Welcome

[angel]

Glad you're here April! What do you find you enjoy about keeping Oscars?

[pegasus2200]

thank you!

[jgentry]

Hi everyone,
I'm J.D. and I live in Gallatin. I have been keeping fish for about 22 years and focus mainly on SA/CA cichlids. Mostly rarer stuff that you don't see much in stores but some common fish as well. I am 29 years old and a chemist by trade.

[angel]

Hi J.D.--happy you're here! You've been keeping fish since you were 7! That's incredible! It's great to have another SA/CA keeper here. We have a few and just can't figure them out.

[jgentry]

Thanks angel. I had my first 10g when I was 7 and the tanks have been getting steadily larger ever since. I didn't really get into cichlids until about 9 years ago though. SA/CA cichlids are an odd bunch, friendly one minute violent the next.

[angel]

Well what we have are pretty common. A red devil a green terror a blood parrot a pink convict and two firemouths. There also were two honduran redpoints that were killed and an oscar that was bigger than all of them that was killed. It's tough to know who will accept who. I love Africans though and have an increasing obsession with them.

[jgentry]

Sounds like a nice tank to me. Unfortunately red devils just don't play well with others when they mature unless the tank is huge. Adding tankmates with them once they are large is nearly impossible. They are one mean fish!

[angel]

You know, he was the suspect. But we caught the pink convict doing some torturing and the green terror did take a turn or two as well. Mostly I think it was the convict. She's in breeding colors and there's no one to breed with her. Even the red devil hides from her sometimes lol
Thanks for the input and please post photos of your fish as soon as you can. We'd love to see them!

[titansfever83]

Whats up J.D. glad to see you join us!!!

I hope my Orangeheads are settling in well. And I hope your neighbor wants a lot of babies!!!! I just had two more spawns!! I got baby Orangeheads coming out my ears, might have to setup one of the tanks I am trying to sell, LOL.

To everyone else, J.D. is very knowledgeable about CA/SA Cichlids, he will be a great addition to this site!

[jgentry]

Thanks Jamie. The orangeheads are doing great. They are much happier now that I moved out some of the other geo's. We'll be ready for a few more orangeheads, but I think you are going to need to start stocking up on bags and styrofoam coolers to get those babies out across the states. Probably just not enough of a market here if you have a ton of them.

I was going to post some pics but for some reason my computer won't let me resize on photobucket. They are pretty large so I don't want to screw up the website posting my giant pics. Maybe I'll get it working this weekend.

[jon carman]

I'm leaving it up to you guys to run the new world section since you guys know more about it than I do. I have kept some over the years but I have more species knowledge of africans.

[fishme]

Wow!! A great website located right here in Middle Tennessee. I'm not all alone out here in the wilderness after all.

Anyway, my name is Mike. I'm a 55-year old male from Tullahoma...a sports writer/photographer by trade. I first got into fish keeping about 20 years ago and it got so crazy that I bought the local fish and aquarium store...lol. Got out of the hobby after several years because I was moving around trying to establish my career. Just got the bug again this summer and drug a trusty old 45-gallon aquarium out of my mom's basement. A few weeks later I hit the jackpot on Craigslist and bought a 75 with nice stand, a Fluval 404 canister filter, tons of decorations, medicines and cleaning supplies and two 30 gallon tanks on a wrought-iron stand....all for $325 and the guy delivered them to my house. (his wife wanted the spare bedroom back and he was desperate to get rid of the stuff).

Anyway, I just discovered the forums today and promise to be a frequent contributor, though I'm not exactly expert in any area. I mostly keep africans cichlids (peacocks, acei, rusties and yellow labs at the moment) and a mixture of SA/CA (oscar, jack dempsey, convict, firemouth, green terror, salvini). Presently have five tanks running, a 75 gallon, a 45 gallon, 2 30 gallons and a 29 gallon community tank).

[angel]

Welcome, Mike! Glad you're here! I thought at first you might be the guy on CL wanting to sell a huge tank as he was getting out of the hobby after 55 years. I was about to say give me til the 1st and I'll be knocking on your door with a truck!
Do you breed Jacks by any chance? We need a male, all of a sudden.

[fishme]

Hi angel. No, only have the one and am not sure if it's a male or female. Very dark colored though, so I'm thinking male. About 4" at the moment. I'll try to catch him in a good mood and get a pic for you

[angel]

Ok great. We have female and bought her a male but turned out to be a huge female. Too many girls and no boys. Africans are my obsession but we have a few SA/CA