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WTB: demasoni, goby, petricola, BN pleco

Tony

Alligator Snapping Turtle/Past Pres
Never kept gobies, but demasoni may be a bit rude for them in a 3' tank.
 

Scorp1us

Members
I'm planning on having a tank with several levels of strata.
My understanding is the gobies will stay towards the top if I give them enough to rest on there. Meanwhile I'll have plenty of lower features for the demasoni to keep them busy mid and lower-level.
 

longstocking

Members
Gobies can hold their own... it "should" work in theroy. I have never tried it though... I have tried them with other mbuna ( tropheops etc ).... and there were no issues.
 

fischfan13

Banned

Seriously?
This is a recipe for disaster.
Gobies stay to the bottom of the tank. If you do not have a developed pair you will have deaths in those tight quarters.
Petricola NEED a lot more space and will also be at the bottom of the tank.
I am not sure why you would want Ancistrus in this setup. They will search out and eat all of the algae that you would want you Mbuna and Gobies eating or they will end up starving to death.
Lastly, Mbuna of any type should not be kept in a 3' tank...let alone with others who they will fight with.
 

Scorp1us

Members
Like I said, I'm planning a stratified tank. The research on the gobies says they stick to waters less than 1' deep. I was planning a large shelf up in the top third.

The petricola stay within about 1" of bottom in my existing tank.

Demasoni will have free range but I'm expecting them to stick to the bottom two thirds.

Lastly, the pleco , because every tank should have one. My cichlids at home don't do squat with the algae on the glass, or on the rock. And if I need plants for them to munch on, I've had luck with the cheap stuff.
 
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dogofwar

CCA Members
They probably won't listen...

I'd nix the Ancistrus and choose either gobies or demasoni, myself.

Matt

Like I said, I'm planning a stratified tank. The research on the gobies says they stick to waters less than 1' deep. I was planning a large shelf up in the top third.

The petricola stay within about 1" of bottom in my existing tank.

Demasoni will have free range but I'm expecting them to stick to the bottom two thirds.
 

chriscoli

Administrator
I pulled the Ancistrus out of my Mbuna tank....one day the just started picking at the bristles on his nose till they were just nubs. It just didn't seem right to keep him in there like that.
 

longstocking

Members
In any tank.... the gobies will end up dead and only with a pair. Doesn't matter if it's 8 foot or 2 foot. Now the demasoni.... I dunno that is your guys specialty :p :p


I would suggest doing the smaller gobies such as Tanganicodus irsacae and TR... then you shouldn't have an issue.

The gobies will live at the bottom and anywhere else they like... they will not stay at the top of your tank even if you give them a shelf.

For some reason though... gobies and C. afras HATE HATE HATE each other... so no matter what, do not combine these two.
 
Seriously?
This is a recipe for disaster.

Gobies stay to the bottom of the tank. If you do not have a developed pair you will have deaths in those tight quarters.

Petricola NEED a lot more space and will also be at the bottom of the tank.

I am not sure why you would want Ancistrus in this setup. They will search out and eat all of the algae that you would want you Mbuna and Gobies eating or they will end up starving to death.

They probably won't listen...

I'd nix the Ancistrus and choose either gobies or demasoni, myself.

Matt

In any tank.... the gobies will end up dead and only with a pair. Doesn't matter if it's 8 foot or 2 foot. Now the demasoni.... I dunno that is your guys specialty :p :p

The gobies will live at the bottom and anywhere else they like... they will not stay at the top of your tank even if you give them a shelf.


I'm not a cichlid expert, so I'll leave the Demasoni advice to those who know what they are talking about.

But as far a gobies go, I have several in a river tank. Gobies like shallow tanks that have rocks for them to rest on while a VERY strong current is washing over them. I have a Marineland C530 canister filter with a spraybar plus a powerhead blowing over the rocks. And even though you think that the gobies will stay in the upper rocks of the tank, they will not! They will always seek the bottom of the tank, no matter how deep the tank is. I have my gobies in a 40g breeder tank and on one side the rocks go about halfway up the tank (about 6 to 8 inches from the top of the tank and slowly step down, terraced for lack of a better word. And the gobies still go to the other side of the tank and hang out there where the tank is about 12 to 15 inches from the top. So even though you think that they will stay and hang out in the "1 inch" area near the top, they won't.

