Marco's Fish-room

Discussion in 'General Discussions' started by Marco, May 6, 2016.

  1. reuben

    reuben

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    Marko just out of curiosity how many tanks do you run and you must cull a lot of rejects
    Pity private breeders dont get paid for their efforts
    i had tons of guppies got 50 cents each cost me money to deliver to lfs gave that up
     
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  3. Ortaega

    Ortaega

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    Damn, my MTS just got under control. Beautiful fish like these rams will be my downfall :D
     
  4. Reedfish

    Reedfish Moderator

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    @Marco

    A really bright red eye would stand out nicely on these. :)
     
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  5. Pierré Schoonraad

    Pierré Schoonraad Rainbow Freak

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    Extremely impressed with your dedication and passion for breeding awesome fish. Well done @Marco. How is the wild discus doing?
     
  6. OP
    Marco

    Marco Retired Moderator

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    Hi f-fish.
    Let us hope they do not become like guppies. I for one doubt they will. Its a matter of one mutation which occurred and that has resulted in a few new options. Not many options left at the moment I fear.
    Unfortunately all these will of course now be bred in in long fin variety in due course.
    What a pity


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  7. OP
    Marco

    Marco Retired Moderator

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    Hi Reuben

    I do not run a very large fishroom. It is actually quite small. I have only 14 tanks in total. Bear in mind lots of them have discus so it is not a big set up

    I have been breeding Rams for many years. My cull rate is less than 5%. Its all about managing water and genetics with Rams.

    Regards

    Marco

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  8. OP
    Marco

    Marco Retired Moderator

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    Hi Reedfish

    Red eyes would be great. The Sapphires actually do have red eyes but with a black band. It will be very hard to improve, without losing the dark undertone. Near impossible i guess



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  9. OP
    Marco

    Marco Retired Moderator

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    Schoonraad">
    Hi Pierre

    Thank you Pierre.
    The discus are doing well. I hope to start breeding some in the next month.
    Let us hold thumbs

    Rgds
    Marco

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  10. FischAutoTechGarten

    FischAutoTechGarten

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    Marcos,
    First off... Amazing work!
    I live in Arizona, USA and Sonora, Mexico. About 12 years before that I lived in Upstate New York, USA and was involved in breeding rams on a limited hobby basis. These last few weeks I am visiting the Upstate New York area. Today, I went into one of the very few remaining independent fish stores and looked around. Got talking about Black Rams and an employee mentioned a customer who is a hobby breeder had approached him about selling him black rams that he acquired from a breeder in Israel and/or South Africa... The store owner has a foolish policy of not purchasing from private hobbyist (disease concerns and such) and so they did not acquire any Dark / Black Rams. The employee did not remember the name of the customer, but says he will recognize him when he comes in again to shop..... and will put me in touch with him (I left my contact info)

    So, it's possible that your Dark Knight is here in the USA now?
    I would like to acquire some (your powder blues, dark knights and sapphires), but I imagine it's quite difficult to manage live shipment from South Africa to New York or Arizona. Is it possible?
    Do you know of anyone who is working with your fish here in the USA? (perhaps it will be easier to receive them from someone on this continent... as opposed to from Africa??)
     
  11. OP
    Marco

    Marco Retired Moderator

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    Hi,

    Lol I will answer these questions here.

    Firstly - thank you for the kind words

    There is a chap in New York called Pete Gallagher who has some Dark-gene fish. They originate from the Czech republic if I remember correctly.
    If you PM me i can put you in contact with him.

    Pete and I have been toying with the idea of sending a shipment to NY. It is possible. The only prohibiting factor being figures. But even that is fairly early to handle as we would need to send only approx 1000 to make it feasible.
    To sell 1000 Rams across the USA is an easy task I think

    Best regards

    Marco

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  12. OP
    Marco

    Marco Retired Moderator

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    Hello everyone,

    I want to post a quick update.

    I have continued working with the genetics of the Dark knight. We are always limited by the specific genetic traits available within a species, and while Rams were fairly stable for many years, the Dark-gene opened up a few new possibilities. Unfortunately it is of course limited to that which works on black.

    And so I recently managed to develop a 2nd line in the "Knight" family.
    I call them Blue Knights

    In future I hope to work more on intensifying the saturation of Black on the Dark knight, and hopefully increase the Blue, especially in the finnage of the Blue Knight.

    b99c78b786410c173b75c6346aa41907.jpg2fcf8cb8e75c7585524bdbbdedc765d2.jpg0394dc3b29f9c1647308b9a14268a187.jpg

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  13. TheGrissom

    TheGrissom

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    These are stunningly beautiful. Wow.
     
  14. MariaS

    MariaS Retired Moderator

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    Hi @Marco

    Thanks for the update.....

    Wow... these are absolutely amazing, amazing, amazing!!!!
    The colour is incredible... awesome work.... well done!
     
  15. JCW_IV

    JCW_IV

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    Hi @Marco

    Absolutly beautiful fish. I was in Aqua Empire a few weeks ago and saw he has some Dark Night rams. Can I assume these are yours? He also had some he calls the “blue spectre” Ram that looked similar to the ones above (if my memory serves me right).

    I’ve never kept Rams but seeing them has increased the temptation daily!
     
  16. Breado

    Breado

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  17. Alfiebadseed

    Alfiebadseed

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    Absolutely gorgeous fish Marco. Very tempting to get another tank for some of these .


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  18. OP
    Marco

    Marco Retired Moderator

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    Hi,

    Thanks everyone for the compliments and kind words.

    The Dark Knights by Aqua Empire are mine yes. The Spectre also.
    The Spectre type was actually just a midway point in developing the Blue Knights. The do not breed true and never will due to genetics. They are very pretty though. Some photos of them

    2682bb2429adf4a30fa530e75bf34631.jpg144ac70c3756b7c9abfa40756b275efd.jpg

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  19. MariaS

    MariaS Retired Moderator

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    They are stunning too @Marco

    If you not into breeding and worried about what they will produce, they beautiful addition to a display tank
     
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  20. Ammar

    Ammar

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    Awesome work @Marco, very keen on your stock. Any Ram lover wpuld want these in their tanks
     
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  21. Nico Hamman

    Nico Hamman

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    Beautiful!
     
    Marco likes this.

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