The Wild Fishing Forum

Quote from: Fishtales on July 16, 2024, 05:49:32 PMThat is the same as mine. They didn't move any gravel in the cave they spawned in though. After two weeks away I can only see two well grown fry swimming about. The modern males seem very drab compared to when I was breeding them many moons ago

I could bore you senseless with my thoughts on this.

I was in Wharfe Aquatics this morning. I had a slow amble around the trop section and saw some awesome, wild caught stock in tanks next to captive bred bread and butter Cichlid species. The convict cichlids were dull and drab grey. When I were a lad, the bellies would be blue and not just in spawning condition.

The firemouths are nowher near the colour they once were. The fish farms breeding these fish based in Asia and to a much lesser extent, Eastern Europe just don't pay any attention to broodstock quality.

I saw a few other Central American cichlids that have all had the size, shape and colour bred out of them.

Kribs I'm afraid to say are the same

I imagine back in the day other bread and bitter species like Swordtails were almost twice the size of the genetic crap we see for sale today?

The green Mushrooms appear to have settled in and are now fully extended. But they're very close. I'll need to separate at some point. Apologies for the really crappy pics on this thread. The blue LED's badly affect the images. The colours in the real world are very different to the naked eye. 



I also bought a couple of tiny feather stars today and a tiny colony of Zoas. Here they are in a bucket being drip acclimated. The Zoas shouldn't be touched with your hands as they can be toxic.




Tiny Zoa colony immediately after being acclimated and added. The heads are all currently closed.



The feather stars are opening intermittently. I've never had great success with these before, but as I'm not culturing Phytoplankton and soon to be rotifers too, I should in theory have more success. The plan is to turn off all the electrics and target feed these with Phyto using a syringe twice a week. We shall see if it works...



Zoa colony two hours later just starting to open. They're attached to a small piece of rock which has been superglued to a frag plug. At some point I'll need to cut that off and superglue into place on real rock.



So tiny bits of genetic material are being added to create a real reef. It will take time and I'm hoping to cultivate the Zoas and Mushroom corals over the next one to two years to fill the tank.

I want a small piece of pulsing Xenia too. But haven't seen any for sale recently.

I should have had a small tank arrive for my sexy shrimp project today but forgot to add it to my order. Also missing were the 144 fish nets I wanted. Apparently the NHS has placed a monster sized order of assorted fish nets to ship to midwives around the UK! Midwives who oversee deliveries in birthing pools! true story!

Yeah I thought the male was a bit unremarkable. His tail is a mess, the big female gave him a real hard time  the quarantine tank. These are the only  kribs I have ever had so  I was unsure what to expect. These fish came from Pets At Home, £10 for the pair. The guy in the shop was telling me they get ZERO say on the fish they stock all done from head office, so I'd guess the Arbroath and the Coatbridge stock will be identical.

Keep us posted on the fry's progress Sandy.

The Caulerpa has proven to be a real problem. It's growing with bits dying off at the same time, so it's gone.

I've added two Mexican turbo snails. Don't you just love the names the aquatics industry give livestock in order to generate interest....

They're in a bucket being drip acclimated in this pic.



And here's one feeding on the rock within 3 seconds of being placed there!



I also bought a small piece of rock with three mushroom coral heads on it. These cost £10 a head. But I've got it home and it actually has five. Bargain!

I used a product called DipX to eliminate any hitchhikers that you don't want in the tank. This is herb based and smells, quite pleasant! 



Unfortunately the five heads are all around the tiny piece of rock and so I can't easily superglue it to the existing rock. I might have to remove some and rearrange later.

But for now the heads are just starting to open. Hopefully they'll be on full display tomorrow.




In theory I'll be able to propagate these at a later date.

If these do ok I'll add some more interesting (read expensive) mushrooms at a later date.

That is the same as mine. They didn't move any gravel in the cave they spawned in though. After two weeks away I can only see two well grown fry swimming about. The modern males seem very drab compared to when I was breeding them many moons ago

After fighting for a week or two my kribs have moved 1/2 ton of sand around that coconut shell to spawn in. It will be interesting to see if any of the fry survive. The fat brightly coloured one is the female.

My Sage ZXL would have it on the bank in minutes   

What do you reckon guys. This is 440lb. Would my 10 wt do or should I look to upgrade to something a bit heavier?

I've forgot how to post photos.
How do I post them.

I have never fished it, nor do I know about permits, but I came across this interesting map

https://fishing-app.gpsnauticalcharts.com/i-boating-fishing-web-app/fishing-marine-charts-navigation.html?title=Loch+Tralaig+boating+app#14/56.2930/-5.4259