Setting up a Cichlid Breeding Colony
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- Опубликовано: 15 окт 2024
- Charles takes us through the process of setting up a 300 gallon breeding vat that includes a cichlid breeding colony along with other polycultured fish. He also discusses the plants that are used in the system and takes us through the choosing the best breeders for the colony.
Goliad Farms Tropical Fish Hatchery
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This guy's farm rocks! Would be a dream come true for me!
Thank you. I love being in the greenhouses and working with the fish.
Charles
I say the same thing all the time 😅
Charles great stuff again. The selection process is so interesting. Thanks for taking the time to do these. You are the best out there.
I hope to do more of these and adding some techie genetics information using a whiteboard and markers.
Charles
these are unbelievable looking 🔥, once again stunning fish, fantastic eco system.
Thank you. It is a spectacular fish. I wish I could take credit for our greenhouses' ecosystems, but they just kind of evolved on their own.
Charles
Very gorgeous fish. I actually like the powder blue one
I like that pale fish too. I think it is caused by a gene (technically allele) I call pastel which pales out the colors. Powder blue would be a good name for a strain selected for that coloration. I might split this strain in the future into Powder Blue and Electric Blue.
Charles
This is brilliant. I can't imagine a better fishroom to spend my days. God bless you
Thank you for watching our videos. I'm happiest in the greenhouses.
Charles
Merry Christmas Charles and Susie
Happy Christmas and Merry New Year!
Charles
I’m so fascinated by the ecosystems that you have created
The greenhouse ecosystems sort of built themselves. We set up the framework, but the plants and animals took off and created the ecosystems.
Charles
if you to a nice edible plant that grows in water , try watercress .it grows in water naturally in the wild . the cold won't effect , but I'm not sure how well it would do in your greenhouses in the heat .
but I got it to grow in an aquarium from some cuttings my wife got at the farmers market.
once again I'd like to say how very much I enjoy your videos and how much I appreciate you sharing your knowledge. I have learned a lot from you and the price of lessons is awesome......
I live a little north of Nacogdoches Tx. and my well water is a ph of 6.0 to 6.4 depending on the time of year so I'll probably never raise African cichlids in any quantity , but I might set up a single show tank one day.
eventually, I'd like like to visit your farm with my wife. but I had hernia surgery yesterday so it'll be a few months before I plan on sitting in a jeep for that long of a trip.
I'm not even sure you allow visitors .......
Tony
Water cress can't unfortunately handle the high temperatures in the greenhouses.
I was surprised at your low pH, but I checked, and you are in a different aquifer from ours. We're in the Gulf Coast aquifer, and you are in the Carrizo-Wilcox which runs parallel to ours. Ours is very mineralized especially this far south. In fact, our arsenic levels exceed safe drinking levels (12 ppm versus 10 ppm) so we use RO water for drinking and cooking. The fish haven't had any problems with the arsenic levels, but I suspect our plant filters remove some of it. You could always use marine salts to about 6 ppt to make your water Rift Lake cichlid friendly.
We do allow visitors by appointment.
I hope you recover quickly from your surgery.
Charles
I loved this video
Sorry for the tardy reply. Computer problems.
Thank you for watching it.
Charles
Charles all the best for you and the family! Happy Holidays! Thanks for making our year best with these great knowledge and videos of the farming!
Happy Holidays to you too!
Charles
Please keep on emphasizing the pronunciation. A lot of alleged internet experts do not know how to say the names. You are bringing scientific knowledge to us hobbyists.
Thank you. I try but sometimes I feel like a salmon trying to jump a dam.
Charles
Thanks Charles & Suzy. Merry Xmas to you & yours.
Happy Christmas, Merry New Year, and Nice Holidays to you!
Charles
Quality update , educational and intresting 👍
Thank you. We try to be informative, educational, and maybe even entertaining.
Charles
The 300. gallon Rubbermaid stock tanks are sold at Tractor Supply stores across America, about $1 a gallon. I have one I keep koi & duck weed in the Koi must eat the duckweed ( Iv'e never witnessed it) but I keep replenish it so they must. The fish look like cobalt blue glass.
We own 60+ Rubbermaid 300-gallon stock tanks from Tractor Supply (you can get them at less than $1.00/gallon if you buy in quantity). Unfortunately, about half of them have split and leaked at the same point. No adhesives stick to them, including some highly touted on TV and cable. We've found the only way to repair is by welding with their own material. We have a video of Carl and Stormy welding one that will be published at some point.
Both Koi and goldfish are voracious duckweed eaters. Unfortunately, both can be predatory on small fish, so we don't use them for duckweed control.
This fish, Electric Blue Ahli Peacock is consistently pretty.
Charles
The pale blue actually looks pretty nice
He does look nice. I'll probably at some point split this population into Powder Blue and Electric Blue lines.
Charles
Quick question Charles,do we have scuds in Australia,closest i could find are daphnia?👍👊😊🇦🇺
Sorry about the tardy reply. computer problems.
Yes, Australia has native scuds. The scientific nomenclature seems to be in a mess. Austrogammarus is one of the reported genera with seven species listed.
Charles
Love your videos!!!
Thank you for watching our videos.
Charles
Hello! Love the videos and info. Where do you get your breeders from when you say you lost them all in the winter storm?
When I speak of losing our breeders, I mean that we lost our breeding colonies. The replacements came from younger fish that survived better. Each species typically has six vats. One is a 300-gallon breeder vat. For the species in this video, all of the adults in that vat died. But there were some juvenile fish in that vat that did survive. Also, we had five 55-gallon vats. One held 1-2" fish, another 2-3" fish, a third had what we call BRUs (breeders unsexed) that were 3-4", a fourth with adult females to sell, and a fifth with adult males to sell. Most of the larger fish died (we lost 85% of the inventoried fish in the Texas Winter Storm). We rebuilt the breeding colony from the BRUs that survived.
