# Stocking a 125 Gal



## Greg92056 (Jul 16, 2014)

I recently picked up a 125 gallon tank(5L x 1.5W x 2H). It was a saltwater tank so I'm in the process of getting it all cleaned up and desalinated. In the meantime I've been researching Central American Cichlids and have decided that I definitely want to build around Thorichthys Maculipinnis (Ellioti). What I'm trying to figure out now is what else I can put in with them?

Ideally I would love to have breeding pairs of 2-3 different species, but I realize that in a 5 footer it will be difficult if not impossible. Some of the other CA's I'm considering include HRP's, a few of the various Cryptoheros(Chets, Cutteri, Nanoluteus), maybe Nics or Herotilapia Multispinosa. Any chance I could get pairs or trios of some of these to live together?

Also, I plan to start with juvies, would it make sense to get 5-7 of each variety that I add and then pull out trouble makers or excess stock if/when pairs form? In other words would it be too chaotic to add say 3x6=18 1.5"-2" fish at one time? Is there a better way to increase the chances of the eventual population to "get along"?

Thanks for any advice and I look forward to sharing my build as soon as it gets going!


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

Welcome to the forum Greg.

If you do Honduras Red Points, skip any other Cryptoheros to avoid issues, since breeding or having pairs seems a priority for you. Rainbows could feel threatened due to their timid nature. Maybe look at a lone Astatheros as a centerpiece type fish.

I have a group of 12 T. Maculipinnis in a 6' 125. They're around 3"+ at the moment. Stocked with Paratheraps heterospilia(formerly vieja) juveniles, a school of swordtails, a lone JD and a lone female con. The Thorichthys are the main fish in the tank. Hoping for a pair of the heterospila to coexist. The JD and convict were afterthoughts and so far no problems but all the fish are pretty young.


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## Greg92056 (Jul 16, 2014)

Thanks Iggy!

Yes, having a breeding pair of something is a priority for me. The spawning/parenting behaviors of Cichlids are so fascinating and fun to observe. But I also like variety in the tank. That's why I'm trying to figure out how to get a few others in with the T. Maculipinnis. I just read your thread about your 125 Mexico tank and those photos of the Maculipinnis confirmed that those are the fish I want to showcase. Your stocking is probably where mine will end up starting out, 6-12 Maculipinnis along with 6-10 of something else? Maybe the HRP or one of the Cryptoheros? Would it be best to add them all at the same time assuming they are similar in size(2")?


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

I would definitely add them all at once. A dither fish like livebearers would be a nice addition. Or you could do some fast moving tetras. Of course, this is assuming your tank is cycled and ready to handle fish...


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## Greg92056 (Jul 16, 2014)

I'm still in the process of cleaning and desalinating the tank and plumbing. Also, it came with a sump that was set up for salt water so I want to add one more baffle so that I can use the refugium as a holding tank for any fish that aren't playing nice, or fish that get injured, etc.

Hopefully I can get everything cleaned and set up this weekend, then start the cycling process. I planned to do a fishless cycle, but the guy at the LFS is trying to convince me otherwise. Says he cycles his large tanks at home with Parrot Fish? I tried some of the bottled bacteria to cycle a smaller tank a while back and it didn't seem to work very well? Has anyone had any luck with any of them? I've heard that "One and Only" is good?


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

One & Only works.

The problem with using a few parrot fish to cycle a tank is that you really won't be sure if your bacteria is ready for 18-20 small cichlids. Not to mention the torture you put the parrots through, possible disease introduced by fish you don't intend to keep or the hassle of having to rehome them after all is said and done.

Fishless cycling is the way to go. If you can get some established media from a friend, that will speed up the process big time.


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## Greg92056 (Jul 16, 2014)

I agree with you, he looked at me like I was crazy for even considering a fishless cycle. His explanation for the parrot fish was that back when he was in college he left a tank at his parents' house for a whole semester without water changes and the only fish that survived were a couple parrot fish... therefore he concluded that they are very hearty and make good fish to cycle tanks with. Interesting how advice like that gets passes around... good thing we have the internet now to educate us.

I think I'll stick to the fishless cycle. I'll look into One and Only... anything I can do to speed things up.

Thanks again for the advice.


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## CjCichlid (Sep 14, 2005)

First off, welcome to the forum!

