Hey, you're the one who picked up the salvini? What I suggest is keeping them in a fairly large species tank if you can spare the space, anything from 29 gallons upwards. I brought the parents back from Florida, half a dozen fish I think, and put them in my 65 gallon high with lots of broken flower pots. (They were about twice the size of the fish you bought in the auction last night.) As they reached about 4 inches, two of the fish begain to show what looked like abrasions on their upper jaws. Eventually, I saw that the two largest fish were getting into a shoving match, locking jaws and pushing each other back and forth. After a while, I didn't see much of them for a week or so, then I saw a cloud of fry come out of the flower pot.
At that point, I took the four remaining adults out of the tank, which might have been a mistake. About two weeks later, one of the parents was hovering in a corner, looking pretty sedate. I removed him (or her?) to a solitary aquarium, but he/she died in a couple of days. Someone in the cichlid club told me I should have left the remaining adults in the tank as a focus for the parents' aggression. (I don't know if they would have survived--the parents were pretty nasty.) Presumably, without a focus for their aggression, the parents began fighting among themselves. (What parents never disagreed on how to raise the kids?) Barring that, it might be a good idea to take all the adults out and separate them, once you see fry.
While they're growing, feed them a good quality, high protein granular food. I habituated them to eating off a flat rock on the bottom of the tank. (My guess is the parents spawned on the flat rock.) When they get a little older, you might want to give them a good cichlid color formula. As the get ready to spawn, the parents will turn a bright yellow, like the photo on the bag. This strain doesn't have quite as much red as the fish in the picture on the bag, but makes up for it with more blues.
Good luck!
Picked up six juvenile Nandopsis Salvini and six juvenile firemouths at the PVAS meeting last night. Interesting fish already. The Salvini are already showing quite a bit of color. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Rob[/b]
