Taking up Tanganyikan again!
 

Hi guys, I'm back to keeping my favourite fishes >> Tanganyikan cichlids!

A little intro about myself as 99.99% doesn't know me.....
started keeping guppies, mollies, bettas, etc since 40 years ago. Started keeping fishes seriously since 20+ years ago and bought my first Golden arowana then which costs me $1200 as well as custom build my first 5ft X 2ft X 2ft tank at $1600 which was something to be proud of then as during that time, having a 5ft tank was NOT common. :) Shortly after that I expanded my fish keeping collections by getting few more 4ft tanks and a few smaller tanks as well.....that's when I was intrigued by tanganyikan fishes and my priorities changed from arowanas to tanganyikan. Have kept tanganyikan for more than 10 years since then.....and then had to forgo this hobby 6 years+ ago as I have to leave Singapore to Australia. So I sold off all of my tanks (except the 5ft) and all of my fishes to hobbyists as well as fish shops.

Now I'm back in Singapore for good and have decided to start back my hobby in April this year and that's to keep tanganyikan fishes! Visited many lfs before that but was disappointed to see most doesn't sell tanganyikan! Luckily, thru some hobbyists (mainly Tangs_rule & ECtan) here, I've managed to secure some tangs and widen my tangs network again!

Sorry to have 'bored' readers here, but I was kinda hoping to locate some lost contacts too from the days of my tangs keeping. Way back then, knew quite a few good tangs keepers from Petfrd forum website (my nick is also Brichardi) as well as from CF (Jason's time). Drop me a line guys!

Thanks for reading,
sincerely
Raymond

Since I started back on tangs in April this year, my collection atm are >>

01) 3 leulupis
02) 8 brichardis
03) 8 comps
04) 8 calvus
05) 5 fronts
06) 4 buscheris
07) 2 julies
08) 3 cyprichromis
09) 3 bevis
10) 4 multis
11) 5 cynus
12) 8 macrops
13) 1 xeno
14) 3 temporalis
15) 3 daffoldils
16) 4 tanganicodus irsacae
17) 5 tropheus
18) 5 nigripinnis
19) 1 featherfin

Non-tangs are >>

01) 5 clown loches
02) 12 sterbei corys
03) 7 angelfishes
04) 2 gold nuggets plecos
05) 20 white cloud minnows
06) 01 salvini
07) 02 flying foxes
08) guppies

Would love to add more altos/lamps/julies or any other so called smaller tangs. Big tangs like furcifers/foais/tricotis/etc have to be shelved until there are plans for a 6 footer tank in future.

can drop by to nks, look for ric
ask him about his shipments:D

Wow...amazing collection! Where did u get ur multies from?? Been searching high and low for lfs selling but cant find any...

That is quite a list!
Keep it up and more haha:D

An extensive collection indeed... i believe a lot of effort went into collecting them. Looking forward to your tank setup.

Impressive collection:)

Do post some photos to share:)

wah your list very long leh, time for "Kodak moment"

From our tang Guru ECTan ofc!

Sure to get more, thanks.

Thanks!

Thanks guys! Sadly, I'm very poor with such technicality "taking/loading" photos. All of my time spent is related to my fishes. One fine day I will goggle up and maybe learn how to then. :)

Some of the fishes are from him actually. ;)

Spawning angelfishes
 

Totally unprepared for these, expected but still not sure what to do next. My tank of non-tanga which consists of 12 cory sterbei/11 white cloud minnows/2 gold nugget plecos/1 flying fox/7 angelfishes became a love nest for a pair of angelfishes. This is their first spawn since I bought 8 juveniles 4 months ago. Last 2 days I saw them repeatedly cleaning my couple of bogwoods and only last night I went to a lfs and bought myself a spawning A-shaped slate, and 1 hrs ago I cam back home and saw so many eggs on the slate. :eek:

Now I am in a dilemma...........:confused: decision time......what am I supposed to do with them. Any good suggestions? I have so many tanks but none of them are available. My thoughts are either >>

1) Remove the slate with eggs and hatch them separately; or
2) Ignore them totally and lose some hundreds living things soon.

I have decided to separate the 'eggs' and artificially hatch them (without the parents). Should know outcome tomorrow or next day.

GD luck..if they spawn show some pic.

Angelfish spawn
 

Just an update....

1) Day 1, the angelfish pair spawn on the spawning slate....about 400 eggs;
2) Day 2, the eggs seem lesser as I believed those not fertilized are eaten/gotten rid by the pair; Slate is removed to another tank to artificially hatch the eggs;
3) Day 3/4 (Today), some turned white, the rest dropped off from the spawning slate and became wrigglers.....about 50+ of them I think. Wrigglers look a lot smaller than most tanganyikan's ciclids eggs/fries. Hope they will take crushed dry food in 3~4 days time when they are free swimming, as I hate to hatch brine shrimps (hated the siphoning process).

Will keep u guys updated, cheers!

Good luck with the spawn.

My collection increased abit ...as I just bought 2 more leleupis, 8 dewindis, 3 dickfeldis from NKS just now. ;)

All the best, would love to see photos:)

Wa! This time must really drop by to check out your collections already!

