Pete and I decided over the weekend to get rid of ALL of our mbuna, except for the Cynotilapia White Top Galireya and our M. estherae! I've posted them all for sale, and we're going to take our tanks that we have and spread things out a bit...

The White tops and Minos Reef estherae will be housed together. We're going to populate it with our own fry/juvies, and this will be our only Malawi tank.

We really like the SA's, so there will be more tanks for them - I'd like to seperate the rams and cacatuoides so that we can focus on breeding them more, and I found a supplier for killifish in Markham, so we plan to pick up more of them.

This is also free-ing up a 55G to expand our salt water adventures! We're so intrigued by so many of the creatures that we don't currently have room for, and we want to give it a try, now that we've got the basics down.

We're just bored with what we've got, and tired of all the breeding and the grow out tanks all over the place with fish that take forever to actually grow out enough to move...

I hope we don't regret it! Hmmmm

Kim

wabawhat?? I can't believe it. Does this mean Elvis Jr. is going too?
I have to admit that I get bored with my same old fish sometimes and have thought about trying different ones, but I've had mine for so long that I'm attached to them and feel more like they are pets.

It would be really nice to have a fishroom so you could have more of a variety without having to get rid of one type for another, wouldn't it?

Good luck with this new venture. It sounds like fun.

fishy fishy fishy fishy

i'm not gonna disagree... youve lost your minds!!! lol Nanananaa good luck with your new venture!

Yes, Elvis Jr. is going to leave the building!

If I had more space for tanks, I wouldn't do this! On one hand, I would love a fish room, but on the other hand, I also like having my tanks in the rooms I actually "live" in...I would never be happy if I stuck them off in a basement, or in a room I didn't spend most of my time relaxing in! I spend more time watching fish than I do t.v.!

I'm just basically tired of the breeding / grow out thing, and I've tried the all male mbuna tank, and didn't like it. You can't keep males and females together and expect them not to spawn. I think my biggest downfall has been branching out into the dimorphic variants, with one nice looking male to 2-3 drab females. I was more content when we had all monomorphic species.

This salt water monkey on my back isn't helping matters any! Finding out that it can actually be done without too much effort was my down fall!

And, it helps to be in an area where you know if you ever change your mind, you can easily access whatever you want to restock your tanks!

Kim

So what are you going to get for salt water fish ?

I don't think your nuts for getting new fish at all, I found out myself after a few years of breeding I'm extremely tired of breeding and maintaining all the grow out tanks myself. now I just want tanks to view. I've moved out 98% of my breeders and as soon as I work up the courage I'll sell the rest I just cant pull the trigger on my afra now for some reason.

I had some killies about 6 years ago my time with them was real short since they got out of the tank and died. what I had were the Fundulpanchex Gardnari killies I hope I spelled that right.. they had some of the best looking color and markings. neat fish.

Good luck with your make over Kim & Pete .

Ted

Oh geez... :blink: ....I'm shocked! I wish you the best of luck...go Rekers!

Ted, I'm not sure where we're going with the salt water tank. We're really interested in the corals and mushrooms, but would also like to be able to have more fish. These guys aren't like cichlids, you can't overstock a tank, if you do, you will regret it when the whole tank crashes. It's just so interesting trying to find that perfect balance, and learning about all these little creatures. If you do it right, the system is self sustained, and once you get things going, maintenance is minimal...

Right now we're researching and trying to wrap our minds around a refugium, which we hope to make out of the existing SW tank that we have. But we want to do it nice enough that we can use both for display tanks.

It's a little mind boggling...I should have done this years ago when my brain was still intact!

I can't part with the White Top's, so I know what you're saying about the afra...Sometimes fish just get under your skin for whatever reason. I just find the grow out tanks such a waste of space these days...You can't decorate them for obvious reasons, and with all these tanks sitting around and taking up so much of your living space, you want them to look nice.

I'm not good with the scientific names on the killifish, and probably never will be. My brain only holds so much "trivia", and I think I capped out with all the mbuna names! I've heard that killifish are big jumpers, so I've got all openings covered. Right now I'm trying to decide if I'd like to have one of the larger tanks with a few different species that won't crossbreed, or devote some of the smaller tanks to breeding different species. I can pretty well get whatever I want species wise.

Kim

I am totally shocked at your decision, Kim and Pete!

But I understand and wish you the best in your newest
adventures in both Salt and SA cichlids!

May the King find a good home and live forever! Boo Hooo Boo Hooo

We'll still have the White tops and estherae! And who knows, if we ever move to where we have more space, I'm sure we'll get back into the mbuna again!

For now, I just want to tone down the breeding a bit and focus on new things!

Kim

Well... I certainly wouldn't do it... Nanananaa

Well, it hasn't happened yet! We've got them up for sale, but I'm in no hurry for some reason!

I think I could be happy with what I've got if we just had fishy birth control!

Kim