I was away on business most of the summer and the fish suffered a bit. I did some quickie water changes when I had a chance and the wife fed them sparingly while I was gone. The weeks I was home, they got fed a lot better, but I really didn't watch them much as I had plenty of work to do with my other clients and getting caught up on things around the house and yard.
One of my tanks is a 100 gallon that I have 6 Tropheus sp. Ikola Kaiser, 4 adult Chalinochromis ndoboi and 5 subadult ndoboi. One time when I was home I noticed the Tropheus engaging in what I thought to be spawning behavior, but I didn't have time to care for the fry so I just let nature take its course. The ndoboi also seemed to be doing their thing when I got back for good in early Oct. When I finally had a chance to do some serious maintenance, I couldn't even see inside the tank. After I cleaned the glass and did a water change I noticed some tiny little ndoboi fry in the tank. Not quite ready to deal with fry yet, I again decided to let nature take its course-partially because where I saw the fry was where I was do some serious blind syphoning and figured there weren't many left anyway. All I ever saw was 1 or 2 at a time.
Well, i just finished feeding the fish for the day and noticed some 1/2 inch or better youngsters of the ndoboi swimming about the rocks and coral I have in the tank. I decided to take a closer look and I counted at least 9 at one point, not worried about a thing, swimming around having a grand ole time.
Then I decided to check out the Tropheus. They are always chasing each other the length of the tank (its an old style 6 foot long 100 gallon). I count the six, and think hey, one of them didn't grow at all. Then I look again and the original 6 are all there, 3 1/2 inches or so, plus one about 1+ inch long. You'd think I would notice something like that a little sooner!!!!
I am going to have to step up the maintenance on that tank with all the new bodies in there!
Joel
One of my tanks is a 100 gallon that I have 6 Tropheus sp. Ikola Kaiser, 4 adult Chalinochromis ndoboi and 5 subadult ndoboi. One time when I was home I noticed the Tropheus engaging in what I thought to be spawning behavior, but I didn't have time to care for the fry so I just let nature take its course. The ndoboi also seemed to be doing their thing when I got back for good in early Oct. When I finally had a chance to do some serious maintenance, I couldn't even see inside the tank. After I cleaned the glass and did a water change I noticed some tiny little ndoboi fry in the tank. Not quite ready to deal with fry yet, I again decided to let nature take its course-partially because where I saw the fry was where I was do some serious blind syphoning and figured there weren't many left anyway. All I ever saw was 1 or 2 at a time.
Well, i just finished feeding the fish for the day and noticed some 1/2 inch or better youngsters of the ndoboi swimming about the rocks and coral I have in the tank. I decided to take a closer look and I counted at least 9 at one point, not worried about a thing, swimming around having a grand ole time.
Then I decided to check out the Tropheus. They are always chasing each other the length of the tank (its an old style 6 foot long 100 gallon). I count the six, and think hey, one of them didn't grow at all. Then I look again and the original 6 are all there, 3 1/2 inches or so, plus one about 1+ inch long. You'd think I would notice something like that a little sooner!!!!
I am going to have to step up the maintenance on that tank with all the new bodies in there!
Joel
