Hey! I'm a parent too!

Walking Man

Walking Man

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I found out this morning that my wife and I are now parents. No pregancies, no morning sickness, no diapers! But we're parents!!!!!
With all of the profilerating around here lately, I thought I'd share in my latest round of fatherdom, especially since my wife and I will probably never have kids due to medical reasons.
I went to the basement this morning and was astounded by what I saw! I then told my wife to come over, that she HAD to see something that was really cool! So she came downstairs. I reached my arm into the water, moved a castle, and LO and BEHOLD!!!! Baby Cichlids!!!!!!
which are a type of tropical fish
What was cool about it is that my wife asked me if the females looked pregnant, and she doesn't know much about cichlids as I do. I said it's possible, but it's kind of hard to tell sometimes. To give her credit, a few months ago she thought that the egg spots on my male's fins were a disease (I laughed at her, but I should note that is she is very observant sometimes). As far as I can tell we have about 4 babies, but there might be more since cichlids, especially Africans, are notorious for being excellent hiders, even from birth which is their main defense mechanism. I'm pretty surprised they made it because I've only been feeding my fish pellets, which means all of it gets eaten. However, cichlids tend to overeat and spit some of it out, which I guess is how they survived. I also think I got lucky because I'm using river rocks (small smooth stones) which allowed the babies to avoid getting eaten because they are small enough to hide between them. I put in flake food today, so it should be easier for them to feed. I will be moving them into another aquarium tonight.
This is only my second round of having my cichlids breed (at lease as far as I know, it's actually probably happened before, but they've been eaten or whatever). And the first time since I've been married. Thanks for looking.
 
Here is the offending fish, known only by it's scientific name, Pseudotropheus acei: (for those of you that don't know there are so many species that look so closely alike that only a few have been given common names)
47b4da22b3127ccebb8d9a153d0c0000001610

Note the egg spot on the bottom fin. Many beginners tend to mistake them with some kind of disease, since there are a few disease that look similar, usually white, though.
 
Walkingman,

Actually, I think that you are now a Grandparent.:eek:
Congratulations.

dave
 
I love that color. It's like the Blue Iridium color of my Oakley's.. :eek: :cool:

Congrats on the new little fishies, Walking Man!
 
Schuey2002 said:
I love that color. It's like the Blue Iridium color of my Oakley's.!
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Man, that's nothing. You should see an Electric Blue in person! (scienochromis alhi). The is the bluest fish I know of, bar none!
If you look at it long enough you get the "stare at the monitor too long" syndrome. :eek:
ahli.jpg
 
Now that I think of it, If anyone is seriously interested, and is willing to provide good care of these, AND you can pick them up. I'll let them go for free.
Like my location says, I'm in NE Ohio. BTW, these aren't cheap fish. They go for around $10/each minimum (when full grown, a little less when young)
 
I remember when i was the proud grandparent of a pair of Jack Dempseys...all the little ones were pretty neat. John
 
Pretty cool Walking Man! My uncle used to have a bunch of cichlids. Then he got some Discus, but most of them died. Now he just as a bunch of cheap fish. I think he wants to get a salt water tank soon, which will be pretty cool.
 
Dr. Thor said:
Pretty cool Walking Man! My uncle used to have a bunch of cichlids. Then he got some Discus, but most of them died. Now he just as a bunch of cheap fish.
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Discus are really awesome! BUT it is so difficult to keep them in Ohio water. It can be done, but you have to do a lot of adjusting of the water's chemistry. Let's put it this way. Ohio water is pH 7.2-8.0, and discus need water that is 6.0 or less, which is quite a difference, since pH scale is a logarhythm. I think you'll have much better luck with a saltwater tank, all you have to do is add the salt mix to OH water, and you're already up to pH 8.2, which is the same as the ocean. And I think Canada tends to have fairly hard water as well.
If you're ever lucky enough to live in Florida, keeping Discus would be much easier, because of their soft and acid water.
 
For those of you that don't know: Discus are very interesting fish because their young actually feed on the body slime of the parent. And they're very colorful too! Here's a pic. of the young in action.
discus2.jpg
 
WARNING: DON'T buy discus unless you have some experience keeping fish already. They are very delicate creatures that will suffer from even minor enviromental changes! (Even though it's very tempting, since they're so cool.)
 
Walking Man said:
WARNING: DON'T buy discus unless you have some experience keeping fish already. They are very delicate creatures that will suffer from even minor enviromental changes! (Even though it's very tempting, since they're so cool.)
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Well, that rules out me ever owning any.. The temp in my place will go from Sub-Saharan hot, to Antarctic cold, all in the span of just a few minutes!
:barf:
 
Schuey2002 said:
Well, that rules out me ever owning any.. The temp in my place will go from Sub-Saharan hot, to Antarctic cold, all in the span of just a few minutes!
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As long as it doesn't get too hot you should be okay. You can combat this by purchasing multiple heaters in your aquarium, not just one powerful one, also by putting the aquarium into a room that has less ventilation than your open areas.
Discus need fairly high temperatures, I think they like it around 82F, but I'll have to check. Your main worry should be the water chemistry, because they like soft water, there is usually a pretty week pH buffer, but I think you can add buffer to stabalize the pH. Keeping Discus and other high maintanence fish is more work than most people think! You should also do weekly water changes for discus to make sure the water stay clean and make sure you've seasoned the tank by letting other fish live their first (you'll probably want to take them out right before you add your discus).
 
African ciclids are cool. I use to have a paradise fish and a jack dempsey. Tehy were aggressive.
 
Congratulations WalkingMan! I think this makes you Grandparents though. Those are some pretty fish.

I know fish can be fun and relaxing. I've had freshwater and saltwater. The saltwater is work but man you can get some beautiful fish.

I even had two Piranha for a while. As cool as they sound it was actually more fun to watch the Oscars eat.
 
Silas said:
I know fish can be fun and relaxing. I've had freshwater and saltwater. The saltwater is work but man you can get some beautiful fish.
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Very true. I like Africans because they are about as colorful as you can get without going to saltwater. The Ohio hardwater helps too. I kept South Americans for a while, but I finally gave up because they just didn't seem as healthy as Africans, at least not in Ohio water. Fish-only saltwater tanks are also really easy to maintain with Ohio water.
 
Mark Nelson said:
Fish? Are you sure you don't have those just to tease your kitties?:p
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For the most part they leave my fish alone. I was really worried when the Bengal cat came into our home, as they are domestic cats cross bred with natural fishing cats, but I haven't had any disappear yet. Even my 3 slow-moving fan tail goldfish seem safe so far, and that tank doesn't have a hood!
 
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