Sources

[MeCasa]

Hello Everybody,

I'm setting up a 150 for my grandchildren after a 20 year hiatus away from aquariums. I'm about 30 days out from stocking and I'd like to know the best sources for quality cichlids in Houston. I want quality fish so I'm generally willing to wait till I get what I want as long as it's in the time frame of "growing up together".

I will also make the effort to buy from private breeders if we can work it out.

I'm not going to post my list of fish right now because I don't want this thread devolving into a "you shouldn't" thread.

MeCasa :-)

[Austy16414]

Welcome back to the hobby. Are you planning on Africans or South/Central Americans?

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[morpheus]

people use a wide variety of sources but here are a list of places i generally hear good reviews on:

I have bought from these and never had any problems.
Fishland - Descent stock of CA/SA/Africans, good prices
Fish Gallery - Wider range of inventory many types, little pricier at times
Homeless Aquatics - armthehomeless here on the Box runs it. good prices and can order specific things

Heard good things about but never have been:
ADG (Aquarium Design Group)
HAW (Houston Aquarium Warehouse)
Xtreme Fish and Pets (more SA and CA cichlids and oddballs)

[Austy16414]

Good info morpheus. As far as the three morpheus can't vouch for, ADG has top quality fish (pricey peacocks but worth it in my opinion, usually sold as pairs), HAW is the place to go if you're looking for Discus, and Extreme has all kinds of large SA/CA cichlids like arowana and severums (some wilds which can get pricey) as well as oddballs like Malawi trout and pikes. Wherever you choose to go, steer clear of Aquarium World

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[Austy16414]

Depending on what exactly you're looking for, there's also all kinds local breeders with great options

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[MeCasa]

Welcome back to the hobby. Are you planning on Africans or South/Central Americans?

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If I tell you you're going to say

You shouldn't.............. :-)


I told the grand kids we'd do a "scout out" trip to Houston and buy on our second run, we're about an hour south. Bless they're hearts, they're getting impatient with the amount of time and money I spent getting ready.......................

They thought we were going to stick a hose in the tank and go buy fish...

[Austy16414]

Ah c'mon, you're talking to a guy whose first cichlid tank had guppies in it lol we'll be able to better direct you if we can get an idea of what you want

[morpheus]

there are a lot of breeders on here that have great stuff if you go that route. a lot of petros and trophs. just look through the sale threads.

also agree that Aquarium World is not worth it to me. i went there a few times, never really bought anything. consistently high in price. nice in-store setups and displays

[MeCasa]

Big Tank - Lots of hiding places and yes I know that there will be casualties, not everyone survived the Roman Coliseum, but those that survived with great physical specimens.

All kidding aside, I've worked hard on this and I can and will pull it off

Fire Mouth Cichlid - Thorichthys meeki
Jack Dempsey - Rocio octofasciatum
Cobalt Blue Zebra - Metriaclima callainos
Electric Yellow - Labidochromis caeruleus
Green terror - 'Aequidens' sp. "Goldsaum"
Jewel Cichlid - Hemichromis bimaculatus
Convict Cichlid - Amatitlania nigrofasciata
Red Zebra Cichlid - Metriaclima estherae

[Austy16414]

That is quite the selection. I don't doubt that you can make it work, I've seen crazier things, but it should be a fun project. I would call Extreme Fish and Pets about the firemouth, dempsey and terror (Houston Aquatics is also an option on those guys), convicts you can probably get for free if you're willing to wait, if not they're usually pretty cheap anyway. For the mbunas, try calling Fishland. If they don't have them, Fish Gallery usually carries most of them but they will cost a little more

[MeCasa]

You think everything is available in Houston and I won't need to go online?

I had to laugh when I read your post about the guppies and cichlids because I did the same thing. The reason I started raising cichlids is because they ate everything else

[Austy16414]

You can definitely score all of that in Houston, no sweat.

Survival of the fittest, right?

[morpheus]

good info austy on where to get certain fish types. i have kept many of those in one tank before at one time or another without many issues, and my tanks are nowhere near that size. just give a lot of territories.

i am looking to trade/sell an adult male convict, a jewel and a large "assorted peacock" (i have no clue what he is really) if you are ever interested. i had to pull them from my 75g tank because the mbunas and JD were beating them. so now those 3 are in my 56g and one of those are nipping at my geo. surinamesis. nobody has died since the move just some torn tails.

all the stores i call say they can take them but give me nothing in return, so waiting to see if i can re-home. or they just live out their lives in the 56g.

[MeCasa]

Haha, if I stick any adults in with my 1 1/4" bunch I will simply have adults. I'm pretty convinced the only way to pull this off is to buy everything at 1 1/14" +/- and let them sort it out.

[morpheus]

yeah thats why i said if ever interested, when your stock grows up haha.

i bought them all young and raised together. the JD is now around 7 in, that peacock is 6 or so. the mbunas are 4-5 in., but added at different times. the convict i introduced later as well. grew him up in a smaller tank then when he was around 3 in or so he was accepted.

when i bought the 75g i moved everyone and chaos ensued. all was initially ok, just some chasing getting new territories. then a green terror and smaller JD got killed when i went on vacation. i saved the peacock and convict or they would have died too. the jewel i took as a favor to another member who was moving