DiscusnAfricans
Past President
I ordered 8 juveniles from the group buy through Dave's Rare fish. They ranged in size from 1.25-1.5". I put them in a 30 gallon tank with some other growout fish until I set up a tank for them. I know these guys can get aggressive, but I figured at this size I had a while before it became an issue. Within the first 2 weeks, I lost one, and had to move one to a hospital tank from a severe beating.
Its been a few months and they've grown a little in size, the largest being around 2". I was watching their tank last night and noticed an alpha male has already started to express himself and exert his dominance over the tank. He claimed a hollow clay log as his and was chasing everyone away from it. At one point I saw him tag a Venustus about an inch larger than him.
He is showing the blue/silver coloration with the dark mask, similar to the photo below, pulled directly from Dave's website. All of the other fish remain the brown color, and are doing their best to avoid his aggression. I may have to add more caves or rocks to this tank to mitigate aggession in the meantime. Hoping it will turn out to be a decent sex ratio as I don't think multiple males will coexist except in a large tank.
Looking forward to these guys getting bigger and starting to breed, just have to make sure the group survives long enough to make it there. I haven't seen this species available very often, but they are a neat dwarf mbuna, but probably comparable to demasoni in terms of aggression.
Its been a few months and they've grown a little in size, the largest being around 2". I was watching their tank last night and noticed an alpha male has already started to express himself and exert his dominance over the tank. He claimed a hollow clay log as his and was chasing everyone away from it. At one point I saw him tag a Venustus about an inch larger than him.
He is showing the blue/silver coloration with the dark mask, similar to the photo below, pulled directly from Dave's website. All of the other fish remain the brown color, and are doing their best to avoid his aggression. I may have to add more caves or rocks to this tank to mitigate aggession in the meantime. Hoping it will turn out to be a decent sex ratio as I don't think multiple males will coexist except in a large tank.
Looking forward to these guys getting bigger and starting to breed, just have to make sure the group survives long enough to make it there. I haven't seen this species available very often, but they are a neat dwarf mbuna, but probably comparable to demasoni in terms of aggression.
