# Haitian monster



## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

I hope that this guy doesn't go psycho but here is the young couple:


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## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

It's ironic that Lemmy just mentioned that I should have tankspace for purebreds :laugh:

This male, all 1.5 inches of him, destroyed a crayfish that was his same size!!! That sunshine flowerhorn couldn't even do that to a crawdad half his size (although those shells do get thicker with age).

Here's the aftermath:


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## lemmywinks (Jan 25, 2004)

That's awesome man









Mine will be here next week









Also, where did you get these guys from? Rapps? If so.... then I know you got something else along with them. You cant just order one specie from him


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## mashunter18 (Jan 2, 2004)

wow those like nice, what size are they???


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## lemmywinks (Jan 25, 2004)

> This male, all 1.5 inches of him


And for those of you who have never seen a picture of a full grown male haitien.... Here is a show male that was in this years ACA (photo was taken by mojo)









Also, what are you feeding these guys? Ive heard from numerous members on WW and CM that these guys can get bloat very easily if fed the wrong diet.


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## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

Well, I'm sort of accidentally feeding them crayfish I guess :laugh:

I got them from a store that orders from Rapps. I've been so close to making another huge order, I really would like some Vieja argentea. but cash flow is low....







When I saw these guys I flipped! They were the other species I wanted!

I'll have to look more closely into the bloat thing.


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## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

From what I read about the bloat it seems that animal 'fat' may be more of an issue than the protein. It's very interesting. I'll see if my pellets are below that 7 percent range of fat content. If so, it's all spirulina. I've also heard that they are more susceptible when smaller, so I'll keep an eye out. Luckily they're alone (except for a local killifish) in a 40 long tank with tons of java fern. Should be good water quality compared to the ten they shared with 2 others at the LFS.

Sorry for the mental 'vomit', just wanted to share what I learned/knew and thoughts...:laugh:


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## NIKE (Jan 27, 2003)

great fish ace







how fast do these dudes grow?


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## lemmywinks (Jan 25, 2004)

Definatly feed them the spirulina pellets/flakes. Also, make sure to keep the water _crystal_ clear









I'll have to post some pics of the ones im getting next week for comparison. I hope I get a little male as nice as yours out of the group









Nike, I'm not 100% positive, but I'm pretty sure that they have a growth rate of about 1/2" per month if fed well.


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## psychofish (Jun 5, 2004)

Those are sweet lookin fish


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## polomax24 (Jun 14, 2005)

All four of my haitiensis had bloat and died within a two month period. No pellets, not even the spirulina based pellets. The breeder told me he only feeds his young fish spirulina flakes. BTW, how do sex them at the young age? I think the darker one is the female, and lighter one is the male.


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## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

Actually I'm rather sure the fish on the left is male. Males grow faster with most cichlids and have the more pointed ends to the soft dorsal and anal fins. Also, there's a 'hint' of more color on him.

I'll take heed and track down some spirulina flakes. I've heard their growth is above average, we'll see!


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## FormulatedFire (Jan 3, 2005)

......awesome


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## elduro (Apr 9, 2004)

Nice







an adult male hatian cichlid is one of the most impressive cichlid I've seen.


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## HyBrid (Feb 25, 2005)

great fish i love odo's!! they are so incredible as adults!


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## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

They're not too wild about the spirulina flakes


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## Ries (Mar 20, 2004)

the are sweet :nod:


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## lemmywinks (Jan 25, 2004)

acestro said:


> They're not too wild about the spirulina flakes
> 
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> 
> ...


well then get them hooked on them. sooner or later they should take them.


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## lemmywinks (Jan 25, 2004)

It is official! as of tuesday, I will have 4 of these little beasts









Also getting in a little regani and a argentia


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## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

lemmywinks said:


> It is official! as of tuesday, I will have 4 of these little beasts
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Just one of each? Hard to make more of them that way :laugh:

I had a group of regani, they are surprisingly mean as they get larger but really stunning. I really wanted to order argentia, but $$$ says I need to take it easy for a while









Good luck with your haitiensis! Did Jeff say what he was feeding them?


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## remyo (Aug 26, 2004)

i like them when the are big


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## lemmywinks (Jan 25, 2004)

acestro said:


> lemmywinks said:
> 
> 
> > It is official! as of tuesday, I will have 4 of these little beasts :laugh:
> ...


I'm not getting them directly from jeff. I'm getting them from www.thatpetplace.com

And I'm not sure of what they were feeding them. But I will make them eat the spilurina, even if they dont like it


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## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

I think mine are reluctantly eating it, I just worry about excess food rotting. I'd try snails or crawfish as clean up crews but...um...they're all dead now.


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## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

I didn't see argentea on that web page but the haitiensis were almost a third of what I paid! Nice deals there!


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## lemmywinks (Jan 25, 2004)

They only had 3 haitiens it









but if you type argentea into the search, you will find that they have 3 diffrent species currently in.


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## Guest (Aug 9, 2005)

Are they mean?

--Dan


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## lemmywinks (Jan 25, 2004)

DannyBoy17 said:


> Are they mean?
> 
> --Dan
> [snapback]1150602[/snapback]​


Their nickname is the black nasty.... do you think they are mean?









On most of the "top 10 most agressive" cichlid lists I have seen, these guys usually rank up twords the top


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## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

It's Tuesday, looking forward to a healthy arrival of your fish Lemmy.

Mine are taking spirulina now. I guess they just assumed they were getting fresh crayfish all the time and got spoiled.


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## Guest (Aug 9, 2005)

lemmywinks said:


> DannyBoy17 said:
> 
> 
> > Are they mean?
> ...


Which cichlid would top that list?

