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Post by Titania on Feb 21, 2008 7:54:47 GMT -5
Ooo, yer a Cichlidophile! And, of course, you've got shellies. They're about the only cichlid I've wanted to keep and never got a chance. You should give the shellies a try some time. They've got such funny little personalities. Plus, you can keep a colony in a 10 gallon tank. The two species I keep top out at about 1.25". I'm cichlid challenged -- are the severums and kribs SA or African? I'd assume SA? I can't see dollars being very happy in African water. How do the dollars act around the cichlids? Are the dollars your dithers? How big are they? The severums are SA and the kribs are African, but they're not rift lake africans. They actually come from water that is very similar to SA water...so they often get mixed with SA cichlids. The silver dollars just hang out. I wouldn't say they're dither fish, as the cichlids don't pay them any attention whatsoever. And all of my cichlids in that tank are really laid-back. There's hardly ever any fighting. And what little there is mostly consists of someone chasing someone else. My silvers are all anywhere from 6-8 inches (body, not including tail). They're the oldest fish I've got...all but 2 of them are going on 12 years old. I had a pretty similar experience with my peacock gudgeons. I'd read about how easy they were to breed...right. I have one left. The females beat the crap out of the male, then the dominant one starting picking off the girls that were left.
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Roan
has rocks in the head
Member since January 2008
Posts: 600
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Post by Roan on Feb 21, 2008 9:43:19 GMT -5
You should give the shellies a try some time. They've got such funny little personalities. Plus, you can keep a colony in a 10 gallon tank. The two species I keep top out at about 1.25". Hrm, I might at that. I've got tanks just sitting here doing nothing. I do want a small reef, though. My husband has a 92g reef and I'd love a nano for my desk. AH! Told yah I was cichlid challenged Good to know yours are 12 years old. My son is VERY attached to his dollars and I'd hate it if any of them passed on. Finny is the oldest, she's a 7-8 year old 6-7" rescue. Silver is one of the original three we got in 2004 and he's almost as big as Finny. He was the size of a quarter when we got him. Dollar is younger and slightly smaller than Silver (hey, my son named them!). Nickel and Quarter are the smallest of the non-spotteds at about 5" each. The spotteds, of course, are much smaller than the silvers, and we have three of them. Copper, Penny and Nickel?, I think -- I can't tell the spotted ones apart, but Connor sure can. OMG! They can be so vicious! I bought four, two males and two females, from a fellow PVAS (Potomac Valley Aquarium Society) member. Took them home, put them in a 10g QT and the one male promptly tore into the other male and killed him. Two days later the biggest female killed the other female and within a week she killed the last male. Nasty! Eileen
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Post by Titania on Feb 21, 2008 10:04:54 GMT -5
I've read that 30 years is not uncommon for silver dollars. So your son's fish should be around for a good long while. I've had all but 2 of mine since they were smaller than a quarter. It's funny to think back to how small they were when I got them. The other 2 belonged to my sister, and I took them when she broke her tank down to move. I love it that your son named all of his fish. I've never named any of mine. If you do start out with shellies, I'd get either Neolamprologus multipunctatus or Neolamprologus similis (like I have). They're super easy to breed and very easy to keep. Some of the more exotic shellies can be tough to keep and even harder to breed. Multis and simis look almost identical...the multis are a white fish with brown stripes, and the simis are a brown fish with white stripes. Very subtle differences for sure.
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