Iggy has given you some good advice and his tank is definitely a great example for you to go off of. When it comes to keeping multiple pairs together, or keeping pairs in a community, from my experience it tends to be very hit or miss.. with it often being a "miss". Since setting up my 135gal a couple years ago I've bred quite a few different species such as cryptos (chets), nics, and rainbows. The only species that really worked well while spawning were the Rainbows. All the others caused quite a bit of drama in regards to the rest of the community, leading to me eventually getting rid of them. My current stock consists of a group of T. meeki, a lone ExCich. pearsei, and a lone V. argentea. I think I may have finally found a really good "group" of fish, however the T. meeki have yet to start spawning.

If you really want your focus to be the T. macs I would suggest keeping a group of them and having them be the only pairs. These guys get to about 6in, so keep in mind multiple pairs of a 6in fish will easily claim your entire tank. Also, from what I've read they tend to be one of the more aggressive Thorichtys species. I've not kept them before so maybe Iggy could chime in, in regards to that.


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

Mine are pretty young. They don't like eachother though. Not a single nipped fin or missing scale. Yet....

I've also not read anything about their aggression being more so than that of other Thorichthys.


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## Greg92056 (Jul 16, 2014)

So I finally had some time to work on my tank. As I mentioned it was previously used as a salt water tank, so there was a lot of cleaning to be done. I've removed most of the plumbing and plan to just replace it all. The inside of the tank had a lot of scratches to I sanded and buffed the inside and it looks a lot better.

Here is a photo of the tank and stand I picked up, the small tank in front is a 30Gal used as a sump:









I've got the stand frame built and should have is skinned this weekend. Here the stand right now:









I used a set of DIY plans that I think a lot of people here have used, it was pretty easy to build. It was funny, I got it put together and checked for level. side to side it was perfect, but front to back it was off by about 1/4 inch? I remeasured everything and couldn't figure out what was off, then after about ten minutes of staring at it I decided to rotate it 90 degrees and check the level... sure enough, it was the slope of my garage! My old house had a level garage, but apparently this house does not. LOL... I'm just glad I didn't tear it apart before I figured it out. However, I did forget to account for the overflow drain in the right back corner. I'm gonna have to cut away some of the screw board and probably attach a 45 degree elbow to angle the drain away from the frame? I'll figure that out this weekend.

As far as stocking, my plan is to definitely start out with 10-12 T. Maculipinnis, along with 2-3 singles that I haven't decided on, as well as a large school of either swords, tetras, or mollies... I'll probably have to narrow the choices and let my kids choose or I'll never hear the end of it....

I would like to start the cycling process in the next week or so, but I'm going on vacation at the end of august for 8 days so I'll probably have to wait until I get back to start? The other option I'm considering is getting a bottle of One and Only and adding it along with 10-15 of the dithers the week before we go on vacation? I can have someone come by and feed them a couple of times, but if anything went wrong they wouldn't know what to do and I'd hate to kill a bunch of fish becauseI'm impatient...


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

Lookin good! Definitely dose with ammonia to 2-3 ppm. Let it do it's thing while you're away. Any bacteria that colonized before or while you're away will be fine if all of the ammonia(food source) is processed. It will not 'die off'.


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## Greg92056 (Jul 16, 2014)

OK, back from vacation and ready to get this thing up and running.

The tank is setup in my office (I work from home), got the PFS, rocks, driftwood, and water in it over the weekend, got the sump mostly dialed in last night, and poured a bottle of Dr. Tim's One and Only in it tonight. I opted to wait to add any fish while it cycles, although they say to add fish within 24 hours. When I ordered the One & Only I also got a bottle of Ammonium Chloride and have does the tank to 2ppm or close to it, we'll see tomorrow when I test the water again. I'm hoping to be cycled by early next week.

When I bought the tank and stand it also came with a canopy with built in lights, originally I was going to pull them out and install them in a DIY canopy to match the stand I built, but my wife isn't to happy when I put on my carpenter's hat... something about taking up space in the garage, taking forever... yadda yadda. Anyway, I decided to order a Current Sat Freshwater LED+ instead, it should be here Friday. Not sure what to do with the other light/canopy? It came with 5-6 new bulbs in addition to the 4 that are installed. I guess I could try to sell them on Craigslist?

