I did it William....introducing Gizmo, my new male DP

[kimmers318]

I took the plunge and brought home the male dp I saw this weekend (well 1 of 'em anyway!) and I also got another female which should round out the ratio rather nicely.....1m/2f. Store employee was great letting me try the 2 females (pretty sure anyway they were females) with the male in a separate container to see if there would be immediate issues...Gizmo chose this girl, no name yet. You can see his wrinkles and belly line rather well. Tank is currently divided to allow these newbies to fatten up and get really healthy before redoing tank and introducing them to Missy. Although they should get to know one another thru the tank divider. :wink: I kept telling myself I should go for the other male because this guy is way too skinny, but he just wouldn't stop watching me! :D He has eaten several bloodworms so far, and I will just offer him some 3-4 times daily until he is fat and sassy. Plus with all of the snails I added he can munch to his hearts content.
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h216/kimmers318/gizmo.jpg
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h216/kimmers318/bothnewdps.jpg

[William]

Nice! Lets hope it works out better this time and that we get to se pics of baby puffers soon.

[kimmers318]

Well, if it doesn't I guess I will have to set the old 10 gallon back up again because I couldn't bring myself to part with Gizmo now, not after he wouldn't stop staring at me the whole time I was watching the tank while in the store...BOTH DAYS!

[William]

LOL. I know what you mean. But thats a good excuse to get new tanks.

[Full3R]

what did ya husband think?

[kimmers318]

"You got 2" and just shook his head! We both call each other maniacs! Sometimes he gets a little jealous though because he opted for his first tank to go with oscars.....which I totally understand the attraction, Bubba & Gump are way cool, but with the big fish you are kinda limited as to how many you can have. His other large tank is a mbuna tank, and we ran all weekend one weekend to find as many juveniles as he could of the species he wanted because he wanted to start with all juvies and allow the them to grow up together hopefully cutting down aggression. Most of those will get 3-4" at least so he has a large tank with a bunch of little fish and really can't add anything else! Although he is still looking for a synd. multipunctatus catfish...not sure if I spelled that right, and a red empress. With my 4 tanks I still have less gallons than he does but way more fish! Plus, he bought what he thought was a jack dempsey with his little oscars and he turned out to be a texas cichlid and he needs to go. He is getting way too aggressive and is starting to terrorize the oscars more than he leaves them alone. Even if he had the $$ to start another tank for this guy...I don't know where we would put it! Large tanks are much harder to fit than my smaller ones which can be shoved into just about any area!
I am not sure why the male dp appears more striped than spotted, but he is still a dp and since he is mature enough to sex I am hoping that he is a strong guy even though he looks pretty bad right now. There has to be something strong about him for him to have lasted this long! I know the 1 girl at the petstore said she feeds them bloodworms, but I haven't seen her in over a week so she may have gotten the other job she was working on :(

[Jammy]

Congratulations with the new dp. and hope u get babies soon!

[kimmers318]

Haven't seen any babies or eggs yet...but the tank is heavily decorated to help the dp's have their own territories and cut down on aggression, plus there are a couple of adf's in with them, so I would have to get pretty lucky to have any make it to the fry stage! Things are going great though....everyone gets along well, and Missy, who was my first, and an extremely picky eater, has decided that other frozen foods are okay to eat now that the others are eating it! When she was all alone she wouldn't touch anything other than frozen bloodworms or live food....now she joins in to attack whatever I offer.

[William]

Good to hear that she has has become a less fuzzy eater.

[kimmers318]

If I had known sooner competition would soften her up I wouldn't have hesitated so long before adding tankmates!

[William]

LOL
Have the male fattened up yet?

[kimmers318]

Oh yes....everyone is fat and sassy....although hanging low for now during our heat wave! I am so glad putting these 2 in worked because the tank is so much livelier now. I suppose I will never know if all would have worked out if I had just added them...but I do believe dividing the tank and giving everyone a chance to get to know each other without being able to fight, plus giving the newbies a chance to feed well made a world of difference in how they tolerated each other. I will have to get some new shots of everyone soon, but with summer here life is way too busy!

[William]

Yes, the separation did withotu a doubt make the introduction smoother!

I was just going to ask for some new shoots ;-)
Guess I will have to be a good boy and wait.