albino dragon blood quality

[QldMick 271]

what do yous think of this guy, I don't need anymore fish but couldn't resist buying him.

how would you rate his quality.

 

[johnbetta 431]

very great fish mate

[QldMick 271]

thanks I brought some fish online sold as "red ob peacocks", that I'm very disappointed in.  that looked very nice on his site but then I found out he was using pictures off google and not his own, unless they suddenly color up and turn red they are no good for me to bother breeding.

[QldMick 271]

heres my obs,

and here's what their advertised as.

 

I think I've wasted my time growing these up.

[QldMick 271]

while I was catching fish.

 

[hamishh34 45]

On 18/04/2020 at 3:49 PM, QldMick said:

while I was catching fish.

 

I really like high red albino dragonbloods. His red coverage is clean and vibrant so can understand why you couldn't resist! Stunner. 

Can see why you are disappointed in the OBs. I think they confused the red OBs on that one.. They look like they're at a size that they should have started coloring up by now. Looks like a yellow OB to me. I guess you could try the red food enhancer stuff or see if you can get some replacement fish. Buying online can be so disheartening sometimes. 

 

[QldMick 271]

its a bugger as I was growing them up in case I wanted to start breeding again, and I would be selling them as red obs, but that's impossible now and they'll be less in demand.

I'm wondering weather to pursue some true red ob's (don't know where I'd get them from), or find some female or juvie albino dragon blood like my male and go from there.

[hamishh34 45]

On 21/04/2020 at 3:18 PM, QldMick said:

its a bugger as I was growing them up in case I wanted to start breeding again, and I would be selling them as red obs, but that's impossible now and they'll be less in demand.

I'm wondering weather to pursue some true red ob's (don't know where I'd get them from), or find some female or juvie albino dragon blood like my male and go from there.

Yeah thats annoying mate. Would you try sourcing the red OBs or creating your own? Line breeding bright red albino dragon bloods could be fun. Just increasing red after each generation. Could even use the male albino dragonblood and your current yellow looking OBs to create a red OB/albino OB line. Might take a while to breed nice non albino red OB but the Albino OB would start appearing in the 2nd generation. 

[QldMick 271]

Yer I'll have to do some thinking, either try to breed for red obs or albino red peacocks, not both.

I also found online some nice rubin red rotor kaiser but now their suggesting to feed them hikari blood red parrot to keep their colors up, which I wont be doing plus that's another 6 - 9 months growing them up from 4cm to breeding.

[hamishh34 45]

On 23/04/2020 at 4:54 PM, QldMick said:

Yer I'll have to do some thinking, either try to breed for red obs or albino red peacocks, not both.

I also found online some nice rubin red rotor kaiser but now their suggesting to feed them hikari blood red parrot to keep their colors up, which I wont be doing plus that's another 6 - 9 months growing them up from 4cm to breeding.

The rubin reds are from aquaholics? Saw them on their website last week. The pictures make them look nice. But I agree, colour enhancing food makes me wonder how they truly look. Maybe they give you a starting point though as I would imagine they would still have some nice red. 

Not as easy as the mbuna to get breeding at like 6-7cm. Thats why my next project will be the smaller guys, I am too impatient haha. 

I look forward to seeing which direction you decide to go. 

[QldMick 271]

hey i posted this in 2017

they were defending saying they havent been fed white crane etc. but like i said they have now changed their description to suggest feeding blood red parrot.

im thinking i might buy something this week so we'll see.

[hamishh34 45]

21 hours ago, QldMick said:

hey i posted this in 2017

they were defending saying they havent been fed white crane etc. but like i said they have now changed their description to suggest feeding blood red parrot.

im thinking i might buy something this week so we'll see.

I guess technically they didnt deny colour enhanced food which is what was suggested in the 2017 post but only stated no white crane. I doubt they would maintain that intensity once off colored food. Would have thought blood parrot diet would be too high in protein content for africans? Could be off the mark as thats just a generalisation I make between american and africans. 

Exciting. Keen for another post to appear on the now quiet forum. 

[QldMick 271]

yer its really only the mbuna that graze on algae. 

im gonna be checking out a few stores in bris to see if i can find some albino dragon bloods.

[aquaholic99 706]

If you want fish to have great natural colour, it's very hard to beat green water as a food source. Fish always look much healthier with deeper - more intense colour when pond raised. 

