made the mistake of puttng 1 in my wifes 3ft full of neons, damn they can eat alot, I was in the bad books for a couple of weeks! Superb looking fish though!

Would love to have ten in a pool out the back and feed them a lot of neons :-)

By the time they are full grown adults they probably wouldn't bother with neons. Something around the 10 - 15cm mark would be far more appropriate. Neons are hardly worth chasing.

Cheers for the comments lads.

Nice looking Pbass mate, funny to watch when they get fired up flaring and chasing each other around hey! Planning to breed ? judging by pics looks like male and female? Fry can be tough to keep alive though, thatll be the fun part :)

Nice motoro's too :)

Looks like my tank aye, whats the dimensions?

Nice. I nearly bought some of these but decided to go with the much more aggressive Wolf Cichlid (Parachromis Dovii). What size tank are they in? You might already know all this but I'll say it anyway. It's pretty much impossible to tell if they are male & female before they are sexually mature unless you vent them. The only other way to sex them is to wait for the males hump to develop. Females take 6-12 months longer to reach sexual maturity than males do. The male will get very aggressive, likely killing her if his advances are rejected. Be prepared to put a divider in the tank to protect her for the extra time she needs to mature. Even after she is mature she may still reject the male (or he reject her) which will anger the male & he will kill/attempt to kill her. In other words, be prepared to seperate them permanantly. Using dither fish (fish intended to be targets for aggression) may help distract the male & thus protect the female to a certain extent. If they successfully lay eggs, remove the dither fish or the parents will get worn down & badly out of condition trying to protect the eggs from them. Sometimes it is necessary to remove the female immediately after spawning, in her depleted state she is very vulnerable to aggression. Some substrate & a couple of flat rocks (slate works well) will help them get in the mood to spawn if they do turn out to be a pair & are compatible. Increasing the temperature by 2 degrees for several weeks then dropping the temp by that same 2 degrees & doing a 50% water change is a good way to induce spawning.

I hope that's enlightening & if you already knew all that, I wish you the best of luck with them. They are a great fish that is very rewarding to keep.

^^ looks like a hump starting to form on the first 2 pics

mjohns - The tank they are currently in is a 8'x3'x2.5', I have a 8'x6'x2.5' acrylic tank that I had made in china waiting in storage until my new house is finished being built (should be mid next year). Not much point setting it up at this stage, then having to move it in ~months time. Good eye on the motoro's, I had two females give birth to pups last week (1m 4f) in total.

Fossil - I don't 100% agree with what you are saying. I don't find pbass agro at all, even when they are breeding. I spawned these fish a few times a couple years back. Most of the problems you have brought up, may be typical of much more aggressive species like dovii or umbee. Pbass... Not so much.

I agree, that the hump is not 100% indication of sex. The fish in the first pic is what I am calling to be the male, as it is a much more aggressive fish and has developed a hump at a relatively small size, not that you can see it in the pic but it also often has a nice red tinge to it, I'm yet to see a female with a red hump. I could be wrong, but i've been doing this for a long time. I'm 95% sure I have it right, if I don't i'm not overly fussed. Not interested in breeding these guys, like I said i've done it before.. and its a pain. Need to feed the fry 5 or 6 times a day with new born brine and they are highly cannibalistic. More effort than it is worth to me. I would rather breed stingrays... ;) I had a pair that produced viable eggs at 15 months old. Don't believe everything you read. When I first got my ray pups everything I read said that it'd take me 2.5 years plus to get pups... and again 16months later I have a tank full of pups.

Pic of father of my pups

Here is a pic of my old male pbass... 60cm brute!

Cheers

I love those fish!!!  Such a brute!!!

I was looking for umbee's for a while but ended up having a breeding pair of Red Terror.. aka Festae..  Also some amazing aggresive fish!!!

All gone now though as I had to move up north unfortunately.. Now I have to resort to eating my fish instead of watching them!!!!

WOW!! congrats to you and the girls on the birth of the pups mate ! well done :) Male looks like a true stunner mate, what size are they??

I have a pair that im hoping is just about ready to do their thing :) did you have any problems with male aggression? have heard some can be quite nasty even going as far as killing the female due to stress.

Old pbass definately a brute! lovely looking fish arn't they, definately capable of a good shower when feeding :)

Incase anyone's interested....

http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/ballajura/fish/cyphotilapia-gibberosa-blue-zaire-moba-2-not-frontosa/1009670515

http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/ballajura/fish/synodontis-multipunctatus-cuckoo-catfish-tanganyikan/1009670865 

mjohns- I am giving a talk at the Perth Cichlid Society in February next year on keeping a breeding FW stingrays, I'm sure all your questions will be answered then. It is open to non-members to attend, any questions that I have not answered in the talk I will be more than willing to answer your questions after the talk. I have a bachelor of science degree in biology as well as a cert 4 and diploma in aquaculture, as well as being a mad keen aquarist! ;)

You will find like minded people to yarn with at these events. PM me for details, trust me, it will be more than worth attending + it is free.

Alternatively if you dont want to attend, PM me any queries you have.

Tight lines and happy fish keeping.

Cheers,

Alex