Seeking input on petro articles

[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......

There are some real nice plastic plants. That Fish Place has some
I have purchased some 36 inch plastic plants 9.00.
they are called fancy plants from Aquarium Systems.

On sale now at this link.

http://www.petmountain.com/category/146/64/2/aquarium-systems.html?&Order=11

Bamboo - Giants 36+ inches $7.65
Tony Fern Plant 36+ inches $7.65

There are more selections but the one that I have are the above types.
they provide a ton of cover.... and the price is right and they really don't
look like the regular crapy plants.

[newb]

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

[myjohnson]

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

Glad you have you on board here.

[The_Watcher]

Excellent article......

The only thing that was not in the articles was the cause and cycle of agression........

My trews (Thank you Brian!!!!) only really go nutty is when the females start to drop their tubes. I call it the pherome in the water effect. Its like when a dog goes into heat, a woman puts on perfume, spring time for the birds, and so forth.

My two dominate males and the sub dominate males just go ballistic and it does make sense....... To really calm them down when this happens is a good water change and every other day. The water change is only good for about 8 to 12 hours before the males start to ramp up again and or the female spawns with the males.

If water was not such a high cost item in this area, I would love to put a dripper style water system into the tank. (135 gallon with 12 Ikola and 19 Red Rainbow tropheus with the 12 Trewavasse purchased from Brian)

If the water was say, replaced at 20 percent each day (filtered through a carbon system), then I imagine the aggression to be lower... Just my thoughts

Survival of the fittest involves all the senses.... Survival of the species involve the successes of maximizing your senses to propagate your own kind.

Thai.. Thank you so much for these articles....

Bill

"If water was not such a high cost item in this area, I would love to put a dripper style water system into the tank. (135 gallon with 12 Ikola and 19 Red Rainbow tropheus with the 12 Trewavasse purchased from Brian)

If the water was say, replaced at 20 percent each day (filtered through a carbon system), then I imagine the aggression to be lower... Just my thoughts"

Happy holidays,
I totally agree with the above part of what Bill is saying..
I have found that when I perform water changes the petros act much calmer and this is not because of stressing them out with a water change.
The water changes kind of stimulates the petros... I see a lot more dancing/flashing by the males. Water in my area is very high as well. I live right in the middle of Peter Rubin's Atlantis and Doug Conklings (Reserve Stock Cichlids) my water like theirs is perfect for African Cichlids, 8.6 out of the tap and loads of minerals and buffered to a point that is extremly hard to change the PH level.

Bill Thanks for your feed back
Frank

[The_Watcher]

Happy holidays to all.
I will try to clarify some of the points made by the members of this nice forum.
I find that this forum has a lot of petro people... nice

I had mentioned that I was pondering changing the water flow by replacing the Koralia 3. I have replaced it with a Koralia 8. With the Koralia 3 I had a 2400 Mag Drive and the return on that added to the flow as well. So the present water current in the 240 is Mag 2400, Fluval XP5 and the Koralia 8. The petros seem to play in the current.

Some of those fake plants look really good (Silk). But they lasted all of about 3 weeks.... LOL The plastics look like crap.

And you are absolutely right about the ($$$$) dither fish vs adding more Petros.

Thanks for the feedback

Im not so sure I like all of this guys method...maybe in his 240gallon he should add more current to the water(Koralia 3 just isnt enough), and maybe add some tropheus as dithers instead of taking a big punch in the wallet by purchasing like 15 petros like he proposed...just my opinion. I like his insight on LINE OF SIGHT issues. I have noticed SMALL amounts of chasing like he said, where the dominant male will charge a fish on the other side of the tank but not the one right next to him. However, I dont think I will be adding no ugly fake plants! Instead I think the chase ends in my tank due to the really high amount of flow at the ends of the tank. The one thing I will consider if I ever go "all petros" in this tank, willl be to add more "caves" that the petros can fit under and around. With such large fish...you really got to be purposely adding caves and stuff in order for them to move in and out of them with ease....not always the best looking aquascape either.

[myjohnson]

Hopefully, I can get Frank to join our forum.

Dude knows his petros.

[geoff_tropheus]

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.

[geoff_tropheus]

don't forget to check out the sticky for "Petrochromis Links"

I got more later I am trapped at work right now...

[TROPHS4LIFE]

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,

well put,nothin is written in stone,my go to saying when it comes to fish keeping...............glad to hear there working for you,most cant say the same,excellent keep up the good work!

[fshfrk]

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,

[newb]

same with Tropheus too.

[myjohnson]

Thanks Randell and Bill. Keep up with the feed back.

More than one way of keeping these fishes I tell you that.

[billansor]

Excellent article......

The only thing that was not in the articles was the cause and cycle of agression........

My trews (Thank you Brian!!!!) only really go nutty is when the females start to drop their tubes. I call it the pherome in the water effect. Its like when a dog goes into heat, a woman puts on perfume, spring time for the birds, and so forth.

My two dominate males and the sub dominate males just go ballistic and it does make sense....... To really calm them down when this happens is a good water change and every other day. The water change is only good for about 8 to 12 hours before the males start to ramp up again and or the female spawns with the males.

If water was not such a high cost item in this area, I would love to put a dripper style water system into the tank. (135 gallon with 12 Ikola and 19 Red Rainbow tropheus with the 12 Trewavasse purchased from Brian)

If the water was say, replaced at 20 percent each day (filtered through a carbon system), then I imagine the aggression to be lower... Just my thoughts

Survival of the fittest involves all the senses.... Survival of the species involve the successes of maximizing your senses to propagate your own kind.

Thai.. Thank you so much for these articles....

Bill

[russ]

Hey Russ nice to hear from you,and you know ill have pics for you guys,i hear all the horror storys and am keeping my eyes peeled for a little bigger tank incase...........real good excuse to snap up a 180 anyways lol............"honey we cant just let them die" lol,she fold........hahaha

i had mine in a 180 when he went crazy,try and get ya a 8 footer!
nice to hear from you to!

[TROPHS4LIFE]

make sure and post pics!!!
i successfully bred the kasumbe,but my alpha went haywire and killed them all...only ones left are my alpha and 9 4-5 inch juvies!

Hey Russ nice to hear from you,and you know ill have pics for you guys,i hear all the horror storys and am keeping my eyes peeled for a little bigger tank incase...........real good excuse to snap up a 180 anyways lol............"honey we cant just let them die" lol,she'll fold........hahaha