If you don't have a pond but still want the benefits, you can grow and harvest green water provided you have racked tanks on a central filter system.  Pipe connect 3 (or more) tubs/tanks/IBC's etc outside and seed these to cultivate green algae blooms on rotation.  So once a week during warm season turn on a tap to connect one into your system and feed fish growouts by flood. Even large fish will filter feed the phyto plankton. Then turn off the green water tank and reseed to be harvested again in 3 weeks. The green water will disappear in a day. You harvest tank #2 next then tank # 3 then back to tank #1 again. 

If you don't have a central filter, you can place algae tanks up high and drip gravity feed if the overflow can be accommodated. But you will get green murky tanks much longer this way. 

Very hard to beat free natural fresh/live food. 

[Sonofhud 25]

Great idea. Outside tanks in Warwick will be frozen over shortly. It will be a while til warm season. Best of luck.

[hamishh34 45]

23 hours ago, QldMick said:

yer its really only the mbuna that graze on algae. 

im gonna be checking out a few stores in bris to see if i can find some albino dragon bloods.

Yeah hes nice. Got a good starting point there so may as well use it. I dont like a lot of albino dragon bloods but I fancy this one. 

[hamishh34 45]

13 hours ago, aquaholic99 said:

If you want fish to have great natural colour, it's very hard to beat green water as a food source. Fish always look much healthier with deeper - more intense colour when pond raised. 

If you don't have a pond but still want the benefits, you can grow and harvest green water provided you have racked tanks on a central filter system.  Pipe connect 3 (or more) tubs/tanks/IBC's etc outside and seed these to cultivate green algae blooms on rotation.  So once a week during warm season turn on a tap to connect one into your system and feed fish growouts by flood. Even large fish will filter feed the phyto plankton. Then turn off the green water tank and reseed to be harvested again in 3 weeks. The green water will disappear in a day. You harvest tank #2 next then tank # 3 then back to tank #1 again. 

If you don't have a central filter, you can place algae tanks up high and drip gravity feed if the overflow can be accommodated. But you will get green murky tanks much longer this way. 

Very hard to beat free natural fresh/live food. 

Agreed with pond keeping. Seen a lot of nice americans and africans hold crazy colour when kept in a pond. Just look at the difference between tank kept americans/pbass vs the feral ones caught in the canals of florida. 

[QldMick 271]

I've contacted aquaholics and they said because they are imported they cannot control the location nor the strain. Anyway I picked up 6 juvie ruby reds from red dragon aquarium they came in craned from the wholesaler so the guy picked out 3 of the brightest and 3 duller. They have potential.

[hamishh34 45]

22 minutes ago, QldMick said:

I've contacted aquaholics and they said because they are imported they cannot control the location nor the strain. Anyway I picked up 6 juvie ruby reds from red dragon aquarium they came in craned from the wholesaler so the guy picked out 3 of the brightest and 3 duller. They have potential.

Sounds good mate. Should allow you to pick the nicest male and get a few females to start you off. You still going to be looking out for some female albino DBs? 

Keen for them to settle in and you to get some pics up. 

[QldMick 271]

Yet would prefer albino red. Had a few albino peacocks in s display tank at pet city but they were pretty disappointing.

[hamishh34 45]

1 hour ago, QldMick said:

Yet would prefer albino red. Had a few albino peacocks in s display tank at pet city but they were pretty disappointing.

If you keep looking youre bound to find at least something to work with. Hopefully in the near future!

[QldMick 271]

well here's what I got. sorry about the pics i had about a dozen were the camera wouldn't focus.

[QldMick 271]

I'm still on the hunt

albino dragon blood - https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/caringbah/fish/home-breeder-dragon-bloods-cichlids/1240725697 only their in Sydney and don't ship.

 

red ob peacock - https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/noble-park/fish/ob-peacock-african-cichlid/1246971290 only their in Victoria and wont ship.

 

 

[hamishh34 45]

Africans have to be some of the hardest fish to get a good photo of. They dont stop moving haha. 

Looks like some have a fair bit of red coverage already so hopefully you get some nice males in the batch to choose from! Look forward to seeing how they look in the next few months. 

I have found a few nice fish in WA/SA lately and the no shipping is a real pain. Its never easy to find what you want..

Hmm those wholesaler ones look nice for being in bare holding tanks. Do you mind PMing me the wholesaler? Would be interested in looking at their other stock as well. 

@QldMick

[QldMick 271]

bugger they just sold out as I was organizing to grab some.

good news is that albino dragon blood that was getting picked on and hiding in the corner at the store, has become the dominant male and constantly swimming around the tank.