I'm really pleased with these acei...They are growing so fast, I just wish our male / female ratio were better! (4 males, 1 poor tired female) Good thing they aren't your usual aggressive mbuna!

This is the dominant male, almost 5 inches worth!


Elvis Jr., of course...He killed one of his girls this week...Wish he behaved as nice as he looks!


The nicest of our male trewavasaes, notice the tiny little White top hovering behind him on the right!


Dominant male Cynotilapia White top...


Look how long his pelvic fins are getting!


Thanks for looking!

Kim

Dang Kim those guys are all stunning.. That white top I just love.

They are all looking so nice, Kim.

Are you still planning to sell them, or are they convincing you to change your mind about that?

Great looking fish! Good Job

Thanks, ya'll!

I think we are going to thin out a few breeding groups, but we decided not to use the other 55G for saltwater as we originally planned. Problem is, Pete and I both get attached to different groups of them, and it makes it hard when it comes time to let them go! We've got both 55G overstocked right now, and we'll have to weed out some of them, but we're not in any hurry as long as everyone is getting along. We may remove some and add some of the little ones we're growing out to the main tanks. We've got a pretty peaceful mix in both tanks, very well balanced, so it's hard to make changes when things are going well!

Kim

Nice pics, Kim!

Love the Acei; my male is about 4 1/2 inches now
and I got lucky with my m/f ratio of 2m/4f.

The females are constantly holding and spitting fry
into the main tank. I just wish I had room and a
45 breeder tank for these fish!

Nice pics! It's always the pretty boys that are the nastiest.

Nice pics! That Acei is getting huge!

I have two of my Acei females holding right now. Tomorrow morning I have to tear down the main tank again to catch them and get them into a nursery tank.

I think my ratio is 2M, 4F, but you never know! My dom. male is only about 3"; in the lower shot he's with one of his females:

The aceis tend to grow much faster than other mbuna, IMO, but they are such piggy eaters, constantly at the top of the tank begging for food with their mouths out of the water. The little ones we have from them are growing fast, as well.

The good thing about these guys is that they all look equally nice. The big dom male will show off a bit more than the others, but the colouring is all the same.

Kim

Great pics and nice healthy fish.

Great pics and very nice fish! I can't wait for my aceii to grow out I think I have 3f/3m but mine are about 2" presently. They have made a great addition to my Hap Tank!

Thanks, Dave...

Do you have the blue or black acei? This is the first time we've kept them, and they are really great fish. Very active, constantly on the move, and a very peaceful addition to all the chaos in this tank. I hope we don't have problems later with having only the one female and the 4 males, but they are getting pretty big now, ranging from 3 1/2 - 5 inches, so hopefully they will stay "happy go lucky" as they are. And we do have some fry growing out! I just wish I could grasp venting...

Guess what I picked up last night? I got a trio of Ps. Msobo deep! They are small but showing alot of promise!

Kim

That's great! I love my Msobo! I think I have 3M 3F, which hopefully will allow peace to last long enough to get some fry to balance my mix.

This is the one set of fish in my juvie Mbuna tank that have never spawned. One male just is in the final stages of completing his color change, so maybe that will signal more results. Two more are hinting at changing.

May be that the dominant Hongi or Acei are throwing them off somehow.

Well, I'm already thinking my trio of Msobo is reversed, with 2 males and 1 female. I may go back and pick up 3 more! What size are yours? I'd love to see some pics!

Kim

About 2.5" or so, so they're still young. I keep looking for more and striking out. dumb dumb

The first place the blue starts to show on a male is right behind his head at the front of his dorsal fin. It seems to me that if there's any blue there at all you're probably looking at a male, but I have a sample of only 6 fish to work with. Now I wish I'd bought all of both batches I saw!

Don

congrats on the msobos! Neat fish. I have some in the tank at work. I'll post some after the weekend. I found in the tweener stage the fist sign of males were egg spots then they started to develop a dorsal stripe. I've got 3f and 2 fully fired up males along with 3 sub males in a 55 at work with a group of Cyno Blue Reefs and some albino Zebras. Gotta get rid of the albinos and the extra male msobos. LFS Credit here I come!

Oh yeah I also have the blue aceii.

nice acei; I have the black with yellow tail. they are still small, but great fish.

Msobo pics (though not great ones), as requested!

