Adding Desmasoni

[Elariel]

I currently have two desmasoni in different tanks. Other then being rather teritorial little fish I love their behaviour and colour. I know if I want to keep Desmasoni in groups it has to be more then 10 but how do you add that many fish to an aquarium at once? I was always told never to added that quickly to the biolode of a tank. Any suggestions, the tank I'm considering this for is my 55g.

[Demasonian]

Hey - there are two options that I can think of to add large numbers at once.

1) if the tank is presently empty (which it sounds like it isn't), you can do a fishless cycle using pure ammonia to build up a large bacterial colony. This is a sure fire way to build up a large enough colony, but can take up to 6-8 weeks and requires an empty tank.

2) in an established tank, two suggestions: a) buy juvenile fish (about 1" in length) and b) find some seeded filters, either from your existing tanks or from someone in the community. If you want to do it yourself, put another filter on your 30 gallon for at least a few weeks (like an AC75) and then transfer it to your 55 when you add the new fish. Feed less than normal for the first week, just to make sure your filters can handle the increased bioload. This method has worked for me in the past.

[Elariel]

Thanks for the good advice Desmasonian.

Another question....are desmasoni proliferative breeders? If I add a bunch to my tank will I end up with hundreds?

[nissannx]

i used to have a demasoni only species tank. I made tones of little caves by stacking lots of flat rock on top of each other along the back wall. I started with 10 juvinelles. In a 1 year time i was selling 10-15 demasonis once to twice a month. would have been more but i only sold the ones i could catch, didn't feel like tearing down the tank every month. if you give the babies a place to hide then you give them a chance to grow and be sucessful.

[Demasonian]

I'll second nissanx's experience. Given the right conditions, Demasoni will breed often and because they tend to stick to their caves more than the average mbuna, I found them to have a pretty high survival rate if left to spit in the main tank. That said, if you're worried about being overrun, don't be. Out of every brood, maybe one or two will survive, depending on your rockwork, and it is likely you will lose excess adult males along the way, so that your colony will grow slowly, not overnight.

For illustrative purposes, it took me three years to build a colony of 25 or so from an original group of 11, and that required growing out a group of eight in a separate tank at one point to bolster my numbers (they had fallen to 7 after a series of males were killed off).

Alternatively, if you're looking to breed them, they could easily provide you with a pretty steady income, as mentioned by nissanx! There always seems to be a market for Demasoni.

[Elariel]

Thanks guys....I'll have to think about it.
People probably buy them because they are very pretty and don't get very big.

[dpatte]

i have found demasoni to be quite hardy, I had two females drop fry in their own tanks. They both had a dozen babies. after a year, there where still 11 of the 12 in each tank.

[Stussi613]

Hey - there are two options that I can think of to add large numbers at once.

1) if the tank is presently empty (which it sounds like it isn't), you can do a fishless cycle using pure ammonia to build up a large bacterial colony. This is a sure fire way to build up a large enough colony, but can take up to 6-8 weeks and requires an empty tank.

2) in an established tank, two suggestions: a) buy juvenile fish (about 1" in length) and b) find some seeded filters, either from your existing tanks or from someone in the community. If you want to do it yourself, put another filter on your 30 gallon for at least a few weeks (like an AC75) and then transfer it to your 55 when you add the new fish. Feed less than normal for the first week, just to make sure your filters can handle the increased bioload. This method has worked for me in the past.

I'm building out a 60 gallon right now, I only have the substrate and some of the rock structure done, hope to have water in it by early next week so I can start to cycle it.  I've got a Fluval 404 that I'm going to be using on it, and I would like to have yellow labs and demasoni in it, and possibly some others...what is the best way for me to add my fish to a basically virgin tank when I finally have it cycled?  Yellow labs first, then demasoni, then others?

I must say, you guys are all a great resource of knowledge on here...I've learned more in reading these forums since I joined yesterday than I have researching cichlids online for the last few weeks!!