Salvini Cichlids

8/25/07

This is a fish I have wanted for a long time, but I rarely see them for sale. The other day I spotted an auction for 5 baby salvini on aquabid, and the opening bid was $20, so I figured 'why not'?

5 Baby Salvinis. Fish are about 1/2". More available at $2.99 per extra fish. Photo is of parents.

Seeing the parents, you can see why I have always wanted some of these - they're gorgeous!

The seller would only guarantee express shipping, and it's not available here (that's what I get for living in the boonies), so hopefully everything will arrive ok. He had perfect feedback, so I trust he's good at what he does. I added a couple more babys to the shipment for a total of 8. I figured that's a good size group to let them grow up and pair off.  They should be arriving next week.

8/29/07

12 babies arrived today! All were active and happy in their bags, and colored up shortly after going into their new tank. They have a bit of a yellow color to them, and nice red along their fins. Each has a round black spot on the side. Nice looking little fish. They hide in the plants and slowly come out in a group to see me, like little children of the corn! Very cute! Hard to believe these will grow up to be obnoxious cichlids.

April 10. 08

Well, these guys have been growing out for a LONG time now. They are up to about three inches, and have been in a 45g tank for months. They hide so well I seldom see much of them. Yesterday I finally separated out a pair and moved them into a 15g tank where I can watch them closer, but I'm still leaving the other 8 (I gave a few away to another club member a couple months ago) in the 45g tank in case I need a better pair.

April 15, 08

I had 4 black neons in the tank for dither fish, the next day there were three, then two, then none. Bad salvini!

April 24, 08

These guys are really shy, just darting out to eat then hiding again. I pulled the rest of them out of the 45 and am going to separate out another pair or two and see if I can get a good compatible pair. Each pair can have a 15g tank to themselves.

May 17, 08

I separated out a pair. Actually, they separated themselves just fine, and terrorized their brothers and sisters so when I walked into the room the brightly colored pair was in the cave and the rest of the fish were all cowering in one corner farthest away from them! So I moved the pair into another 15g and left them alone. Last night I looked in the tank to see this:

About a zillion fry! Yeah! You can see Dad peeking out of the cave on the right. Mom hides in the twisted log. Just at a glance I'd say this is the biggest group of fry I've seen yet. It's interesting how the parents hide but the fry are right out in the open eating. I put some high-quality dry fry food in the tank and they swarmed around it and gobbled it right up, so no problem getting them to accept dry food!