breeding nightmare

"Gill Passman" wrote in message
.. .
Stephen Provis wrote:

Mine are prolofic breeders as well but I haven't got to your stage.
I'm
wondering if the Plec keeps the numbers down - he never feeds on
anything other than what is in the tank even if offered....

If it does become a problem I will also consider the pictus

Gill


its only in the past few months its got this bad, I have no idea why
they
are surviving so well, I have 2 plecs and 2 synodontis which I thought
would
help but the young are very very good at hiding even getting them out
of the
tank is like a military operation thats why I leave it as long as
possible
so as not to disrupt the fish too often, although at one point we were
removing 20+ young every three weeks, i'm desperate now, if only there
was
the fish equivalent of bromide!



Know what you mean about the bromide - LOL

My tank hasn't quite got as bad as you describe but there are rather a
lot of fry of varying sizes - I haven't taken any to the LFS yet mainly
because the thought of tearing down the rock work to catch them is
quite daunting. I checked on the synodontis and am wondering if I might
get some of these to help control things before it gets too bad.

Gill

If you look at a pictus's long twin barbels, you get a sense of how they
hunt. They sweep the barbels through the cracks in the rocks, and
frighten the fry momentarily out into the open. They also 'taste' with
the barbels, so they know exactly when to turn their heads and open their
mouths. They are almost always in a forward motion as well, so they have
that advantage as well. Formidable eating machines.

Synodontis typically have branched barbels, more typically designed for
sifting through sand looking for invertebrates. They are (imo)
specialized bottom feeders for smaller prey, while pictus are more
adapted to covering larger areas faster looking for larger prey (fry).
--
www.NetMax.tk

Heres a crazy thought. What about abstinence??? Take out the females &
problem is solved.

"NetMax" wrote in message
...
"Gill Passman" wrote in message
.. .
Stephen Provis wrote:

Mine are prolofic breeders as well but I haven't got to your stage. I'm
wondering if the Plec keeps the numbers down - he never feeds on
anything other than what is in the tank even if offered....

If it does become a problem I will also consider the pictus

Gill


its only in the past few months its got this bad, I have no idea why
they
are surviving so well, I have 2 plecs and 2 synodontis which I thought
would
help but the young are very very good at hiding even getting them out of
the
tank is like a military operation thats why I leave it as long as
possible
so as not to disrupt the fish too often, although at one point we were
removing 20+ young every three weeks, i'm desperate now, if only there
was
the fish equivalent of bromide!



Know what you mean about the bromide - LOL

My tank hasn't quite got as bad as you describe but there are rather a
lot of fry of varying sizes - I haven't taken any to the LFS yet mainly
because the thought of tearing down the rock work to catch them is quite
daunting. I checked on the synodontis and am wondering if I might get
some of these to help control things before it gets too bad.

Gill

If you look at a pictus's long twin barbels, you get a sense of how they
hunt. They sweep the barbels through the cracks in the rocks, and
frighten the fry momentarily out into the open. They also 'taste' with
the barbels, so they know exactly when to turn their heads and open their
mouths. They are almost always in a forward motion as well, so they have
that advantage as well. Formidable eating machines.

Synodontis typically have branched barbels, more typically designed for
sifting through sand looking for invertebrates. They are (imo)
specialized bottom feeders for smaller prey, while pictus are more adapted
to covering larger areas faster looking for larger prey (fry).
--
www.NetMax.tk

lol, lots of work, but some people have done this with mixed results.
When the fish are old enough to properly identify as males, then everyone
else gets moved out. The problems a i) the effort of moving
everything out of the tank to do this, ii) what to do with all the
females (and recessive males), iii) you typically end up with very few
species represented in the male-only tank (but they will be gorgeous,
mostly alpha males), iv) they *will* quarrel over the newly arranged
rocks and may not settle down (at least until each species is uniquely
represented), and v) you will invariably miss catching one little fry,
who will of course be a female ;~).

Do I sound like I've done this before?
--
www.NetMax.tk

"CanadianCray" wrote in message
...
Heres a crazy thought. What about abstinence??? Take out the females &
problem is solved.

"NetMax" wrote in message
...
"Gill Passman" wrote in message
.. .
Stephen Provis wrote:

Mine are prolofic breeders as well but I haven't got to your stage.
I'm
wondering if the Plec keeps the numbers down - he never feeds on
anything other than what is in the tank even if offered....

If it does become a problem I will also consider the pictus

Gill
snip

Do they sell aquaria contraceptive??

"NetMax" wrote in message
...
lol, lots of work, but some people have done this with mixed results. When
the fish are old enough to properly identify as males, then everyone else
gets moved out. The problems a i) the effort of moving everything out
of the tank to do this, ii) what to do with all the females (and recessive
males), iii) you typically end up with very few species represented in the
male-only tank (but they will be gorgeous, mostly alpha males), iv) they
*will* quarrel over the newly arranged rocks and may not settle down (at
least until each species is uniquely represented), and v) you will
invariably miss catching one little fry, who will of course be a female
;~).

Do I sound like I've done this before?
--
www.NetMax.tk

"CanadianCray" wrote in message
...
Heres a crazy thought. What about abstinence??? Take out the females &
problem is solved.

"NetMax" wrote in message
...
"Gill Passman" wrote in message
.. .
Stephen Provis wrote:

Mine are prolofic breeders as well but I haven't got to your stage.
I'm
wondering if the Plec keeps the numbers down - he never feeds on
anything other than what is in the tank even if offered....

If it does become a problem I will also consider the pictus

Gill
snip

Hey that might make some money. Someone should develop it. LOL


"CanadianCray" wrote in message
...
Do they sell aquaria contraceptive??

"NetMax" wrote in message
...
lol, lots of work, but some people have done this with mixed results.
When the fish are old enough to properly identify as males, then everyone
else gets moved out. The problems a i) the effort of moving
everything out of the tank to do this, ii) what to do with all the
females (and recessive males), iii) you typically end up with very few
species represented in the male-only tank (but they will be gorgeous,
mostly alpha males), iv) they *will* quarrel over the newly arranged
rocks and may not settle down (at least until each species is uniquely
represented), and v) you will invariably miss catching one little fry,
who will of course be a female ;~).

Do I sound like I've done this before?
--
www.NetMax.tk

"CanadianCray" wrote in message
...
Heres a crazy thought. What about abstinence??? Take out the females &
problem is solved.

"NetMax" wrote in message
...
"Gill Passman" wrote in message
.. .
Stephen Provis wrote:

Mine are prolofic breeders as well but I haven't got to your stage.
I'm
wondering if the Plec keeps the numbers down - he never feeds on
anything other than what is in the tank even if offered....

If it does become a problem I will also consider the pictus

Gill
snip

The aboriginal few times were hell as I had endless of bedrock in there, i've had to cut it down to try and abate the amount of ambuscade spaces, what hasn't helped id the plecs/synos are not absorbed in the adolescent so they are happily pond annular and alone ambuscade if an developed decides to hunt them a bit.

Originally Posted by Stephen Provis

hi, I currently have a 5ft mbuna tank, established for about four years, the
problem I have is they are prolifically breeding, most of the young are
surviving as I have plenty of rock and I will occasionally fish them out and
grow them on in the fish room until they are large enough for my local fs to
take, unfortunately I have more young mbuna than he can handle (approx 50
growing on) and the adults are still at it! any tips on how to slow them
down?

What do I do to breed a nightmare all I know is a packhorse but I don’t know how to breed those either

Sexy blog :
http://goo.gl/sQhUp