Then




Now



The story is I bought these fish in March as 2" Protomelas Spilinotus Tanzanians as you can see the only thing they have done is grown to about 5". I'm still hoping for the fish to color up but my patience is wearing thin. I've got ten of them in my 125 and I'm not very happy with the lack of any sign of coloring up other than a hint of yellow in the anal fin and a hint of blue in the gill plate. First do you think this fish is a male? They've been getting a steady diet of NLS, HBH cichlid attack, Frozen Brine and lately HBH Seafood Lovers Flake. I'm at a loss as to my next step. Any ideas?

Dave on CF it says these guys can get up to 10" big!! You might just have to wait an inch or 2 more to really see some more color. That one looks like a male to me.

the fish appears to be a male. it is odd however that they have not coloured up yet. any tankmates bigger or more aggressive possibly harrasing them.
I have had Wild ones as small as 5" fully coloured, and tank raised fully coloured art 4". I have never grown them out myself, so it could very well very from fish to fish, but i find it kinda odd that by 5" now, yours dont show very much colour.

It is probably my Taiwan Reef male keeping them from coloring out. I thought he was going to kick the bucket last year but staged a miraculous comeback. I've had him for over 4 years now and have grown attached to the big lug.



Sorry for the water spots. Also gotta cut back on the photoshop editing it is making my pics too grainy.

Other than him is
Copadichromis Chrysonotus
Crytocara Moorii
Placidochromis Pheniocolus
A Few peacock males(Lwanda, Maleiri Isl, Red Shoulder)
Yellow Labs
Aceii
And a half dozen Syno Multies in a 125g.

All in all it is a mellow tank. The yellow lab male is the rowdiest of the bunch.

The problem is I have ten of them and it is the silver version of having too many juvie peacocks. I'd like to thin them out to a trio and sell off the rest for my next grow out project.

hmm... t-reefs are usually not aggressive at all and i doubt it would be him unless there is a huge difference. the only one i see that may be aggressive is the chrysonotus. well, i hope they colour up, time will tell!

The only thing the Chrysonotus and the Spilinotus have in common is that they share the upper to mid levels of the tank. The Chrysonotus has always been the mellowest fish in the tank. It has taken 4 years to get him to start spawning! Stage fright I guess :blink:

Dave, I would be tempted to take some of them out of the tank, leaving the one that has the most yellow and a couple of the ones that have the least amount of colour. Do you have a makeshift home for the extras?

It may be that you have too many males, and they are still young, not quite sure of themselves enough to shine???

Kim

There lies my problem The only spot I have to possibly move a few fish is to my 70 that has my colony of Flavus and a colony of LP Zebras. I think it would be a death sentence for any non mbuna. I guess I'll wait through the winter to see what
happens then thin the herd. Any thoughts?

If I could only get my kids to share a room I could get more tanks! Man this is a cruel addiction!

Dave, don't you have one tank in your office?

Maybe you could squeeze another one in there.

You don't really need a desk in there do you?

If it's any consolation, I bought some of these at 1" in February and got even worse results: the female has grown and is going on 3". The males have barely grown at all, and exhibit colors just like your phote... just at 1.5"

Don

Finally some color!




This has been one difficult one to take a pic of he likes to hang at the surface looking at his reflection I guess? idunno

I guess "patience" is a virtue!

Thanks for the update!

how that color combo would be worth the wait!