I do NOT really know how to take pics from hp/camera & download it onto net, so u have to excuse me. :) However, if any bros would like to do the honor of helping.... :p


My collection is 'pathetic' if u compare with the gurus like ecTan & Kenneth etc. One staying in executive HDB and the other BIG bungalow whereas I've space constraint in my 4 rooms HDB flat. :o

Bro it's not a matter of what kind of house you live in it is how you decorate your tanks, your experience and the way you keep your fishes, how you play with the filtrations, maintain your pH and such to let your fishes thrive that ends up a good result and accomplishment in this hobby. Put in effort and passion into it and you'll get the kind of satisfaction when you reach their stage.
End of the day it's just a hobby, never compare just do our best;)

Well said!


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Basically, I meant bigger houses have more spaces for more tanks bro, nothing more to it. In fact I was totally surprised when I saw their collections. It never occurred to me that right here in Singapore (Tanganyikan cichlids are NOT as popular & thriving as in Europe) there are actually people like Kenneth/ecTan/etc that has such a HUGE collection! Kudos to them and happy that its because of people like them :cool: that kept the tanganyikan craze alive still.

As u all know, keeping tanganyikan cichlids is NOT cheap. And poor chap like me (retired since many years ago) .....there's a saying >> "You Xin, Wu Li". Since I started back on keeping fishes in April, I've spent more than $5k on this hobby (fishes/accessories) and I still want more and more tanks/fishes, but due to space constraints....it's hard to fulfil my wishes. Thus, my next project would be to get 3 tiers stands so I can get more tanks. :)

Angelfish fries
 

Day 7 >> Fries are free swimming now, about 50++ of them I think.

Now is the real challenge >> raising them on dried food instead of newly hatched brine shrimp. Fries are very small, slightly bigger than bettas fries only. I'm not optimistic about it but will try my best. Keep you guys posted.

Angelfish fries
 

Day 10 >> All fries gone!! Amusingly, 1 guppy from another tank managed to jump into it and cleared everything. :) She took the risks by jumping over (From another tank on another stand next to it) and well deserved the meal I guess. :D

Next project, I will just separate the angelfish pair into a tank of their own, since I heard they breed easily (every 2 weeks) from the first spawn. Let's see how it goes from there.

Callochromis macrops
 

My macrops are always spawning but they can't seem to hold their eggs. Longest one was holding for 7 days but gave up. Shame as they need to hold it for 3 weeks to then spit out the fries. Most likely reasons for them not holding is 1) community tank - co-existing with other species 2) not enough females to distract the 3 horny males; Hence my next project is to try out different methods: 1) Let it hold for 5~7 days and then strip them or 2) move the holding females to a tank of their own.

My current project is >> 2) I've separated 2 holding females to a tank of their own and see how many days they can hold the eggs. 3 weeks is a long time but let's wait and see how it goes. Wish me luck! :)

Angelfish spawn again
 

Day 11 >> lol The pair spawn again, sadly in the community tank. Too bad, I'm really out of tanks to separate the parents + eggs out or else I would. I have 7 pcs of angelfishes and from the look of it, there are 3 pairs.

Angelfish spawn again!
 

Day 12 >> All eggs gone, I have the privilege of seeing them eating the whole cluster in 3 mins, sharing with another angelfish + 1 brichardi. Good healthy meal! :D

Will separate the pair to spawn in a tank of their own in future when I have spare tank.

Callochromis macrops
 

Day 2 >> 1 female spat out her eggs....about 20 of them as they laid 'fungus-ing' on the bare bottom tank. The other female still holding but not promising. Thinking of stripping her of she ever holds 1 week..... :(

Day 3 >> Last holding female also spat out her eggs and fungused on bottom of tank. Project failed! :(

P/S: Is there any chance to close a thread...example like this one as I think I'm the one blabbering away and correct me if I'm wrong but it seems like most people just prefer to post whenever they needed help/advice or buy/sell and only a few peeps bother to share their experiences? :rolleyes: Peace out!

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/10/17/utezuzy5.jpg
Telmatochromis temporalis

Courtesy of Raymond :)


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The parents!!


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http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/10/17/ja8yjy7e.jpg


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This one nice!

Kindly keep us updated on yr fries Spencer/Dickson! :p

Thanks! Note the egg crate there :D Main purpose is to 1) raise the height & 2) deter the fish from digging deeper. :p

Haha okay
Interesting

Someone was at NKS and picked up 8 juvenile nigripinnis.......hence only left balance 4 for me....I wonder who is it? :confused: My private detective said he's a office working adult! :p

Oops...guilty! :D

Ah, missed it by couple hrs! How's the nigris now? pic?

Just an update....I have new fries/spawn for >>

1) Alto comps (few days old)
2) Callo. macrops (tumbling with tails/head attach to egg sac)
3) 2nd pair of angelfish (second time spawn, first time ate up all eggs on the 3rd day) <<< Priority as never get past the fries stage yet! :(

All suggestions/comments welcome for survival of fries! :D