GETTING
                                                                                                                  THOSE 

                                                                                                             BLUE GIANTS
                                                                                                                 TO BREED
                                                                                               Frank Schulterbrandt  03/11/2011

 

 

     Well I can say that Almost all of the Petrochromis that I have kept , luckily I have been able to breed them: EXCEPT for the Giant of the  Petrochromis World. I had a group of Blue Giants consisting of 2 males and 4 females. The Alpha male was 12 inches in length and was a brute. I gave this brute of a fish the name “BIG BOB” as he bobbed up out of the water to take Freezed dried krill right from my fingers.
The remaining sub dominant male was 9 inches, the females were 7 to 8 inches in length. The collection point of these was Fulwe Rock.

I had these guys for a year and did not see any breeding activity. Someone made me an offer that I could not refuse an I sold all of the inhabitants of my 240 gallon  8 foot tank, something that I would later regret. After a 5 month search “I GOT LUCKY” no guys its not what you think. I saw that Blue Giants from a different collection point (Kisambala) was for sale , I grabbed the phone and immediately purchased the whole group of 3/5. After breeding my newly purchased Famula(Kambwimba,recent breeding) , then Moshi(Mahale) , then another group of Famula(Gold)… I turned my attention to making an attempt to see if I could breed the Blue Giants. As luck would have it…. I stumbled across a web site and saw that F1 were available for sale. Well this made my day….  Someone out there had the knowledge on how they bred the Blue Giants.  I immediately started my quest to obtain this knowledge. The site was Arthur’s Lake Tanganyika. I sent an email to Arthur and he graciously replied promptly. I had the necessary information to start a routine to get my Blue Giants to breed. Arthur put me on the right track…. And I was surly ready to “ROCK AND ROLL” with this bit of information.
 
      First of all I did not put my new group of Blue Giants into my 8 foot 240 gallon tank.

There are about 15 pieces of PVC tubes in this tank as aggressive chase downs are occurring every minute by the male.

I placed them in a 6 foot 150 gallon tank to really crowd them.

By placing this group in the 150 requires a lot of filtration.

I had 5 filters on that tank.

1: Rena Filstar XP3 cansiter

2: Rena Filstar XP3 canister

3: Penguin 350 HOB filter

4: Aquaclear 110 HOB filter

5: JBJ SP-2500 Power Head with a sponge filter on it (550 GPH).

 

I also had a Hydor Koralia 6 for water movement and I have plenty of that.

 

I have three large rocks that create a cave , the top rock is basically flat.

This cave is located at the far end of the tank.

 

The temperature was 78-79 degrees.

 

The lights were regular cool white florescent bulbs which were on for a total of about 11 hours per day.

 

I promoted algae growth via this ball of grass/moss (I forget the name , but I picked up three of these for 10.00 at a aquarium auction).

 

So below is the schedule of what I did to start spawning activity…..for about 2 weeks ...

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*** I have gravel in my tanks so I can perform a big water change...

 

 

So this is what I posted on the Trophs.com forum after I came home one night only to be surprised at to what I saw.

 

 

 

WOW WOW WOW ....

Came home from work tonight and went down to the fish room to feed my fish .........
One of my Blue Giant Kisambala females is holding....
I just want to thank Arthur from Arthur's (Arthur's Tanganyika Side) for giving me some advice on spawning these brutes.

"Thanks Arthur"

what a nice surprise..... I was elated ....... to say the lease ...
I had another group of Blue Giants different collection point ... but did not see any spawning activities in the year that I had them... as I did not have the info that was provided to me by Arthur at the time..... Once again thanks

Wish I could had caught any kind of spawning activity with these guys ......

WOW WOW WOW

 

 

 

       So the key to this was Shrimp Mix and Big Water Changes or Frequent Water Changes.

Feeding the Shrimp Mix can possibly pollute the water of your tank quickly.

Feeding Shrimp Mix if not made right can be a messy proposition to your tank,

especially when feeding an abundance or feeding frequently.

So like I said after feeding like mentioned , water changes like mentioned should be performed on your tank.

 

       I do not feed the rest of my petro tanks this way. 

I Just do regular feedings everyday and smaller feedings of Shrimp Mix 3 times a week.

I “TRY” to perform water changes once a week , and if needed an immediate water change is something does not look right.

I do a 35 to 40 percent water change on most of my tanks. My water is perfect for Tangs. 8.6  and it stays that way no matter what.

It is loaded with minerals and I always get these hard water stains on the glass which at times becomes annoying.

I live right in the middle of Peter Ruben’s Atlantis (600 tanks) and Doug Conkling’s Reserve Stock Cichlids (1100 tanks)
(about 48 miles either direction.  Our water is unbelievable for Tangs.

 

Anyway back to the Blue Giants.

    I am just hoping for 14 days of holding by the female before I strip her.

Every time and I do mean every time I strip a female (again guys not what you think) I have no luck with hatching the eggs,

So 14 days it is.  Ok going down to the fish room now(Saturday 11:30 PM)… woke up late this Sunday morning 3/13,

because I stayed down in the fish room watching  the Giants until 2:00 AM.

 

 

 

07/03/2011

      Well I finally decided to update this article after many week. On about 14 plus days I strip all of my petros….  On day 12 I saw the holding female laying on her side in a PCV tube… I immediately took her out of the tank.  I checked to see if she still had eggs in her mouth. No eggs.

That was the end of that female. So all of my excitement was down the tubes as the holding female was dead….. My thoughts after a week was if I could do it once I could do it again.

 

       About two months later while doing my water changes , I notice that the amount of petros in the Blue Giant the tank was not right.

It seemed as though I was missing a couple of Blue Giant female…. I started moving the PVC looking for the female.  Then I started taking PCV tubes out of the tank. I  then saw one of the beat up females , then I saw another….  While moving the PCV around I thought I saw something move out of the corner of my eye…  I dismissed it as dirt as petros create a lot of that. Then while moving some more PCV I saw

two little fish dart across the bottom of the tank…..  I immediately said what the hell …..  I tried to catch these little guys, but after 10 minutes I could not catch them… I pulled out all of the PVC and the rocks… after 30 minutes I caught the two little fish. The reason it took so long to catch these guys in my 150 gallon tank (6 footer) is that there was not much space to work with. This tank is a bottom row and only has 6 inches of clearance space.   The funny thing is that I did not even remove the beat up Blue Giant females that night…...

The next morning I just removed the male until I could sort thing out after I got home from work later that day.

 

 

To be continued