Fishy stuff.

Anybody have experience with Flowerhorns/Red Devils? I found out they like to dig....haha, so I'm thinking of redoing my tank. Basically getting rid of my planted setup (not much anyways, need to get new/ACTUAL soil) and turn it into a Lake Mawli or Tanganika (sp? on both of them) setup. 

I bought my Red Devil for 10 bucks! and it's like 7"? it's a redish orange color, looks nice, and has an nice hump on  its' head.

[quote=Caoboy;61877]Anybody have experience with Flowerhorns/Red Devils? I found out they like to dig....haha, so I'm thinking of redoing my tank. Basically getting rid of my planted setup (not much anyways, need to get new/ACTUAL soil) and turn it into a Lake Mawli or Tanganika (sp? on both of them) setup. 
 
I bought my Red Devil for 10 bucks! and it's like 7"? it's a redish orange color, looks nice, and has an nice hump on its' head.[/quote]
 
what are you referring to?

Its a fish

does anybody have any experience with them? that's what i'm referring to. if you have suggestions about how to redo the tank in it's 'native' style...that's what i'm researching right now.

i have a flowerhorn and yes, they do dig.  there are no plants in my tank.  i do have big rocks in there though.  another thing is he misbehaves..  he'll suck in a mouthfull of pebbles on one end of the tank and spit it out on the other end of the tank, making a hill of rocks!  i level it out again and he does it again.  
 
i also had a female flowerhorn but i had to put in a 'shelter" like place using big rocks for her to stay in so she wont be bothered by the big guy.  they had babies twice and the guy ate all the eggs.. =o(  I was hoping to sell them for beau coupe money

[QUOTE=Caoboy;61877]Flowerhorns/Red Devils? .......turn it into a Lake Mawli or Tanganika (sp? on both of them) setup.[/QUOTE]

This troubles me since both fish are mainly Central and South American cichlids while Malawi and Tanganyikan cichlids are different and require different pH levels and water salinity levels. You might be better off going all Central or all South American cichlids to make it a better living environment for your cichlid. Additionally you need to put gravel so he can "dig" since this is the fish's nature and without being able to perform this act he'll become over stressed or anxiety will kick in and he'll get sick and die over it. Most fish maladies are caused by stress and or the introduction of sick "feeders". Nice job in finding a great buy on a fantastic cichlid!!!! Let me know if you have any other Q's and i'll help as much as possible. There's a few others here who have numerous experience with tanks and fish so we should have some great discussios here because of this!!! 

P.S. go out and buy the TFH Book on cichlids from that region like yours and setup a sick tank with their suggestions!!!

by the way, red devils live up to their name.  they're so freaking mean.  if you have guest or kids over checking him out, he'll be banging on the tank with its mouth.  hopefully his jaw won't break b/c if so, he'd prob die of starvation.  be ghetto and leave a note on the tank, "DO NOT POINT OR TOUCH THE GLASS!" LOL

[QUOTE=SikNLow;61974]This troubles me since both fish are mainly Central and South American cichlids while Malawi and Tanganyikan cichlids are different and require different pH levels and water salinity levels. You might be better off going all Central or all South American cichlids to make it a better living environment for your cichlid. Additionally you need to put gravel so he can "dig" since this is the fish's nature and without being able to perform this act he'll become over stressed or anxiety will kick in and he'll get sick and die over it. Most fish maladies are caused by stress and or the introduction of sick "feeders". [/QUOTE]
I was thinking the same thing. I wouldn't suggest putting soil/substrate (even if you did go with a Malawi or Tanganyika setup). It would be pointless since there won't be any plants in your tank...just stick with gravel. Like siknlow said, the digging is in his nature...for security and territory...so let it do it's thing. Hopefully your tank is at least 40 gallons and up. If not, it's time to think about investing in a larger tank.

my flowerhorn does not have a bulging head.  I was told that you can massage its head for it to grow.  Others say that its genetics and i wasn't fortunate enough to get one.  How do you get that hump?  special diet?

is it a female? females have less protrusion of a hump.

anybody know a good forum for them? after a bit of research, i'm going to head down to the LFS and buy some rock, they have a couple of cichlid tanks in there that i might be able to get some rock from. i'm going to get a 'natural' gravel, as the gravel i have in there sucks, and makes the tank too bright. better for the plants though, since it reflects some light. (it's a white gravel)

i'm going to get rid of the plants,  he doesn't tear them up, but he does like to dig around. 

my tank dimensions are 36L 18W 24H = 65 gal. i'll probably plan on upgrading in another year or so, depending on how i feel hehe. 

it looks like i'm going to need to purchase some 'egg crate' to hold the weight of the rocks.  

what are you guy's feeding your fish? i've got some hikari gold cichlid food, i think he's eating the feeder guppies that i have had in there since my arowana died. 

how should i set up the filtration? right now i've got a choice between my external canister that's on there now, or the good old UGF that i can start back up, or run both, but would that be too much? 

the help is appreciated, i'm loving the way the lil guy looks.

PS, yeah i found out it's central/south american, so i'm researching on that.

nothing eh?

hhahahahaha sorry I dropped the ball on this thread man!

NEVER NEVER trust the UGF or even use it if you aren't attentive to doing water testing on a weekly to biweekly basis!!!!! It has a tendency to start growing bacteria that accelerates the nitrification cycle. unless you are disciplined in the art of water changes in the correct percentile to ensure healthy cycles, I would never suggest using that style of filtering hahahahaha The external canister you have is more than sufficient unless it isn't sized properly for your tank, remember the water in your tank should be cycling at least 4-6 times the gallon amounts of your tank gallon size an hour. sounds like overkill, yes i know, but it's worth it when you might occassionally forget to do a water change on time. Let me know if you have any more questions! Oh and BR1AN.... hahahahahaha nice to see a fellow fishnut on the board!

