Out of all the fish we've kept over the past few years, this is our first time at keeping acei. Leave it to us to get a group of 5 with 4 of them being males!

I love the boisterous attitude of these guys, the way they school together and literally stick their heads up out of the water at feeding time. Their general behaviour is so "un-cichlid like" that I tend to look at them more as dither fish than anything else.

Here is a pic of our dominant male...He's probably close to 4 inches now...


He has the lone female holding again, but she's still pretty small and inexperienced, so she has spit or swallowed the first couple of times. We got her out and moved her off by herself pretty quick this time, so hopefully she will hold.

Will the fry have the yellow markings from the start?

Which do you prefer, the blue or the black acei? Are these common in your area?

Kim

I have blues in my home tank, where their behavior is just as you describe.

I have three young "I think they're blacks" in my Haps tank (fopr lack of a better place), where they're good citizens. At 1.5" they are much darker than yours -- will have to see how they grow out.

I'll try for some photos...

I just added six 2 inch yellow tails to my 125 hap tank. As you describe they are a great addition to the tank. They look like guppies alongside my 8 inch dolphins.

It's strange that we've been keeping cichlids for as long as we have and just gotten into the aceis...I guess we had to keep all the "monsters" first before we settled down a bit!

I really like them, though...There's just something really personable about them.

Just wish my male/female ratios were reversed! I'm sure the lone female does, too! Blush

Looks like she's going to actually hold full term this time!

Kim

If I hold my magnifying glass up to the tank, the Acei's are the most interested in coming and staring at me!

Hey Kim, congrats on the Acei!

I have 6 of the blue variety and they are pretty
common in the Louisville area!

I posted the other day on the Lab. Mbamba thread that neither my Mbamba nor my Acei had spawned and I suspected that the dominant Lab. Hongi's blue color might have suppressed them.

This morning I returned from Seattle and found a F Acei holding. :lol:

Our little female acei spit about 30 fry earlier this week! Must be something in the air...Or water!

Now for my real stupidity...I told Pete to put them in a grow out tank with our young white tops. I never do that, and don't have a clue as to what I was thinking. He did, and I'm afraid some of the acei may have disappeared, or they are hiding really well!

I know better than to put brand new fry in with older fry...I really do... worry wart!

Kim

Mom & babies continue to do fine together, though ignoring common wisdom is scary... worry wart!

BTW, the little 1" "Tanzania Blacks" in my haps tank have grown up enough that I now realize I mis-ID'd them. They're actually juvie Rusties!

So I had no business posting on this thread in the first place! idunno

Don, you must not have reached the "sticky note" phase of your life! Pete and I have little tiny sticky notes on all of our fry tanks so we can remember what is what! If the cats ever go nuts on us and switch them around, we're in trouble!

On the bright side, Pete's black acei fry seem to have perservered, and the White tops didn't kill them all as we initially thought!

Kim

Kim, have your Acei fry started to shiow the blue and yellow colors yet, or are they still camouflaged in gray? I'm trying to figure out when they'll start to get their colors.

If mine start showing any blue I'll freak right out! Mine are the black acei!

I've tried and tried to get decent shots of them. They are about 1 1/4 inches, and little replicas of their parents, full on black and yellow. Very feisty for aceis, lots of squabbling amongst them.

I can't remember how old they are to save my life...Probably a couple of months. I'd say they stayed drab full grey for about a month before the yellow started showing up good.

Kim