I'll try to get some photos up this weekend after the light arrives. I'm pretty happy with how everything is turning out so far and I can't wait to stock it. I'm for sure going to order 10-12 T. Macs and either 6 C. Sajica or 6 C. Chets. I'll also add a school of dithers and maybe one or two singles, we'll see. I'll update again as the water parameters settle.


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

Sounds good man... how bout some photos?


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## CjCichlid (Sep 14, 2005)

Sounds like a nice setup, looking forward to seeing it! :thumb:


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## kaphil (Aug 3, 2006)

Just on the maculipinnis aggression issue. I kept a group of 5, with some other fish, in a 450l tank. They were no more aggressive to the other fish than other thorichthys I have kept, but were very hard on each other. You are planning on a fairly big group, that may help, but my advice would be - be prepared to deal with some fairly serious conspecific aggression issues.
They are truly beautiful fish. Good luck


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## Greg92056 (Jul 16, 2014)

Here is a preview of the tank with my first attempt at aquascaping. Please excuse the horrible photo quality, it was taking with my soon to be retired iPhone 4...










Also, here are some photos of inside my stand. I made the stand a little taller(34 in) for a few reasons: 
1- It sits next to my desk and I wanted to be eye-level with the lower 1/3 from my chair 
2- To allow for a little room to work underneath, and 
3- So my kids can't reach the top

I installed a couple LED lights inside the stand to make it easier to work on. You'll also notice in this picture that the center piece of the stand skin is removed. I designed it so that it fits snug but is not attached in any way so I can move it when I'm working under the stand. In this last picture you can see how the doors work, they have a small piece of wood glued to them that rests on the bottom of the door opening, then they are held in place by velcro. The tank is in a tight area so I didn't want to fight with attached doors, this way I can remove almost the entire front of the stand quickly and easily.










This picture is of the sump. 








I originally planned to have it work as a wet dry, but it ended up being a little bit of a headache because of how tall the baffles are. I wasn't comfortable with how high the mechanical filtration was sitting. So, I neded up submerging all of the bio-media and the mechanical is in a plastic bin that sits almost completely in the sump tank. I still want to modify it a little more to get it completely inside the tank, but it seems pretty safe for now. I'm using 4L of Pond Matrix and a pile of pot scrubbers for the Bio-filter, and filter floss for the mechanical. I also have a coarse poret foam pad that I need to cut to size that will sit above the Matrix to add to the mechanical filtration.


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

:thumb:


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## stalefish83 (May 22, 2014)

Looks great! I love the natural look of your scape, and your sump makes me super jealous!!


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## CjCichlid (Sep 14, 2005)

Looking good!


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## Greg92056 (Jul 16, 2014)

Thanks! I'm pretty happy that the tank came with the sump, its been fun learning how it works and how versatile it is. It's a little noisy, but almost in a good way if that makes sense? It has a nice big refugium that I can use to separate injured or hostile fish without having to setup another tank, and I could probably also grow some plants in there. One of the things I'm really glad I did was buying one of the American DJ Power Controllers, it is so nice to be able to turn off individual pieces of equipment... I can't imagine trying to unplug lights, pumps, heaters, etc. every time I needed them off...

So to update my cycle, I tested this morning and it looks like this:

Ammonia = 0ppm
Nitrite = 3ppm(on a strip) between 2-5ppm with the API test kit.
Nitrate = 20ppm (On a test strip)

I didn't test the Nitrates with the API kit because I understand it may give false readings if there are Nitrites in the water? Anyway, it looks like I'm getting close right?

I'm thinking I should do a 25-30% water change today, then dose up to 1ppm ammonia just to make sure it will convert back to zero over night?


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

I'd hold off on the water change. Wait til nitrite is 0 and check nitrate. You should see a reading. Then dose ammo to 2 ppm. Once your bacteria can convert ammo and nitrite to 0 in 24 hours, you're good to go. I wouldn't do a WC unless nitrite is off your API chart. Once you're cycled, do a water change to bring nitrate down to <=10 ppm.


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## Greg92056 (Jul 16, 2014)

Did a water test tonight and here are the results:










Just dosed the ammo back up to about 2ppm, I'll check it tomorrow, assuming were back to zero I'll do a big water change and start the next step... ordering fish!


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

Lookin good...