Likewise, siknlow. I'm a Tropheus/Tang nut. What about you? 

Good advice there btw...always better to overfilter than underfilter.

[QUOTE=BR1AN;63979]Likewise, siknlow. I'm a Tropheus/Tang nut. What about you? 

Good advice there btw...always better to overfilter than underfilter.[/QUOTE]

hahahahah i'm a duboisi man myself!!! hahahaha that and the marlieris we need a tank section in this forum hahahahaha

[QUOTE=TLontheDL]by the way, red devils live up to their name.  they're so freaking mean.  if you have guest or kids over checking him out, he'll be banging on the tank with its mouth.  hopefully his jaw won't break b/c if so, he'd prob die of starvation.  be ghetto and leave a note on the tank, "DO NOT POINT OR TOUCH THE GLASS!" LOL[/QUOTE]

Yeah I had one about 5 yrs ago.......... I have kids that liked to see him go crazy in his tank. I gave him away to a Family w/ no kids.

For as much banging on the glass he did seemed to be okay.........:eek: Mine also tried to hide behind his pile of rocks. Good luck setting up a tank he wont mess up.

did you guys ever had a oscar?

I had an albino oscar that grew to 16" long, that thing was a beast hahahahaha

[QUOTE=SikNLow;64065]I had an albino oscar that grew to 16" long, that thing was a beast hahahahaha[/QUOTE]
man mine died it was like 12" and i had aruwana (dont know how to spell it) that was the biggest fish i ever had almost half of my cressida or more and it was on the pond too..but i lost it..it was raning hard in philipines and there was a flood next thing i know my fish was gone:sad:

what color was your arowana?  ive never seen one half the size of a car.

[QUOTE=TLontheDL;64104]what color was your arowana?  ive never seen one half the size of a car.[/QUOTE]

silver...there a gold but they dont grow that much

gold colored ones are one of the expensive ones.  they're illegal in the us

ohh i didnt know that...but there only 2 color though silver and gold...man we used to have a lot of fish ...like red pacu stuff like that

[quote=pete_07;64108]ohh i didnt know that...but there only 2 color though silver and gold...man we used to have a lot of fish ...like red pacu stuff like that[/quote]

uh, that's not true. arowana come in many different colors. from gold to green to red. anything except a  rainbow or silver arowana is illegal in the US. Australian arowana  are legal afaik, but any japanese/ asian arowana are not.

ohh now i know..thanks...:thumbsup:

[QUOTE=TLontheDL;64107]gold colored ones are one of the expensive ones.  they're illegal in the us[/QUOTE]

I didnt know that........ I never got the gold one even the baby ones cost over 500.

BTW, this is what they're talking about (for you non-fish people):
[IMG]http://viewcollections.photosite.com/~photos/tn/391_348.ts1110399070000.jpg[/IMG]

I breeded Cichlids (Mbuna's and Convict's) back in High School.  It actually started as a science project in Junior High and turned into much more.  I now deal with all salt water, but brackish fish got me on my start towards salt.

[quote=Caoboy;64114]uh, that's not true. arowana come in many different colors. from gold to green to red. anything except a  rainbow or silver arowana is illegal in the US. Australian arowana  are legal afaik, but any japanese/ asian arowana are not.[/quote]
 
ive never seen a rainbow one or a green one - cool!

rainbow is the regular silver basic one. they just call it rainbow for some reason. 

red one's, like emperor red 24k gold or something like that is like the most expensive ones, they go for something like 3-10k for FRYE. you are spending a ton of money on a baby that might not even live! 


my red devil decided to push all my gravel out of the bottom, to the sides and the front, like a little fort or something haha. i think he got mad at me, since at first, he just dug out behind a piece of bogwood that i put in the corner for him.  i decided to 'play' with him and push all the gravel back in. 
well, he dug the wood out to the bottom of the tank, then dug out all the gravel in the center of the tank too! fricken crazy fish.

your lying there no rainbow ...there only 2 gold and silver:smiley:  show me  proof

[quote=pete_07;64171]your lying there no rainbow ...there only 2 gold and silver:smiley:  show me  proof[/quote]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arowana[/url]


as i stated before, rainbow is a name given to the common silver arowana. it's a 'nickname' given to it in different regions.

im just kidding :p

one of the most debated topics ever is the Arowana.... and just for the record the Golden Crossback is the most expensive of all I think but it depends on how much gold edging on the scales it has and how dark the blue/green scales are!!! god I love Arowanas!!!

yeah...i want to get another one. i'm not buying it feeder fish the next time my lfs has them in stock! that's what killed it, 20 bucks for nothing. bastard ate my tetra's too! lol that's what i get for not researching before i bought them.

My koi fish all have the same issue with sucking in the pebbles and moving them everywhere lol.  Naughty fish they are, but so beautiful at the same time.

[QUOTE=TLontheDL;64107]they're illegal in the us[/QUOTE]


whys that in case they are let loose in a lake??

[quote={-.-};64531]whys that in case they are let loose in a lake??[/quote]
 
I believe they are illegal because now they are endangered in Asia.

[QUOTE={-.-};64531]whys that in case they are let loose in a lake??[/QUOTE]

no, it's because they are on the CITES list of endangered species, even though they have been successfully bred in captivity in fish farms, to the point that they are selling them due to overwhelming successful breeding!!!

[quote=SikNLow;64055]hahahahah i'm a duboisi man myself!!! hahahaha that and the marlieris we need a tank section in this forum hahahahaha[/quote]
Cool, Maswa, Kigoma or Karilani? I've got a male Karilani and 3 female Maswa's...and 1 surviving crossbred fry from them so far. :confused:  But my Ikolas are my pride and joy. :smiley: