one..

Now the number two door has say 10 fry from inch to inch and half.. and charge 30 bucks per pop.. so now we have 300 dollars lurking behind dor number two...Note that Sara aka Longstocking charges 45 dollars for her fry/juvies

and for door number three... We have 10 juvies at about 55 bucks per fish.. These are about 2 to 3 inches or so.. so now 550 dollars..

Now... We have these three sets of options in a general format... Soooooo

We get the wild caught they breed quicker... maybe more meaner personality mixed in that group... need a larger tank... More risk.. Some might not eat right away. Other issues..

We get the little itty bitty fry... for a third of the cost... Heck if we can.. lets get twenty and still be ahead of the game.... That is ... if we can get them for 30 dollars per fish....... Sooooo they grow up... Takes time for them to mature.. to get to size.. Have some good acclimating toward one another.. Downsize is that it takes too long for them to grow up.. ...

or

Lets get the juvies... spend more.... more potential risk.. Not as much as say the WC... take shorter time to get size than from starting from scratch. Potential aggression is still minimal compared to the WC ... Can in both fry and juvie start out with smaller tank..

Now in the case of Leigh article............ He was pretty dang discouraging in a way...

But

getting fry or juvie should elminiate a lot of that discouragement in a way also...

My observation of this whole kitboodle is simply that it takes time to learn the traits of your petro. Some are mellow animals... (some - not a lot just some) Some are so hyped up, that it makes they make a lightning strike seem slow..

The one thing that I would like to see is more start to breeding articles and or experiences of petro people on here.

I would like to also see some definite proof that pulling or stripping eggs out of the fish damage their ability to breed in the future and or lack of imprinting issues..

Like, Geoff, My trews breed and will not hold. Out of my 3 males and 9 females... all of the females have breed at least once... with many breeding more than three times. It appears that they eat the eggs within days..

When the fish room is done... and there is a tank for tumbling... I am going to pull them eggs out and put them into the tumbler...... There will be pictures taken regularly as well as a count of those eggs that become unviable.

Sorry to have rambled... But hey Thai.... you kinda asked..

Bill

[The_Watcher]

Russ,
I see that you are in Ohio... I use to attend the OCA on a regular basis... 4 or 5 years in a row.... Since I started Petros no OCA....
I had a few members from our North Jersey Club come out and Ken from Kensfish(18 years,knew him when his price list was half a page) is a buddy of mine as well. I have not been to the last 2 OCA auctions...

Also I made a vist to your web page via your link...
I noticed that you have WC Petro Sp. Ikola Ikola ... up to what male / female ratio would you sell these.
What sizes are the Petro Ikolas ?
last but not least have you cut off your shipping yet (last shipping date before it gets too cold, if you have one) ?

frschul on another site.

[myjohnson]

Over the last year I have collected a lot of Petro information from this site. You learn from other hobbyist failures and success stories.


Thanks for starting this thread.... I am new to petros , and only sharing my experiences. I am a rookie when it comes to PETROS.
My saying is "Learning means, never stop listening"
Happy holiday to you and your family.

Now you just being modest!

You got more contact with importers than I do!

[The_Watcher]

where is the article...i'd like to check it out!

I have nine articles , another seven that have not been started/finished...


WWW.petrochromisman.com

articles section

[russ]

Yeah I have heard the horror stories... That is why I listed them in the note: I know that when they get larger there will be a new king on the thron. check out my Kasumbe Vs Red Dorsal Macro Kipili article.... funny

where is the article...i'd like to check it out!

[The_Watcher]

keep an eye on the kasumbe when the get bigger...they are straight up killers!i got mine to breed,and got 50 or so fry from them!out of the blue the alpha killed every last one of them!i;ve never had polydon but have heard they are very mean to.how is the aggression in that tank?how long have you had them?

Yeah I have heard the horror stories... That is why I listed them in the note: I know that when they get larger there will be a new king on the throne. check out my Kasumbe Vs Red (Rainbow) Dorsal Macro Kipili article.... funny
In the 240 the Blue Giants rule. The first week one dead 6.0 Polyodon male(I suspect he was the alpha male who did not back down... LOL). The Blue Giant Alpha Male is 13 inches he is one of the best colored fish that I have seen(the blue in the fins are fantastic). the rest of the Blue Ginats are 6 - 10 inches. Most of the Polyodons are in the range of 4.0 - 5.5+ ... I had way more aggression in the 240 with the Red Dorsal Macros.
Those are the worst. I now have about 12 Rainbows in a 150 gallon tank with 11 pond Raised Famula Kaiser and a pair of WC Rainbow Kasumbe so far no problems (keeping my fingers crossed)....

[russ]

Absolutely right about the 100 count in a 240 gallon tank.... That count was from a importer that sells petros in PA. But he did have Tri-Colors holding young. In my 150 I have 14 Famula, a trio of Kasumbe Halembe, A quad of Red Eye faciolatus and 6 Trew.... 2 Famula females and 1 Red Eyes presently holding. But multiple variants cuts down on one or the other not breeding. Note(the Kasumbe are only 4.5 inches, the Famula are the largest, then then Red Eyes, then the Kasumbe, then the Trew).

