From an idea 2 months ago to some fish in a tank. I picked up my 4 acei from my buddy who wanted to go to a tang tank and these were the last of his fish to go. There are 4 and they are between 2 and 3 inches. They are yellow tails. I put them in a 20 long that I was cycling for some shellies (wich I will do when the 45 these guys are going into is clear of the pearsei that are growing out there). I figured since I was able to get these for a pretty good price (4 for $10) and I really like them and they are probably the least aggresive fish I am going to have in the 45 I would start with them. He only had 4 and I was hoping for like 10 so I will be on the lookout for 6 more (I figure that way I can pick out sub dom males and get the male to female ratio right.
Man these fish are active, like I said I have never kept africans before. These are like little crack monkeys swimming all super fast and duckin and dippin and slidin between the rocks and stuff. There only about 15 minutes in and I can already see they are nuts. The don't stop going and there's nothing gracefull about them. They are just fast, crazy psycho fish. I don't know how to sex them and everything I read says its really tough unless you vent and I don't know how to soooooo, I am hoping in time size will give some good insight. Also I hear if you watch them pretty close for a while you can tell from there behavior. As it is now there are three that have egg spots. 1 has a sigle bright egg spot and seems to be dominant (darkest blue and chases everything else). 1 has two bright egg spots (not nearly as dark or chasey). The third has a single very faint egg spot (gets chased) and the fourth has no spot (chased).
I know how much everyone loves pics but I couldent get a clear pic of the fish to save my life (there psycho's). But I did get a pic of the tank with my phone. This is only a grow out and I will add some more structure, when I set the 45 up I am going to make about 40% of the tank rock (we have a landscaping yard close by and I will get some rock from there). Anyway here's the pic, you can see one of the fish kinda chilling out but the other 3 are just a blue and yellow streak.
Thanks for looking and I will let you know and get some advice when I decide on for sure tankmates. I am kinda thinking 6ish P. Acei (yellow tail) 1m 5f, 4ish afra "cobue" 1m 3f, and 1 or 2 yellow labs. I think this will give me a lot of yellow and a lot of blue. And I think all of the fish are compatible. So let me know what you guys think.