Charles
@@goliadfarms7029 thank you so much for the reply. That must take a while to separate into all those different vats and I’m glad the strains could survive. I wish those pink convicts survived they sounded cool. Have a nice day good fish keeping.
@@erl911 I have seen some Pink Convicts in Greenhouse 1 floor gutter. I need to trap or net a pair for breeding. I've seen juveniles, so the feral Convicts are breeding.
Charles
@@goliadfarms7029 love your work mate that’s so fascinating.
@@erl911 I love my work too, perhaps not in the way you mean. I enjoy my time in the greenhouses.
Charles
Wonderful.
Thank you for watching. We've had lots of requests to show how we set up fish, so this video shows setting up our cichlid breeder vats.
Charles
i like both dark and pale blue, have you considered breeding for both, perhaps generating a sub species
I have considered splitting the population into two lines, one selected for electric blue and the other for the pale blue (someone suggested Powder Blue).
Charles
How are you running your system???
Do you have a vedio on how you run the system???
The video below provides some system description. We'll do a video just about how our system works soon.
ruclips.net/video/c4lrt1y5z_A/видео.html
Charles
Hello little Sky Blue Freds.
Yet another farm Fred. By the way, our newest grandbrat is named Fred of all things. He was born Friday in Austin during that city's power outages. Fortunately, he went home today to restored power.
Charles
@@goliadfarms7029 Oh, a grandFred! Congratulations! May grandFred always bring new adventures and curiosity about knowledge to everyone around. Maybe grandFred is a mini-me Charles? Grandbrats are a blessing, what ever they bring to the mix. I'm a bit envious, actually. All the best to you and yours!
Is there a reason why you want to keep the light phase in the gene pool?
Good question. To start with, this population had some of the light phase fish when we first got them. Secondly, I've toyed with setting up a second strain using the pale fish since some people like that color. By keeping that male, I've kept those genes (I think it's just one gene that I call "pastel") in the population.
Charles
Hey man i was wondering how much do you make selling scuds? And how did you start that buisness?
We accidentally got some scuds from Dr. Caitlin Gabor at Texas State University. Dr. Gabor does research on female mate selection in Poeciliidae (mollies). We got some Poecilia latipinna (northern sailfin molly) from her and some scuds (Hyalella azteca Complex, see this blog for details: goliadfarms.com/update-on-gammarus-identification/) hitchhiked along.
The scuds did extremely well and got distributed throughout the systems in plants and water that we moved around. They quickly colonized the greenhouses.
We found there was demand for them from aquaponics growers (they use them to keep sumps clean), fishpond and lake owners (use them for forage for game fish), and hobbyists (as live food). Scuds are consistent sellers for us. We sell them starter cultures. Here's a link to their sale page:
goliadfarms.com/shop/gammarus-scuds/
Charles
would this method work with smaller american cichlids in your opinion?
Yes, but with equal numbers of males and females since most of them are pair-bonding substrate spawners.
Charles
Curious what those things are on the top of the fry cages that look like white rocks. :)
Those are Mystery Snail (Pomacea bridgesii) egg cases. Mystery Snails crawl out of the water to lay eggs. When the eggs hatch, the little snails drop into the water.
Charles
@@goliadfarms7029 And then they go clog up the overflow piping. :)
@@Crftbt Yes, they do! The nickel sized snails are perfect fit to block the 300-gallon overflows.
Charles
Selective breed them for a powder blue strain? Or is there already one?
I haven't seen a Powder Blue strain of this species offered or mentioned. I probably will split the species into Powder Blue and Electric Blue at some point, especially if Susie (wife and tyrannical business manager) agrees to another greenhouse.
Charles
@@goliadfarms7029 🤣🤣🙏🙏Suzie
very hot color.....
The males have very vivid colors.
Charles
Charles, will scuds eat elodea?
Good question. I haven't had Elodea in a long time, so I don't know. They don't eat duckweed (Lemna minor) unfortunately. They don't seem to eat guppy grass (Najas guadalupensis).
Charles
O have tons and tons of elodea densa, want me to send you a box full? LOL
@@Dracobear13 That could be interesting. So far as I can find, Texas has yet to ban the possession of Elodea.
Charles
ooof read "Cichlid" wrong and was very concerned
Hmmm...how did you read it?
Charles
Thanks for the informative video:) those chilids are beautiful fish. I love live bearers, can't help it lol. The ecosystems that have evolved in your greenhouse/fish farm are super interesting. Do you harvest any of the feral fish besides the plecos?
Thank you for watching. We do harvest sump and floor gutter feral fish. Some of our wholesale customers are always eager for them. We plan to have a fish festival next year and attendees will be able to get some of them. Also, I occasionally trap or net fish I want to use in breeding programs for aquarium strain fish. We never use feral fish as breeders for pure species because we can't be absolutely certain they aren't hybrids.
Charles
Can someone please just tell me how to pronounce the terminal "i" in Latin names?! haha
Do you really want me to?? Long EEEE!
Charles
Latin is a dead language I think the ship has sailed on getting everybody go pronounce the terminal "I" the same way. The Latin names are useful for identifying species but most of the species names are just some guys name, who cares how it's pronounced as long as we are IDing the right fish
The second name is mostly someones name. The first isn't.
I am probably swimming up a strong current trying to keep Latin pronunciation correct, but I'll keep trying. Often the specific (species) name is either a person or geographic location. The genus is usually more descriptive.
Charles
Correct. Often the second (specific or species) name is a person and sometimes a geographic feature.
Charles