Our Vics are comin

[bovsbaitboxes]

S10 Jimmy is on his way tho the airport to pick up our german Vics :runnningaround::runnningaround::becky: heres the ones that are coming

S10Jimmy list
Haplochromis thereuterion 14
Astatotilapia nubila 15
Neochromis nigricans 9
Neochromis omnicaeruleus Ruti 22
Lithochromis rubripinnis 15
Enterochromis cf.paropius 16

my small list
Lithochromis rubripinnis 15
Neochromis omnicaeruleus Ruti 22
Neochromis nigricans 8

[Buckcich]

I guess you and Jimmy will have a sleepless night. CONGRATULATIONS to both of you. It has been a long time coming!

[Longstocking]

Congrats... you must be about ready to jump out of your skin in excitement :becky:

I can relate... with petros though :lol: Or when my difficult pleco's breed :becky:

[BlondeFishGal]

Congrats to you and Jimmy!

:runnningaround:

[s10jimmy]

Well I picked them up at the airport tonight :eclipsee_steering:. After a 2 hour delay from the storms !:mad2: There were only two fish that didnt make it they were the Enterochromis cf.paropius . All the others made it fine . As soon as I dumped the Neochromis nigricans in the 240 the males colored wright up and started to "shimmy" for all the girls !!! The A. Nubila are about 3/4 in. and one turned black as soon as he hit the water ! Everybody seams to be loving life in there new tanks . Here is some video :odd043:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua4OfEfDgfY

[fischfan13]

Jimmy and John, Good Luck.
Hope to see lots of videos and pictures in the upcoming weeks and months!:odd043:

[Seven_Springs]

Nice Selection. I'm assuming the numbers after the species are the quantities that were received. So, with the two loses of the Enterochromis cf. paropius, I take it that you still have 14 of this species live (?). Not too bad of a shipment in that case.

Good to see so many more Victorian Cichlids being made available. There were only three species available when they first started being exported from the Lake, all coming out of Kenya at the time (circa 1972). There weren't very many importers of them either at that time as fisheries (for ornamental fishes) on the Lake were just getting established, as well as contacts in reaching them. The exporters then were still very inexperienced as they were just then converting from food fishing, which didn't take any knowledge of the fish. While other importers, such as Beldt's Aquarium started bringing these fish in directly within a short time, as far as I could determine there were only two other distributors besides myself who imported them in the beginning.

One of these was Tropiquatics in Union, NJ, run by 3 colleague/friends of mine (John Sola, Tony Russomano and Joe Delugose) and the other outfit was a wholesaler in Mount Vernon, NY by the name of ATM Enterprises Corp. Some of you early ACAers may remember Tropiquatics. Your Astatotilapia nubila (then called Haplochromis nubilus) was one of those first imports, and I think still remains one of the nicest fish to come from the Lake. Another was Haplochromis (Astatotilapia) obliquidens and the third fish I used to get was Haplochromis (Astatotilapia) brownae. The other distributors all received the same species too, as they were the only three species inhabiting that area of Kenya where they were being collected.

Unfortunately, A. brownae appears to be rare in the hobby today, and I'm not even sure if they're available regularly. I do notice that they're available sporadically in Europe (England), though. If you ever get the chance to order it, don't pass it up -- I know you wouldn't be disappointed with it. It's a beautiful fish that has a large portion of its flanks turn a deep orange when breeding -- and it's still very attractive when out of breeding (just a somewhat lighter orange). Luckily I still have my slides of them, but I don't have a slide scanner to email them.

There was a fourth species that I used to import from Germany around that time, that was marketed under the trade name of Haplochromis kiravira. Actually, is is one of the two populations (the nicer one by far) of Pseudocrenilabrus multicolor, and inhabits the Lake Victoria basin including the Lake proper and the satellite Lakes Kyoga, George and Edward. When collected from Lake Victoria, they were obtained in Uganda. The German breeders would then sell their juvies to their wholesalers who in turn exported them. Best of luck with your new acquisitions. Ray Wetzel