At first I thought that only the boys seemed to want to pose that day, and I had no shots of the 3 girls. Then I started trying to find the 3 girls in my tank. To my horror, I think that at best I have 1 F and 5 M, since all but one now have the blue at the front of their dorsal fin. The 6th Msobo has a slightly blue cast to her face, which I hope is just a reflection of my paranoia. I also hope that somewhere I may have a dom female showing a little male color... but this theory feels like a stretch. I'll just have to see how they do. I have only seen them in an LFS here twice, both in the same shop.

In any case, her are some photos of them. The yellows below all match in real life, so the variances lie in the photography and lighting.

My dominant male as he was about 3 weeks ago in his transition -- the blue has now moved even closer to his tail.


Male in early transition, with his dorsal fin just starting to change.


Third male, just starting to change.


Male with a Lab. Mbamba -- love the colors.

Nice fish and pics, Don!

I hope you at least come away with one female!

Wishing you luck!

They look great, Don! Our little male is less than 2 inches and looks much like your first pic, but the blue comes and goes. He seems to have a really bad attitude and promises to be a bit on the "angry" side...

I'm still trying to convince Pete that he will look like profiles show once he matures. I don't think he believes me yet!

I didn't make it back to pick up more this weekend, but I hope I can grab another trio before they are gone. I really like the colours they bring to a tank.

Don't feel bad about your acei...I'm in the same boat.

Kim

Very gorgeous Kim! I must say I'm having problems with my cobalts. Suddenly they have gone hogwild. I actually did better when my ratio was like 6 males and 4 females...as I slowly weeded out extra males they have been killing females and I may be down to 1 or 2 females now...not sure cause the whole social structure is screwed up! Such a bummer cause I really adored these guys!

Steph, I think that Elvis and Priscilla's offspring have caused my whole view on Cobalts to change...Of course, we have to keep in mind that Elvis eventually went psycho on Priscilla and killed her after spawning with her for 2 years straight!

I have had a terrible time with this group of fish. I bought 5 of my juvies back after the adults died, 3 of which turned out to be males. As long as they were together in the tank, no one saw any peace. I weeded them out and now have one male. He's killed one of his females and the other is so frightened of him that she won't come out of hiding. If he weren't so dang pretty I'd send him to that porcelain heaven...

I'm about to give up on them altogether. This boy would honestly give Pete's auratus a run for his money!

Kim

Kim --

Re male Msobo color: tonight my dom. Msobo looks like the photo I took above.

Last night he looked just like the profile photos you see online, but with his tail still yellow. That distinctive "horizontal chalk lines on a blue wall after a rain" look that is so unique and beautiful. So tell Pete to be patient and it'll come. Bouncy

Thus far my juvies have grown up together and been OK -- I just hope my female is a female and spawns with someone so I can get some more females into my mix from the fry. The LFS where I got them has not had any for a while.

Of course, after I get my 180 set up I'll put these guys in there and THEN they'll start to beef!

Don

PS: With this post I just noticed I joined you in the Fin Nipper club!

Somehow that makes me feel much better! Good Job

My one known male is the pastel blue with the yellow tail right now, he's staying that way constantly. The probable female is all golden yellow, actually a very appealing addition of colour, and some very 'busy' fish. The questionable one occasionally gets a blue tinge around his/her fins, but isn't showing any real aggression towards anyone. The male is a tyrant to be so small!

We'll have to compare pics as they mature, and hopefully I will make it back up to pick up another 3!

Kim

Here are Pic of a fired up male


Holding Female



Sub Dom Male


I found that as the male gets his colors he goes thru an incredibly "ugly" phase. His colors are mottled between his juvie and adult coloration. You just gotta be patient.
Note the females don't have any eggspots.

I forgot you had these, Dave! Now that top male is what I'm talking about!

I'll check for eggspots tonight...My "unconfirmed" looks suspiciously like your subdominant pic!

Kim

Here are a couple of pics I took a few months ago of the same male as he is exiting his "ugly" phase. You can still see traces of his juvie coloration.

Talk about the ugly duckling!

I'll have to show Pete these pics tonight...

My guy is still kinda purty...He looks like cotton candy! Looks like the "teenage" years are going to be rough! Faint

Actually, you might find my goal with these guys interesting. I want just the Msobo and my Cynotilapia White tops in a tank...Won't that look nice?

Kim

They're really striking fish. That sounds like a nice combo.

Thanks, Dave, for sharing these pics.


These are the best additional ones I could come up with from my guy's transition -- they all seem to do it their own way and end up with their own unique pattern. One of my favorite things aboud Msobo's!

Wish this were sharper...


Feels like an album cover for the Msobo-Mbamba Band! I think the Elongatus is the bass player.