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My Amphilophus Lyonsi Journal

Mitchell The Monster

Mitchell The Monster

Peacock Bass
MFK Member
So today was the day, the fish finally showed up around 5:50 this afternoon. I got 8 Lyonsi from COA, I have been super excited to own these guys. I have wanted these fish for 4 years now and have the time and space to finally do it. Will take pictures and video tomorrow.
To start off this is my tank set-up and stocking...125 gallon with an FX4, decorated with "cichlid stones" the little Plenn plex rock caves, driftwood, and fake plants. I have 5 firemouths, 5 redhook silver dollars, a spotted raphael catfish, a senegal bichir, and a syno cat. Stocking will be adjusted as needed. A couple of the lyonsi are smaller than expected so I might move them into my 10 gallon to grow out somemore so they dont get picked on by my catfish. The tank is kept at 78.5 degrees. 25% water changes every other day and and 80% water change at the end of the month or every other month. This is my first time doing this kind of thread so if there is anything I should include please let me know.
All Fish arrived healthy and alert. I am quite impressed with Dan's packaging and timely responses. I found him very easy to communicate with. The fish were triple bagged, the first bag was surrounded in newspaper and so was the outermost bag. The fish were labeled and the water had methylene blue in it which I appreciated. He used a square box with rounded corners so fish could not get trapped. Each of the bags had 2 rubber bands and the Styrofoam box had a good layer of tape all the way around. The big box its self already had the words Live Fish on it and was one of those traditonal boxes, typed in red and have the angelfish and such on them but he actually took the time to write in sharpie on every side "LIVE FISH" and the word "up" with arrows and on the top it said "this side up." Dan and his team make sure to take care of their costumers and fish. Would recommend to anyone looking for some rarer and high quality central and south american cichlids.
 
A quick video from yesterday.
They are all still very shy, most of them have taken a couple pellets but haven't eaten much. My crappy phone doesn't pick up the color but they already have some awesome reds on their fins already.
The firemouths are just too food aggressive for them to come out and eat with them so I am taking them to a LFS and buying some cory cats or more silver dollars. Sad to see them go but gotta do what I got to do. Hoping removing the firemouths will make them move comfortable coming out into the open.
 
These are the dry foods I fed the tank.
Pellets: Omega One Super Cichlid,Omega One Shrimp Pellets, NLS Cichlid formula, Fluval Bug Bites, and Northfin Veggie.
Flakes: Omega One Cichlid Flakes and TetraMin Tropical Formula.
The only reason I have the flakes is becuase that is what I fed for along time before researching and still have the tetramin bottle+ I got the omega one flakes to see if it would help get the lyonsi eating and yes, they seem to like the way it flutters through the water.
Frozon foods:
Mysis shrimp and bloodworm cubes.
 
As predicted, after removing the firemouths the lyonsi became more food aggressive and active. They are decent eaters but eat best when food is suspended in the water column so I either feed the sinking pellets very few at a time over a longer period to make sure they eat it all or I thaw out bloodworms. They really love the bloodworms but I prefer to be feeding my pellets. The "largest" of them all I constantly following me back and forth through the tank and biting at the glass. Hopefully he pairs up and becomes a real glass banger :cool-1:.
Edit: Im having trouble with water changes becuase of how cold it is. I have upped my schedule to 50% every other day and I have been using the hose from outside which has been dropping the water temp but atleast like 3 degrees. My last water change I filled those brute 45 gallon trash bins with water and throw in a heater to bring it up to temp within a few hours which isnt very viable long term. So I was wondering if it is okay for the temp to flex so much during WC's??
 
Mitchell The Monster said:
Edit: Im having trouble with water changes becuase of how cold it is. I have upped my schedule to 50% every other day and I have been using the hose from outside which has been dropping the water temp but atleast like 3 degrees. My last water change I filled those brute 45 gallon trash bins with water and throw in a heater to bring it up to temp within a few hours which isnt very viable long term. So I was wondering if it is okay for the temp to flex so much during WC's??
Click to expand...
I'm not sure how healthy it is overall, but my tanks drop a few degrees during winter water changes. I live in Tasmania (cold in winter) and do minimum 75% weekly and my fish are fine. I just use a hose from the tap, add prime and fill the tanks. A couple of my fish start showing breeding behavior after a cool water change, like with heavy rainfall in the wild. :)

That being said weekly is a little different from every other day so I'm not sure if that would make a difference or not..

Cute fish though mate, can't wait to see them develop. :thumbsup:
 
Mitchell The Monster said:
As predicted, after removing the firemouths the lyonsi became more food aggressive and active. They are decent eaters but eat best when food is suspended in the water column so I either feed the sinking pellets very few at a time over a longer period to make sure they eat it all or I thaw out bloodworms. They really love the bloodworms but I prefer to be feeding my pellets. The "largest" of them all I constantly following me back and forth through the tank and biting at the glass. Hopefully he pairs up and becomes a real glass banger :cool-1:.
Edit: Im having trouble with water changes becuase of how cold it is. I have upped my schedule to 50% every other day and I have been using the hose from outside which has been dropping the water temp but atleast like 3 degrees. My last water change I filled those brute 45 gallon trash bins with water and throw in a heater to bring it up to temp within a few hours which isnt very viable long term. So I was wondering if it is okay for the temp to flex so much during WC's??
Click to expand...

Think you’d be fine w/ just a 3 degree difference. Most CA cichlids are pretty tolerant of cooler temps. My CA tanks aren’t heated at all.
 
Update: LFS wouldn't take my fire mouths so I kept them in a 10 gallon for a little while figuring out what to do with them and put them back in the 125 after the lyonsi got settled in. Everything went great and they are living together 110% fine.
I would say they are all at that 2 inch mark based on how big they are next to the fire mouths which are all 3-3.5" so growing at a decent pace. Doing well on all my dry foods but really go after flakes, i don't really enjoy feeding flakes but if they eat it so vigorously might as well feed a couple times a week.
Feeding schedule right now is veggie based foods in the morning, bug bites mid day, and NLS at night. Sometimes I will just feed a handful of a bunch of my foods at once.
 
Will post an update video when I get the time tonight but have been wondering what kind of catfish or scavenger that could help eat leftover food that hits the substrate that the cichlids don't eat. I have been thinking about Brochis splendens but that probably wouldnt work long term right? I already have a syno cat that does a pretty good job but am wondering what else would work...
I do not really want any more cichlids but I need something that will be good at sand sifting and eating off the sand.
 
I am curious about this fish a lot. Kinda looks like a Flowerhorn/Festae cross as far as looks go.
Thanks for starting this up will be watching for sure since I have an open 125 again.
Now as far as catfish suggestion I say go with one of the bigger Pimelodus like Ornatus or Blochii. Hide during the day, but vacuums with fins at night, or the smell of food in the water.
 
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