December - Hill Country Cichlid Club

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10 The fourth and final piece of equipment was a pond heater that I found by accident. It only engages on very cool nights. Since installing all the extras, and despite a continued night time temperature in the 20’sF the lowest the water temperature has gotten is 66F; quite acceptable for the fish I keep. Even in the heat of summer, the fish have done just fine. This floater supports the heating unit and keeps it off of the bottom. You can see the underside of the solar blanket that has been peeled away to show a large group of Pseudotropheus saulosi. Equipment list: Intex Above ground pool. 16’ diamenter, roughly 5500 gallons. Speciality Pool Products So lar Blanket. Free floating cover. 25 Watt UV Sterilizer com bined with a 500 gph power head. Clepco 1500 w pond heater. The thermostat and pond heating unit. We added several trays containing pool filter sand and planted with a native species collected locally. These plants have absolutely exploded! They look lush and green. As an added bonus, the mbuna don’t bother them at all. In the very middle of the pond is a reef built up mostly of holey rock that I have bought at club auctions and were too large for my tanks. The fish love this and this area is always full of newborn fry who use the holes in the rock as a refuge. I should mention that I added slate tiles to the middle portion of the pond so that the holey rock would not puncture the lining. The inhabitants of the pond are all cichlids from Lake Malawi and haplochromines from the Lake Victoria region. There are also several paradise fish (Macropodus opercularis) that were popped in there after spawning in one of our smaller ponds. These fish were either housed here previously, picked up at auction or given to me (primarily from Troy Veltrop, Nick Andreola and Dave Schumacher). All the fish have grown with most now reproducing. I had a lot of help from Dave Schumacher assisting with adding species that were not likely to hybridize. The fish both act differently than behaviors I have observed in the aquarium. Aggressive species coexist with other more docile species in the larger body of water.
11 Perhaps the most enjoyable part of our pond experiment is being able to jump in and snorkel with the fish. It’s a lot of fun to hand feed them however, as they have gotten use to Lee Ann and I in the water and associate us with feeding, they have lost their fear of people. This has resulted in us being bitten. The two species that are the worst are Psuedotropheus saulosi and Astatotilapia latisfasciata. Feed in excess before jumping in the water! Species list: Astatotilapia latisfasciata Cynotilapia aurifrons Cyrtocara moorii Gephyrochromis moorii Labidochromis caeruleus Macropodus opercularis Paralabidochromis chromogynos Paralabidochromis sauvagei Pseudotropheus acei “white tail” Pseudotropheus flavus Pseudotropheus lombaordi Pseudotropheus saulosi Pundamilia nyererei Pundamilia sp. “red head” Copadichromis sp. "Kawanga no spot" Metriaclima sp. “elongates Chailosi”
Page 1 and 2: The Lateral Line Volume 5, Issue 4
Page 3 and 4: 3 Editorial First off, to all HCCC
Page 5 and 6: 5 September 28, 2012. Mr. Greg Stee
Page 7 and 8: 7 Retail Store Hours: Tues-Sat 10am
Page 9: 9 cerned with. That is heat and col
Page 13 and 14: 13 ter when what we put into their
Page 15 and 16: 15 I had the tank prepared for a we
Page 17: 17 was aborted several days later.
Page 20 and 21: 20 meantime, Java moss in the tank

December - Hill Country Cichlid Club

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