PETROCHROMIS

                                                                                              BREEDER
                                                                                           INTERVIEWS

 

                                                                                   AN INTERVIEW WITH

                                                                                         JOHN COWDER

                                                                                              5/1/2011

 

 

John  Cowder is an accomplished petrochromis breeder. John aka fshfrk on the Houston Fish Box
has given much advice on the subject of petrochromis to many a hobbyist. John comes highly
recommended to me as an accomplished petrochromis breeder and I as a member have frequented
“THE BOX” on many an occasion. I have seen several post on that nice forum by John on the subject
of petrochromis.

 

1:   What size aquarium do you prefer and what filtration/water movement do you have in that / those tank(s) ?

    

     I prefer 200 gallon tanks and a wet-dry system along with a pair of Emperor model 400.
     I will also add one or 2 sponge filers.

   

 

2:   What percentage of water is changed in your tanks and how often is the water changed in your daily / weekly
      water changing schedule ?

      

      I change 75 to 100 percent of my water one to two times a week. **

 

 

3:   In a specific sized tank(s) how many petros do you prefer and at what male / female ratio do you
       prefer in that tank ?

      In a 200 gallon tank I will put 10 - 14 Polyodons and 25 - 25 Trews.

       

 

4:   Do you keep more than three variants in a tank, if so did you encounter any problems (raising / breeding, etc) ?

    

     I never kept more that two variants of petros in the same tank. 

 

 

5:   What are the three major foods that you feed your adult petros and how often do you feed your
      petros and do you feed foods like Shrimp Mix ?

 

     I feed NLS pellets I mix three different sizes together ( 1mm, 2mm and the 3mm sizes).
     I also feed Kens Cichlid Lover Flake food.

 

 

6:   What is the PH of your water ?

 

     The PH of my water is 8.0 ...

 

7:   How long do you leave the lights in the fish room or lights on your aquariums. For example
     lights come on and stay on for how many hours per day. How many times per day ?

     The tank lights are on for a total of 5 hours per day. The lights come on at 6:00 PM and go off at 11:00 PM.

 

 

8:   What is the temperature of your tanks year round.  Do you deliberately adjust the temperature based on
       what season of the year it is ?

 

     The temperature in my tanks in my tanks are set to 80 degrees year round.

 

 

9:   What petros do you have now and what is your all time best petro that you have ever kept ?

      My favorite petrochromis are Polyodons, Trews …. “Blaaaah”.

 

 

10:  If you could get any petro that you don’t have now , which petro would it be ?

       It would not matter which petrochromis I would get, but no more Trews.... 

 

 

11: What was the easiest and the hardest petro that you have bred and was there anything special that you did to get them to breed ?

   

      Trews were the easiest but they SxxK &@^%@%%  (I can't type what he said about trews  ) WOW .... The larger petro were good.

 

 

12: How did you get involved with petros and how long have you been raising / breeding them ?

    

      I got involved with petros because of a local fish store that had petros. Ultimate Fish run by Alex .10 plus years...

 

 

 

   I think John hates trews.....  And Alex (nice guy) has imported fish for me about 7 years ago, but some reason I called him Ali.

   Thanks John for taking the time to share your response to the interview questionnaire .......

   **  I have to make the assumption that the water is aged and close to that of the tank if close to 100 percent of the water is changed.
         I could do this kind of a water change with my water, as the PH just won’t change no matter what I do to it….. 
         but I also have gravel in my tanks and this also allows me to do this.
         I have changed 80 percent of the  water without any adverse problems whatsoever as long as the temperature is about
         the same.

        I have found out that John can make these large water changes because his water is just about the same as mine 8.5 out of the tap.
        The reason I can make large water changes is that I have a large gravel bed in my tanks.  
       

         And John uses a DIY (Carbon Snake) special for his water.

        DIY Carbon Snake

 

          

         So what works for one breeder may no work for another, Your water supply and tank setup will dictate what type of water
         change you can safely perform.