This tank was set up to give the Julies a place to breed freely without ravenous Malawi cichlids picking off the young. In the big tank, the Julies kept to the rocks and hid a large part of the time. In this tank, they hover and swim freely, though they do still tend to stay near the rocks and substrate. There are probably at least 50-60 Julies in the tank now. I've still never seen any eggs - more babies just seem to materialize periodically. There is a thin layer of medium coarse gravel and sand lining the tank, and it's abotu 1/2 full with various pieces of slate arranged at funny angles to give the fish hiding places of many sizes. The greshaki and the Julies seem to show no aggression toward each other and co-exist quite well. It's too bad the female can't be in the big tank, but she's better off here than dead.
Some experiences I've had: Julidochromis transcriptus seem to be much more sensitive to changes in water conditions than the Labidochromis species I've worked with. I lost 3 of my 5 Juli.s within 24 hours of a 40% or so water change. I tried to match the temperature, salinity, etc. and add the water slowly, but it was still too shocking. They looked fine that night, but were floating the next morning. I felt like a REAL idiot. I never do more than 1/3 water changes now, and I re-fill the tank very slowly - over the course of an hour or more. They seem to be much hardier now (or I'm being more careful).
Last Modified January, 2000