# Good morning my young Vics and Westies



## cichlid-gal (Apr 27, 2012)

Just wanted to share a little update of my newest young groups of Vics and West Africans that are growing up and starting to put on some color.

Xystichromis sp. "kyoga flameback"









Psammochromis riponianus or Haplochromis sp. "Boyanga"









Pseudocrenilabrus multicolor victoriae









My camera doesn't do these guys justice but you get to see some of their colors showing up...enjoy


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## Darkskies (Mar 17, 2012)

You have some great looking egyptian mouthbrooders(or should they be Ugandan mouthbrooders since it's the victoriae variant lol?)! How hard are they to keep and do you think a 20 gallon long would make for a nice tank for some?


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## cichlid-gal (Apr 27, 2012)

Thanks for the kind comments.

There are far too many males in my tank so some will have to be rehomed as for now they are in my 33G long. It has the footprint of a 55G but its shorter. With them being small right now I am not having significant problems but as they grow that might change. Articles and profiles I've read seem to disagree as to what exactly will work for these fish. Some say bigger tank and some say smaller will work. Personally, I like the TFH article which says smaller is OK if heavily planted and set up harem style tank (1M/lots females or 2M/Lots and lots of females).

The forum profile http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=2582 indicates that a 20G is satisfactory. I currently have a batch of fry growing up in the a fry saver in the tank and have a 2nd fry saver in the tank housing another holding female. The babies are very very tiny when born but are growing nicely.

Articles:
http://www.fishchannel.com/fish-mag...rnational/may-2007/egyptian-mouthbrooder.aspx
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/fwsubwebindex/pseudocrenilabrus.htm

TFH article (you have to have a digital subscription)
http://www.tfhdigital.com/tfh/200809/#pg91

and my babies (this was not quite a week ago so they are bigger still now)


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## Darkskies (Mar 17, 2012)

cichlid-gal said:


> Thanks for the kind comments.
> 
> There are far too many males in my tank so some will have to be rehomed as for now they are in my 33G long. It has the footprint of a 55G but its shorter. With them being small right now I am not having significant problems but as they grow that might change. Articles and profiles I've read seem to disagree as to what exactly will work for these fish. Some say bigger tank and some say smaller will work. Personally, I like the TFH article which says smaller is OK if heavily planted and set up harem style tank (1M/lots females or 2M/Lots and lots of females).
> 
> ...


Thanks so much for your advice and all of those links! Your other fish are quite beautiful too. I was just wondering but why do you need a fry saver in the tank? Aren't they supposed to mouthbrood their young as well at least for a couple of weeks until they're larger as in letting them out to eat but then scooping them up again when they sense danger?


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## cichlid-gal (Apr 27, 2012)

Yes, that would be the natural way to do things. I just wanted to make sure that I had some fry to share as I have a friend that is looking for some and leaving things to nature sometimes means that you don't end up with any babies at all even though the moms work really hard to protect them. I wanted the babies safe and the moms recovering and gaining their strength back before going into the mix again.


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