# 180 Gal Tang Community Aquarium



## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

O. Boops Nkondwe F1
J. sp. 'Ornatus Kombe' F1 (transcripus gombe)
A. Calvus Black Congo (mostly F1 except 1 male)
L. Multifasciatus
N. Buescheri Mbita
N. Tretocephalus

The trets are new. Just 2 inchers. Growing them up a bit in here. The rest have been together for over a year. The Julie's, Multies and Clavus spawn in the tank. Boops spawned many times for me in the past, but once they were moved to the 180 not a single spawn. I want to give them their own 6' tank. Working on that. I find them to be pretty much sissies with other species. There's 2 fully colored males on either end of the tank. A 3rd holds some color in the middle.


----------



## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

It won't play for me.


----------



## noddy (Nov 20, 2006)

Looks great Iggy. The Boops are stunning. They are the only featherfin I haven't kept yet as I always heard that they were super aggressive.
Interesting that you say they are sissies towards other fish. Might have to rethink and try them one day.


----------



## james1983 (Dec 23, 2007)

Nice tank, lots of activity. Do you have any full tank shots?


----------



## sir_keith (Oct 30, 2018)

Great looking tank. How many _O. boops_ do you have in that tank? I, too, have been reluctant to give them a try as they are reputed to be among the most aggressive of featherfins. I do have a wild-caught colony of _O. nasuta '_Kipili Gold,' and they are surprisingly mellow as featherfins go.


----------



## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

noddy said:


> Looks great Iggy. The Boops are stunning. They are the only featherfin I haven't kept yet as I always heard that they were super aggressive.
> Interesting that you say they are sissies towards other fish. Might have to rethink and try them one day.


Cool. Thanks noddy.
They're easily chased away with little effort from every territory. The trets are new and just mill around, so the Boops kinda harass them. But absolutely never any physical damage to any fish. They're incredibly fast and difficult to net. I'd imagine Ventralis is the same. They never made any bower (this tank and the previous when spawning) and dig very little. I read they spawn on rocks, and I think the distinct 3 rock piles here works for territories for the Boops, even though they just hover over them. Having multiple males helps as well, I believe. A lone male may claim a whole tank. These particular ones do not. The males all color down at feeding time to a light black/grey. Kind of like a respect or fear of showing dominance in another territory. You're a big tropheus guy. You can handle Boops. Kind of like a mid road aggression scale mbuna. Seriously. Or a semi-aggressive Hap like C. Borleyi or Protomelas. I know Fogelhund has commented before that Boops are insane. These guys are not so bad. I wouldn't do them in a 75 or 90, but a 125 is plenty of space IME.



DJRansome said:


> It won't play for me.


Not sure why. That's weird.



james1983 said:


> Nice tank, lots of activity. Do you have any full tank shots?


Thanks James. I busted the lens on my smartphone camera. I'll need to break out the camera I took the video with. I'll take a few after Christmas....BTW, Merry Christmas!


----------



## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

sir_keith said:


> Great looking tank. How many _O. boops_ do you have in that tank? I, too, have been reluctant to give them a try as they are reputed to be among the most aggressive of featherfins. I do have a wild-caught colony of _O. nasuta '_Kipili Gold,' and they are surprisingly mellow as featherfins go.


Thanks! I think 4:9 or 10. See above for a few comments on my group. Maybe I'm just lucking out with this batch. They're not so bad, really. Of course, there's people out there breeding nasty mbuna successfully in small tanks, so who knows.

This is the only featherfin I've kept, but my Dad has Nasuta Golds. They're pretty chill when I check them out. Nothing like Boops. I mean... they look like they're crazy with the constant movement, but lots of bark with no bite.


----------



## sir_keith (Oct 30, 2018)

Iggy Newcastle said:


> Thanks! I think 4:9 or 10. See above for a few comments on my group. Maybe I'm just lucking out with this batch. They're not so bad, really. Of course, there's people out there breeding nasty mbuna successfully in small tanks, so who knows.
> 
> This is the only featherfin I've kept, but my Dad has Nasuta Golds. They're pretty chill when I check them out. Nothing like Boops. I mean... they look like they're crazy with the constant movement, but lots of bark with no bite.


Are your boops wild-caught? I'm just wondering if that might be the reason that your group is more mellow than their reputation. Or as you say, maybe you just got lucky.


----------



## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

F1. 2 different sources. 
I really like them in this tank. If I can swing it, I'll leave a 2:4-6 in this display and get more females to dedicate to breeding in a different aquarium. Something is happening in here that's preventing any spawning.


----------