My buddy who is an importer right here in the New York City area took the remaining fish from what I had ordered. He place 2/5 Polyodons in a 125 gallon tank along with 3 / 9 Blue Fin Famula.
His Polyodons are now holding. My Polyodons in the 240 with multiple variants are not.... something for me to consider.

keep an eye on the kasumbe when they get bigger...they are straight up killers!i got mine to breed,and got 50 or so fry from them!out of the blue the alpha killed every last one of them!i;ve never had polydon but have heard they are very mean to.how is the aggression in that tank?how long have you had them?

[The_Watcher]

50 or 100 in a 240. Maybe 50 but there will be no breeding. It would be a show tank only. +1 on dither fish. They are a lot cheaper.
My polyodons the best number seems to be 11 in a 210. I let the dominate male pic his tank mates. He culled 8 males. so now he's happy. got 20 fry in the last couple of months.
The trews it seems 32 fish in another 210 is the majic number. Had 40 but started netting out males 3 moths ago. culled out 8. Best thing I ever did. Breeding went nuts. Got out 20 fry in the last couple of weeks with more holding.
But this works for me. Maybe not the next guy. Like people said lots of different ways to do this hobby,

Absolutely right about the 100 count in a 240 gallon tank.... That count was from a importer that sells petros in PA. But he did have Tri-Colors holding young. In my 150 I have 14 Famula, a trio of Kasumbe Halembe, A quad of Red Eye faciolatus and 6 Trew.... 2 Famula females and 1 Red Eyes presently holding. But multiple variants cuts down on one or the other not breeding. Note(the Kasumbe are only 4.5 inches, the Famula are the largest, then the Red Eyes, then the Kasumbe, then the Trew which are only 3 inches).

My buddy who is an importer right here in the New York City area took the remaining fish from what I had ordered. He place 2/5 Polyodons in a 125 gallon tank along with 3 / 9 Blue Fin Famula.
His Polyodons are now holding. My Polyodons in the 240 with multiple variants are not.... something for me to consider.

[The_Watcher]

exactaly what i was thinking,though right away about a dither troph group to add,with you on the fake plants,ill have to go find some "real" large plants this week end only thing i have in there curently is crinum,pervious trophs seem to leave them alone,only plant that has stood up to them......

Your petros will enjoy that lunch .... for $7.00 plus shipping try the link for fake plants.

Sorry I thought you had petros in that tank... did not truly read your entire post...

[The_Watcher]

Alex had is Bulu Colony in a 8ft 240 and things did not work out for him.

I have 16 Trews in my 8ft 300 and in 2 years have only had 12 fry successful reared, but I have had 2-3 females holding. The Lunangwa Trophs that are in there with them have been breeding very successfully, I have had about 40 fry in the last year from them, and they are adult group of 10 fish. So they do good.

I have 9 Tri-Colors in the 10ft 300 and I have had a female hold once in only having this tank setup for 3 weeks now. John Jolley had them in this tank for 18 months, and said he would get females to hold, but never saw any spit fry. There are 30 Red Rainbows WC/F1 in this tank and they have had some success breeding.

I have 21 Famula Chimba's grow from spit fry to 4-5" sub adults before I sold them to Peter, and they were just starting to get where they were holding numerous times. I had them in my 180 with about 30 Ikola Tropheus, and when they reached this size, all my Ikola breeding stopped. I used to produce about 20 fry a month in my Ikola colony until the Petros tried to take over.

Then Peter put them in his 215 and they breed like rabbits.

I truely believe that Trophs and Petros are really not good to be together, because if the Petro's are not the largest fish, they will dominate and take over your Troph alpha when they are at his size. Alex told me numerous times his Alpha Maswa tried to maintain territories and in single hits or two, his Bulu Alpha would kill them.

What has worked for me is a reef landscape with the tallest piles in the center to knock down line of sight.

I have also found that by having multiple Petro variants in the same tank.
one variants tends to suffer in the breeding ritual. My Alpha Longola male would break up the spawning ritual of my Tri-Colors by swooping in and eating the newly laid egg.

[The_Watcher]

Didn't even know you were a member already Frank!

Glad you have you on board here.

Over the last year I have collected a lot of Petro information from this site. You learn from other hobbyist failures and success stories.


Thanks for starting this thread.... I am new to petros , and only sharing my experiences. I am a rookie when it comes to PETROS.
My saying is "Learning means, never stop listening"
Happy holiday to you and your family.

[The_Watcher]

heck yeah...any updates to your petro tanks since you posted your articles?

More articles, more petros and less money ...
check my breeding log ...on my site...

10 Blue Giants , 20 Polyodons, Blue Fin Famula, Red Eyes Fasciolatus and Kasumbe Halembe.

This is a sickness.

Happy holidays to all
and may Santa bring you that new tank for more Petros.

[The_Watcher]

heck yeah...any updates to your petro tanks since you posted your articles?

I just purchased a Nikon D3000 18-55 & 55 -200 lenses .... I am learning how to use the darn thing.
It is not easy taking photos of fish LOL.... A remote flash would have been nice. Photos will happend ....