--Dan


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## lemmywinks (Jan 25, 2004)

normally either dovii or umbee are up on the top.

and I'm still waiting for them. It's 1:30 now. They said they would be here by 5PM.

EDIT: They came in at 3:30. The argentea came in dead, but I got a refund on him, they are very easy people to work with









I ordered the smaller regani that they had on their list, and they still sent me a 3"+ one









The haitiens are tiny, maybe 1.25". yours looks a good 1/2-3/4" larger than these guys. I cant even sex them yet


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## crazyklown89 (Aug 28, 2003)

Damnit....hait's are my favorite! Wait till I get my tetracanthus...than we shall see.


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## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

Cool, post pics soon of those Haitiensis. Mine are very happily chowing down on spirulina flakes now and the java fern seems to be giving the female somewhere to 'dash' into. Dont know how long that'll work...


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## lemmywinks (Jan 25, 2004)

crazyklown89 said:


> Damnit....hait's are my favorite! Wait till I get my tetracanthus...than we shall see.
> [snapback]1152096[/snapback]​


I was going to pick some of those up as well... but I figured I already had enough cool stuff, and why bother pissing kevin off more?









And I'll post some pics tonight.


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## crazyklown89 (Aug 28, 2003)

lemmywinks said:


> crazyklown89 said:
> 
> 
> > Damnit....hait's are my favorite! Wait till I get my tetracanthus...than we shall see.
> ...










I hate you.


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## Scrappy (Oct 21, 2004)

Thank you so much for posting those pics. I've been searching everywhere for pics of juvi Odo's. I got a pair a few weeks ago and wanted to make sure they really were Odo's. I posted some pics on CM but they were crappy cellphone pics cause my camera konked out.

My pair looks exactly like yours. I've got a problem with my male chasing the female constantly. I've put a ton of plants in there hoping she'll find somewhere to hide. Looks like you might have the same problem. Good luck with them!


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## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

scrappydoo said:


> Thank you so much for posting those pics. I've been searching everywhere for pics of juvi Odo's. I got a pair a few weeks ago and wanted to make sure they really were Odo's. I posted some pics on CM but they were crappy cellphone pics cause my camera konked out.
> 
> My pair looks exactly like yours. I've got a problem with my male chasing the female constantly. I've put a ton of plants in there hoping she'll find somewhere to hide. Looks like you might have the same problem. Good luck with them!
> [snapback]1153445[/snapback]​


Yeah, they're nuts! I think one of the best ideas is to have multiple PVC pipes. Some she can hide in and he cant.


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## Scrappy (Oct 21, 2004)

acestro said:


> Yeah, they're nuts! I think one of the best ideas is to have multiple PVC pipes. Some she can hide in and he cant.
> [snapback]1153680[/snapback]​


Great idea, thanks! I'll see what I can find at Home Depot tommorrow.


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## lemmywinks (Jan 25, 2004)

ya, ive noticed alot of agression with mine already, even at 1.5"









I think the pvc pipes will be your best bet. It might not look the best, but it's the cheapest way to keep your female safe


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## Scrappy (Oct 21, 2004)

Are you guys feeding them plain spirulina, or some sort of flake/pellet like Tetra Spirulina?


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## lemmywinks (Jan 25, 2004)

I'm feeding mine nutrafin max spirulina flakes and tetra spirulina flakes


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## Scrappy (Oct 21, 2004)

Sweet, thanks. Now I'm gonna be paranoid about bloat.


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## lemmywinks (Jan 25, 2004)

I just checked out those pics you posted on CM, and they look quite a bit like young grammodes..... but the pics were about as low quality as you can get too, so i might be wrong









Any updated or clear pics?


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## Scrappy (Oct 21, 2004)

lemmywinks said:


> I just checked out those pics you posted on CM, and they look quite a bit like young grammodes..... but the pics were about as low quality as you can get too, so i might be wrong
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I'm trying to borrow a friends' camera. But I'll get em us as soon as I can. If it is a grammode I wouldn't be upset either.


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## lemmywinks (Jan 25, 2004)

Here is a picture of one of my grammodes when he was just a baby. I think it was about 1.5" in that picture


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## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

Well, getting back to my little monsters.... I noticed that with all the java fern that I had a ton of snails when I first put them in. Guess what, they're ALL gone. Considering they naturally eat snails I suppose that shouldn't be a surprise.

To see the action I got snails (these are all malasian livebearing snails by the way) from another tank where large temporalis seemed to not care either way about them.

Once a snail crawled up a ways on a flowerpot the female came over, took a looooooong look, and then snagged and shook the meaty part of the snail REALLY fast. All that was left was an empty shell! It was way cool and isn't a bad way to get healthy meat into their diet I'd say!


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## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

Um, anyone with Haitiensis updates? Or anyone else with Haits? I just want to compare growth, bloat issues, feeding, behavior, sexing, etc. thoughts...


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## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

Here' my male. He's grown a bit, I guess he's 4 or 5 inches? Here also is the food he has been eating since last August :nod: I'll stick to this food and we'll see how things go. Water changes/water quality has been nothing special. Sort of like I'm taking the lazy end of the water vs food experiment :laugh:

Oh yeah, his partner is still living, just hiding right now







I'm still rather sure she's a 'she' but I'll try to get some recent pics to get opinions...


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## DuffmanRC (Oct 2, 2003)

nice fish, thats one fish i would love to own. I would like to buy an 8-10" black nasty. I'm also hunting for a large male Veija synspilum.


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## The Predator (Sep 28, 2005)

sweet. I call them black nasties or odos.


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## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

They are da bomb. And they get real tame too. Anyone else with experiences?


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## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

Here's the pair today...


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## piranha_guy_dan (Oct 4, 2004)

damn those are some cool fish! biggun too


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