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## Greg92056 (Jul 16, 2014)

Tank is fully cycled, did a 50% water change, dropped in a group of black mollies I picked up a week ago that will serve as dithers, and ordered my T. Macs and C. Chets for delivery tomorrow! Can't wait to get them in there.

In the meantime I thought I'd share a few random things I learned/observed over the course of working on this project...

I own my own business so I'm generally sympathetic to small business owners and try to support them whenever I can. With this is mind I made several trips to the LFS as I started this project. The people there are nice, some are very knowledgeable, and the ones that aren't know who to ask for the answers, that part is great. The store itself is messy, somewhat unorganized and the freshwater section seems neglected... the saltwater side is obviously the focus, even though it doesn't seem any better kept than the freshwater side. Outside of Petco and PetSmart they are the only LFS in about a 25 mile radius that even has freshwater fish (there are two other stores nearby, but they only carry saltwater).

Anyway, after a few trips just browsing and asking questions I was ready to buy some parts for my plumbing. The owner of the store was very helpful, he dry fit the fittings to make sure I knew how everything should connect and even suggested I get one part(ball valve) at Home Depot because I could get it a lot cheaper there. So they ring every thing up and I was a little surprised by how much the total was because I had priced everything at Home Depot already and knew about what it should cost. It was a little more than 3x what I thought it should have been. I appreciated the time they took to help me and all the information I'd received in the past so I paid and left. When I got home I looked over the receipt to figure out what was so expensive. One example is they charged $4 each for 1 inch to 3/4 bushings that are $.89 at Home Depot. I fully understand they need to charge a little more than the big stores and I'm fine paying a premium to purchase fish stuff from fish guys, but there has to be a limit, right?

Again, I know it is increasingly difficult for brick and mortar stores to compete with the online stores as well as the big pet stores, and I really love being able to go visit a LFS and talk to people that love the hobby. There are other ways to increase sales without gouging the people that support them... For example there are so many things that aren't necessarily designed for fish tanks that people have adapted or DIY'd that the LFS could carry:

Egg Crate Light Diffusers - Very common part used in aquariums, inexpensive, LFS should stock a few even if they just went to HD and bought some off the shelf, cut them into smaller pieces and reasonably mark them up.
Pool Filter Sand - Very widely used in tanks, makes no sense that a LFS wouldn't carry it, again even if they had to buy it off the shelf at Ace Hardware like I did.
Pot Scrubbies - Maybe too cheap to carry because people might not buy the over priced bioballs, but most people are ordering those online anyway.

Sorry, don't mean to rant... Sometimes the entrepreneur in me gets a little crazy. And maybe your LFS carries some of these things, or things like them? I just see a lot of missed opportunities... My wife sees it as "don't even think about opening a fish store..."


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

As much as I'd like to support local businesses, the cost difference makes the decision very difficult.

Good luck with the delivery tomorrow.


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## Greg92056 (Jul 16, 2014)

Box arrived at 9:30, everyone looks healthy and very active.

The C. Chets I ordered were supposed to be 1.5" but they are all over 2" with the largest probably 3 inches. I'm pretty sure the big one is a female based on the black spot on the dorsal fin? Here is a picture:









Forgive the terrible photo.. bad lighting, reflection from the window, phone, cloudy water from all the digging, etc. I don't see the black spot on any of the other 5 although the two smallest might be too early to tell, but that might just be wishful thinking.

The T. Macs were listed as 2" and that's pretty accurate, the largest is probably closer to 3" and the smallest is probably closer to 1.5". I tried to get some pictures of them but they aren't big fans of the camera.

At the last minute I added a couple of EBJD to my order, they are the smallest fish in the tank at about 1.5" but they seem to be holding their own fine for now. If they start to get bullied I have a 10 gallon I can move they to so they can grow a little.

Anyway, I'll try to get some photos tonight after it gets dark.


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## Greg92056 (Jul 16, 2014)

Pulled out the good camera tonight and tried to get some better photos. It confirmed to me what bad shape the acrylic is... I have some Novus I'm going to use on the outside, but I think a lot of the dings and scratches are on the inside  I'll just have to live with it for the time being.

