Cichlid lover

[piroman]

As I already wrote I couldn't agree more!

Here's some of my work, but you must keep in mind that my cichlids are enormously fast and they are 100% submerged Not all cichlids are fast, some are very calm, but Tropheus are hell for focus To be exact this is Tropheus sp. Ilangi from lake Tanganyika, Nkamba Bay. This variant is called "Orange Ilangi" and it's a darker type with less contrast in color.

[Kristen]

As I already wrote I couldn't agree more!

Here's some of my work, but you must keep in mind that my cichlids are enormously fast and they are 100% submerged Not all cichlids are fast, some are very calm, but Tropheus are hell for focus To be exact this is Tropheus sp. Ilangi from lake Tanganyika, Nkamba Bay. This variant is called "Orange Ilangi" and it's a darker type with less contrast in color.

Do you do photography?because thats really good ! I know nothing about fish, but that sounds interesting, how big is he/she?

[piroman]

Here's current look of logo, if I get more pictures, I'll try them as well. I knew little about photography (just from my job with photo editing), than we made cichlid website and everything got crazy Just a year latter I was buying Canon EOS 350D and some lenses because our cichlid gallery was very luring, people from all around globe were checking our pictures since we had some very rare and quality cichlids pictures. For next 3-4 years we were having regular photo sessions at different cichlid enthusiasts and cichlid shops. It was so crazy that we were going in this visits even when we were sick That's how I learned to use camera.

Fish in picture is he and it's a fully grown male, and they usually get around 12cm but can get much bigger even 17cm. Keeping cichlids is NOT hard nor expensive, as long as you follow few simple rules:

1. Malawi mbuna is group of cichlids you want as a beginner because they are cheap, very colorful, very active and most important of all they can withstand most of beginners errors. BTW they are spawning very easily so there's no end to rookies happiness
2. Your first tank should be as big as you can afford, because always bigger is better. Big tank means no feces pollution problem, steady temperature, stable ph value etc. Don't start with small tank it's just a source of problems.
3. Overfiltration is a must! You can NEVER have too much flow of volume of filtration material. Let's say that for a 100l non cichlid tank you can use 250l/h pump for filtration, with cichlids you can start with maybe 500l/h, but 1t/h or 2t/h is very good.
4. Use only expensive quality food, or DIY food, never go with cheap questionable food.
5. Water change should be ideally continuous or at least half volume per week.

If you follow these simple rules you can't go wrong.


Here are some other cichlids, they are all from lake Tanganyika except Aulonocara and Pseudotropheus which come from lake Malawi.



Please don't hesitate to ask me anything about cichlids, I'll gladly answer to all questions as long as I have idea how to answer

[Kristen]

Thats good as, hopefully i'll get round to taking some more pictures soon
Thats cool can I have the link to your website? I shall check it out, I love looking at photos of things, even fish haha
and thats cool, how big is the biggest one you have? haha and this may sound stupid, but do they have them in Australia? and I really like the first picture,

[piroman]

Web site was: ciklidi.org - Index but now it's under new management and has lost most of pictures from galleries Check it, and you'll some very interesting fishes there. Biggest fish i have currently is 15cm long, but I had much bigger cichlids from lake Malawi. There's a dispute, about which cichlid is the biggest in world, between fans of american cichlids and fans of african cichlids. Based on my research, the biggest cichlid in the world is Boulengerochromis microlepis. It comes from lake Tanganyika and has a very stupid spawning method. When these fishes mature, they mate, and then guard their offspring so vigorously that they don't eat at all. In the end, when juveniles are capable of taking care about them self, mom and dad die, because they literally consume their inner organs and muscles during guarding period. Luckily this can be skipped in captivity by simply removing youngsters Cichlids are regulars in aquaristic hobby in Australia. There are lots of shops, selling them down under. Thank you for the compliments about pictures, all I can say about them is that you can't beat DSLR cameras no matter what kind of pictures you are taking. Expensive DSLR and specialized lenses give top results...

You should check this video: Jewel of the Rift(Part2) - YouTube
first 3 minutes show Boulegerochromis microlepis spawning, and you can see how they kick turtle's ***

[piroman]

Hi frog lovers, is anyone else willing to give it a try?