# Introducing "Lady Glitter Sparkles"



## heyzeusbrains

Meg AKA Lady Glitter Sparkles. Her body color is very dark with a purple tinge and pink on her belly... she has red eyes and turquoise pearling. I'm just crazy about her! She lives in my 55g with Bubbles the firemouth, Susan the pink convict, Michael the albino rainbow shark, and Splash the yellow labidochromis. Meg is about three and a half inches and has already grown almost an inch in the few weeks since I got her. Her kok is also gaining in mass quite rapidly.


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## heyzeusbrains

Bubbles, the venerable Firemouth. Bubbles was Mr. Peaches right hand man. He should have been Tank boss after Mr. Peaches died, but Splashy became close to Mr. Peaches in his final days and obtained his blessing, then seized power and control of the tank. Bubbles has been resentful ever since... I feel as if he's plotting something sinister...


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## heyzeusbrains

Oh no, someone took a bite out of Meg's head! The skin is hanging. I'm just devastated by this, I know Splashy did it. Anyway Meg seems fine other than the little chunk missing from her forehead and hanging skin. I'm gonna grab some stress coat and add double for fin repair with my next water change. I'm so mad at Splashy, I'm on the verge of pulling this vicious African from my tank!


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## heyzeusbrains

Meg is in good spirits and seemingly unaffected by her head injury. The flap of skin that was waving gently in the current is gone now. The healing power of aloe Vera seems to have taken affect. Meg is boldly swimming her tank like a boss while Splash's grimacing yellow face pokes partially from random cave openings, peering out jealously... Meg is being groomed to take over and Splash knows her days are numbered. She obviously feels threatened by The size of Meg's kok


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## heyzeusbrains

Meanwhile, Susan Brewster is a happy-go-lucky fish who enjoys swimming up and down and in circles just for the thrill. She is the last of a long line of short body pink convicts I bred over three generations for a seven year period. She is the smallest fish in the tank at less than 2 inches, she gets chased by nearly everyone except Michael. As such she spends more time these days hiding out than swimming figure eight patterns around the tank.


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## heyzeusbrains

By way of an update, every morning I have woken up and Meg has a new wound she has sustained during Splash's nightly raids. After her forehead wound, it was tattered skin on her throat; the following morning it was her gill. The next morning there was skin hanging from the base of her tail. And then the next morning, Meg's lovely round tail had two slits in it, separating it into three sections. And finally, just as I had about made up my mind to take some sort of action... the next morning Meg had a deeper wound on her side; where the other wounds had been white underneath Meg's dark skin, this wound appeared almost bloody.

Splash has since been removed from the tank and she's in the trash can now. (FIlled with water of course).

Bubbles has taken over the tank; it's nice to see him confident, swimming around and taking charge. He's chasing Meg around a lot and she's hiding out more than she used to, but he doesn't seem to actually be able to catch her or inflict any damage. He does engage her in longer more sustained chases than Splash did. Splash's modus operandi was more hit and run.

Meg's wounds are healing really quickly, it's amazing. Her tail has already gone back together mostly. She has a little dimple now in her forehead where Splash took a bite. She has one white scar on her side where the deepest wound is still healing.

I'm going to try to keep Splash in banishment for as close to one week as I can, hopefully long enough for a shift to take place in the hierarchy.

I'm also toying with the idea of additional fish to disperse aggression, since reducing the number of fish has not achieved the balance in the tank I am looking for. And adding fish is not something I do without a lot of premeditation. I don't want to increase my bio-load if it isn't necessary, and I would rather have too few fish than too many. However the most important thing is the psychological balance of the tank.


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## heyzeusbrains

Splashy was reintroduced to the tank after 4 days. She is still feisty but a shift in the power dynamics has occurred. Bubbles has asserted himself as Tank Boss. Here are a couple shots of Bubbles. He's a seven inch Firemouth.


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## heyzeusbrains

Well its been one month with Lady Glitter Sparkles. Her growth rate has really been astronomical! Here are week by week pics. You can see her latest head damage in the most recent pic. It occurred to me she may be scraping herself while dashing around to escape. So I removed some of the furniture to open it up. She immediately started acting more aggressive, squaring up against Splashy. Splash is mouthbrooding (who's the Dad, Splashy? Do you know? Is anyone?), so with her mouth full of marbles she may be at a disadvantage should push come to shove.


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## Deeda

If Splashy is the yellow Lab, she is probably just holding unfertilized eggs if the stock list you posted is accurate.


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## heyzeusbrains

Yes Dee I believe you are correct... I've caught her with a mouth full of eggs several times, obviously no babies. But meanwhile she swallowed her eggs and launched a devastating attack on Meg this morning and ripped a bunch of skin off her kok. I'm just horrified... Splashy is back in the trash can and I'm late for work. I'll post a pic of Meg in her tattered state later...


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## heyzeusbrains

So Meg and Splash went head to head this morning... glad I was home. I feel like Splash could have killed her. You hear about the killer flower horns but no one tells you about the vicious yellow labs... aren't they supposed to be the mellow mbuna?


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## heyzeusbrains

Look what she did to Bubbles! Smh


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## heyzeusbrains

Meg is healing up and in fine spirits. Who knew the skin of their Koks was so delicate? I put some stress coat in with the last water change. Splash is in exile.

I'm starting to wonder if Meg might actually identify as male... just based on her tremendous growth, bulk, and kok size.


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## heyzeusbrains

Meg's kok is all healed up.


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## heyzeusbrains

Meg is becoming quite a picky eater. I originally started her on Omega One cichlid pellets plus super color. They are large size (which is only about 3.5mm), sinking variety. She likes them ok but they seem to be quite filling as she will only eat 3-5 at a time. Also I noticed as she eats them, there is a lot of fine particulate matter being expelled from her gills.

I've also given her Hikari Cichlid Gold mini pellets (which are the same size as the "large" Onega One pellets). They are the floating variety. She likes these better and can easily gobble up ten or more within seconds. They seem to have more of a gelatinous texture and there is much less dust expelled while chewing them. I have fed this brand to my cichlids for many years and has always been my favorite.

Meg was getting frozen brine shrimp, blood worms, and beef heart. She's always eaten the frozen food enthusiastically. More recently *** phased out the brine shrimp and bloodworms, and I've been giving her frozen krill, which she enjoys, and live mealworms, which she seems to prefer above all else.

I also recently ordered a couple of products made by a company in Thailand. "Help..." is a pellet food, and "Power Pink" is a vitamin powder you're supposed to mix with water and coat the food.

So I mixed it up like you're supposed to and coated the "Help..." pellets and let them dry like I saw in a YouTube video. However upon feeding, Meg quickly figured out she doesn't like the taste of the stuff and won't eat it. I also tried coating little chunks of beef heart, but she spit those out and won't touch those either. I was able to get her to eat some of the power pink substance by dipping some pieces of krill and live meal worms into the sticky mixture...

I'm hoping she will eat the "Help.." pellets by themselves. They have a high percentage of spirulina and I want to make sure she gets some in her diet. I previously tried buying some Spirulina 20 flakes by Zoo Med but she wouldn't touch those.

Every day her colors appear more enhanced, she's bigger and her kok is exploding through the roof. I removed both Bubbles and Splashy from the tank. Splash because of the mayhem, and Bubbles because I felt his presence was bothering Meg and not allowing her to fully blossom.


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