Here is one of the T.Macs









Here is the largest of the C. Chets, pretty sure she a female









She is the largest fish in the tank and has dug out a prime spot under a large rock where she spends a lot of time chasing everyone else away, especially one of the other Chets that I also believe to be female based on the black spot on the dorsal fin?

Finally, this is one of the smaller Chets without the black spot, so maybe male? You'll notice how tore up his fins are, of the six Chets only the largest came out of the bag without a lot of torn fins.









While I was taking pictures at one end of the tank I noticed some action at the other end, it was 5 of the T. Macs and 2 of the Chets trying to catch a Molly fry. They were all pretty agro for a few minutes after it was long gone, its really the first time I've seen any kind of aggression outside of a little chasing. Just watching the interactions of these fish sure does become addicting...


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

Nice photos Greg!

Just keep an eye on that little Chet. Fin damage from shipping? He doesn't appear too battered.


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## Greg92056 (Jul 16, 2014)

Five of the six are in about that same condition. It either happened during shipping or they were that way prior to shipping? Since the big female has no fin damage at all I figured she just beat every one up on the way here...


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

Most likely. They'll heal up. You've got a large tank. Lots of room.


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## Greg92056 (Jul 16, 2014)

So I suspect I've got a small outbreak of Ich. I noticed a few days ago that several fish were flashing and last night I noticed the largest Chet looked like it had a layer of tiny air bubbles all over. I'm now noticing white spots on a couple of the other Chets as well. Strangely I'm not seeing anything on any of the black Mollies or the T-Macs. Is it possible that it could be some kind of fungus instead of Ich? I'm turning the temp up to the low 80's and I'll go get some aquarium salt tomorrow, any other suggestions?


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## CjCichlid (Sep 14, 2005)

It could be ich or some kind of fungus. From the sound of it though, I'd say it's ich. Ich looks like granules of salt and will cause the fish to flash. It's not really all that serious as long as you catch it early. I'd up the temp to the mid 80's and add salt. No need for "aquarium salt" either, I just use the non iodized sea salt from Kroger (or any other grocery store). I would also up your water changes as ich is spread through the water column.

Take a look at this article: http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/ich.php


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## Greg92056 (Jul 16, 2014)

Water temp has been at 84-85 since Thursday, water is salty, and the Ich is clearing up nicely, most fish are back to normal behavior, and only a couple of the C. Chets show any sign of the white spots.


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

Nice job identifying and addressing the problem.

Once everything clears up, slowly drop the temp to around 75-76. T. Maculipinnis prefer the lower temps.


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## Greg92056 (Jul 16, 2014)

Funny that you say that because in the midst of this I am pretty sure a pair has formed. Two of the larger T. Maculipinnis have staked claim to a small flat rock that lies front and center. Both are showing a lot more red and seem to be giving each other high fives with their caudal fins... If they decide to spawn on the rock that they've cleaned, things could get ugly. It is in the area where all the fish congregate whenever someone walks into my office...


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## Greg92056 (Jul 16, 2014)

So last Monday night it appeared that a pair had formed. Tuesday morning the pair had turned into a trio... One T.Mac was guarding the original rock, then another was guarding a rock in the front corner, and a third was going back and forth between the two and it was the only fish either of the other two would let get near. The two that were guarding rocks would occasionally head toward each other and flare, but never got right in each other's face. By Wednesday everyone had pretty much gone their separate ways.

So over the weekend I slowly dropped the temp down to 75-76 as Iggy Suggested and last night I noticed a new pair had formed in the front right corner again. I'm not sure if its the original two because most are very similar in size. The spawning dress on the female was beautiful, the vertical bars were very dark, almost like tiger stripes. Anyway, I watched them until pretty late, my ramp timer shuts the lights off at 12:30 and as the lights were going down it looked like eggs were being laid.

I checked on them this morning and there were eggs all over the rock. They were very hard to see because they are basically the same color, but they were there. I went down stairs to make the kids breakfast and get the camera and when I returned 20 minutes later... they are gone and one of the C. Chets is digging around the rock. I'm not sure if the parents ate the eggs or if they got over run and the others ate them. The one that I think is the male is still hanging out in the general area, but not aggressively guarding, and the female is out in the open not guarding so I don't think they were moved. Oh well, I'm sure they'll be at it again soon. Fascinating to watch.


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

That's pretty awesome man. I'm sure they'll be at it again...