Like others who mentioned about nixing the Ancistrus sp., I agree with them. Gobies need A LOT of green and brown algae to survive! It's practically the only thing they will eat, unless you supplement them with algae flakes or Repashy Soilent Green. They will starve and die. I've had some gobies die on me in the past because I couldn't get enough algae for them to eat. The Ancistrus will compete for the algae and they are much more voracious eaters.

As far as gobies killing each other, I think it depends on the species. I don't have the goby that you are looking for. But I do have some and I have 4 males and 2 females. While the males do fight and try to play "king of the rocks", they haven't killed each other off and I've had them for almost a year.

As far as petricolas go, I have 30 g cube tank with about 24 of them with rocks going up two sides of the tank. See pictures: http://www.capitalcichlids.org/forums/showthread.php?t=12906 . And mine don't stay at the bottom of my tank. They swarm all over the rocks and at night are all over my tank when the lights are out. During the day, they hide out in the rocks, so they need plenty of room!

Though, our advice is not exactly what you want to hear, a lot of the people here are know what they are talking about because they have done their research, asked advice from each other and have had a lot of experience over the years. We aren't trying to steer you away from the fish you want, but we want to help you set up a tank where the inhabitants survive and remain healthy. Believe me, I wish I had listened to experienced hobbyists' advice in the past. It would have saved me a lot of heartache and money :)

I hope this helps.

Arlene
 
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Wblaze

Members
I have one 2.5" Demonsoni I could sell you. It has great color and is left from a group that was born in the tank when I kept them.
 

WendyFish

Members
Thanks for linking, Tony.

To this specific scenario, I'd make a couple addendums to my general post from the CARES thread....

There are two specific issues here.

The one you're going to commonly get grief on is aggression/stress in a 30g tank. The ratio of total fish to calm colony (30something to 18) that I experienced should be one more cautionary tale in a column of MANY, but it could be a worst case, given the shipping stress. Nonetheless, even locally sourced demasoni can be hard to get settled, and a smaller tank could exacerbate that.

The one that you may not think about is water quality. Demasoni need to be crowded. The starting colony number you'll see recommended assumes a minimum 55gall tank. Sufficient rockwork for these fish displaces a LOT of water. If you put a sufficient starting number (12-15+) in a 30gall tank with a good amount of rock your functional tank capacity will be -- at a guess -- 20ish gallons at which rate they will be fouling their tank at a prodigious rate.

Needed Number of Fish + Rock Work + Water Quality + Aggression

I almost never tell people what to do, and ultimately many unconventional things do work out, but this looks rough on the fish, IMO.
 

Avatar

Plenipotentiary-at-large
Delinquent account

I've access to a lot of old slate roofing shingles and pieces, and though I've never tried it on Africans, with a little creativity one can create a rather complex labyrinthine habitat that displaces precious little water (like maybe 1-2 gallons in a 100 - or a 55). And it's not at all a bad look, especially if you're clever. If anyone wants a box, let me know - my indebtedness quotients are light.
 

WendyFish

Members
I've access to a lot of old slate roofing shingles and pieces, and though I've never tried it on Africans, with a little creativity one can create a rather complex labyrinthine habitat that displaces precious little water (like maybe 1-2 gallons in a 100 - or a 55). And it's not at all a bad look, especially if you're clever. If anyone wants a box, let me know - my indebtedness quotients are light.
Yep, could be good. We use lots of broken terra cotta pot pieces for fry with the same idea and they love hiding under/around them. (Mbuna friendly) plants also help in this regard, as they break line of sight meaningfully.
 

Avatar

Plenipotentiary-at-large
That could work

Yep, could be good. We use lots of broken terra cotta pot pieces for fry with the same idea and they love hiding under/around them. (Mbuna friendly) plants also help in this regard, as they break line of sight meaningfully.


Except for the color that sounds pretty good. Think it might be fun to try melding a bunch of coconut shells together for certain species (not sure which ones).
 

Scorp1us

Members
Thanks all for your advice! There is so much information out there, and much of it is conflicting. I'd rather draw from anecdotal evidence. Than some generic write up. Who knows if traits got bread out in the trade?
 

dogofwar

CCA Members
It's a fair assumption that mean didn't get bred out of demasoni...

Matt

Thanks all for your advice! There is so much information out there, and much of it is conflicting. I'd rather draw from anecdotal evidence. Than some generic write up. Who knows if traits got bread out in the trade?
 
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