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## Greg92056 (Jul 16, 2014)

So it looks like two of my C. Chetumalensis have paired up. Of the six I have there are for sure 3 females and 1 male, the other two are still a little small but I'm thinking 1 is male and 1 is female. The male has paired up with the smallest of the three females and they've been more or less hiding between a couple rocks. I took a short video where you can see the male doing a little shimmy at the entrance to their "cave". The bad news is that the largest female has lived "next door" since all the fish were added. Right before I shot this video the pair was getting pretty aggressive toward the large female, prior to this the C. Chets have all been very peaceful towards each other with only a little chasing.

Anyway, this is the first video I've shot and the first I've ever posted to YouTube so the quality is not great, and my glass is a mess...


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## Greg92056 (Jul 16, 2014)

So my little female Chet has been hiding in a "cave" for about 4 days. she pokes her head out every once in a while to spit out some sand and I can see that she is in her spawning colors. The black eyes are pretty cool. The male pretty much stands guard outside so I'm assuming there will be fry any day now...

In the meantime I hadn't even noticed that a pair of T. Macs was guarding a rock in the front left corner of the tank...










As if that wasn't enough these two are guarding and cleaning off a rock in the front right corner...










This could get ugly real fast....


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

Congrats!


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## Greg92056 (Jul 16, 2014)

So still no signs of fry from the Chets, but the female is still hanging out in the cave and the male is guarding the entrance so I'm guessing a swarm is eminent. The T. Macs in the left from corner are guarding their eggs a little more aggressively and have dug a large pit under/next to a larger rock.

Now the other T. Mac pair in the front right are spawning, but as soon as the female drops an egg, the male sucks it up? I'm assuming he's eating it? I've never actually seen the egg laying so I'm not sure if that is normal? I'm guessing no? I took a little video that I'll try to get posted tonight.


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## Greg92056 (Jul 16, 2014)

Things are going well in the tank although I did lose my largest T. Mac the last time they spawned, I guess the stress of defending fry did him in? He was fine one day, then the next morning he was floating? That was in January and no one has spawned since although thee is a new dominant male that has been flirting off and on with a couple of the females so hopefully they will pair up soon.

My C. Chets have spawned once, but I never saw any fry or eggs only the very distinct spawning dress on the female. I'm pretty sure I only have one male and apparently he's not very interested...

I 'm definitely going to rehome 4 or 5 of the 9 T. Macs and I'm thinking about adding a couple other CA's perhaps a Vieja of some kind and maybe a Dempsey just to add some variety. I also picked up a couple 40B tanks at the Petco $1/gallon sale and I may end up moving the Chets into one of them...


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## Greg92056 (Jul 16, 2014)

So for the last few days one of my female Chets has been going in and out of spawning dress but away from all the other Chets? She has very little interaction with the male who seems to just hang out with 2 of the other females in and around a rock pile on the opposite end of the tank... It seems I'm at a spot where the dominant males of each species are just not interested in spawning. Might be time to think about mixing up the stock a little? In the meantime here is a photo of the Chet from tonight.


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

Sorry to hear about the loss of the male Thorichthys.

Are you positive you have a Chet male? The female in spawning dress could be laying eggs without being fertilized.

Why rehome some of the T. Macs?


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## Greg92056 (Jul 16, 2014)

Not 100% on the Chet being male, here is a pic:









The other 5 all have an obvious dark spot on their dorsal, this one has always looked about the same, although while trying to get a good photo tonight it does look like it might have a faint spot on its dorsal as well... What are the odds all six are female... Maybe I need to find a few more and get a confirmed male....

As far as the T. Macs, 4 of them have remained about the same size as when I got them(2-3 inches) and generally hang out at the top of the tank, while the largest male is probably 6 inches now. The other 4 are 4-5 inches and roam freely. A couple of the small guys almost always have the horizontal black bar that I think is a sign of stress(?) It seems to appear on the others when they huddle together during big water changes, so I imagine the little guys are just not happy.

On a side note, I've been bitten by the multi-tank bug pretty bad and picked up about 15 tanks of various sizes last month at the $1/gallon sale and will be building a couple of racks in my garage in the next few weeks. I'm gonna get a couple breeding groups of Peacocks, a group of Julidochromis, maybe some Brevis, and maybe move the Chets out there.


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