Breeding Colony Processing/Selection •••Skyblue OB Peacock Cichlids••• 

Thank you, but you really should get into fish! Charles

Very good point. A damp bucket stacked in another bucket is very difficult to pull out. The water provides a seal, creating a very strong vacuum. After doing that once, you always remember. Charles

🤣🤣🤣

You just compressed air to separate them, use nozzle and blow on one side , they come right undone.

Thank you. Carl is doing a great job with editing. I just raise fish and talk too much. That fish may be used to start a new strain. Charles

Thanks!! Glad you like the intro

Thank you for watching. We try to be educational as well as entertaining. Charles

@@goliadfarms7029 You are very welcome! You are both educational and entertaining for sure!!

We are working on some longer videos so I can prattle on longer! Seriously, I do hope we are providing entertaining and educational content. Charles

@@goliadfarms7029 You certainly are!

@@FoxyFoxyShazam Thank you! Charles

An interesting name! Charles

@@goliadfarms7029 Thanks, Charles! Such an unusual beautiful fish.

At this time of the year, the dogs prefer staying in A/C, but this fall we might do that. When Oso and Maya take an unauthorized expedition I'd like to have some means of tracking them and have threatened to put a GPS on them. Charles

Yes, Carl is doing some interesting video and audio work. I just raise fish and talk too much. Charles

Thanks! I was hoping everyone would like the intro

Well done Carl!

Thank you. Well said. We'll never get an "aquarium beautiful" award, but we do produce award winning fish. Charles

The only reason not to inbreed is because of recessive genes and inbreeding is what I always did to find bad recessive genes and get rid of them so when I sold breeding stock I didn't have to worry about passing bad genes on in like the "reputable" breeders who sold me stock with every recessive gene in that breed.

@@elaineluikart5459 True, inbreeding allows you to remove deleterious genes, which are usually recessives, and concentrate the genes and characteristics you want. The Xiphophorus Genetic Stock Center (www.xiphophorus.txstate.edu/) at Texas State University has a line of Xiphophorus maculatus that has been inbred via brother/sister matings for over 140 generations. The fish are healthy. Charles

I know!!!

They have different barks for venomous snakes and snakes they can attack. I can also tell when they are barking at the horses instead of someone driving up. Charles

It is nice that reproduction is picking up. That will allow us to more tightly select breeders in the next couple of breeding cycles. Charles

Thank you. I have decades of experience raising many types of fish, but I still learn something new about them every day. Charles

That is a pretty fish and he probably deserves a bunch of his own females to found a new strain. Charles

For an update on our dogs, see today's video explaining the long gap in videos. Charles

Thank you. The dogs, of course, like the greenhouses for the very expensive sushi. They get to eat losses, the more rotten the better. Charles

We will be doing a video soon discussing the various plants we use in plant filtration. Charles

@@goliadfarms7029 thank you charles

@@GuppyBettaFishes No problem. That is a very good suggestion. Charles

Glad to hear that. We try to ship 6-8 month old males who only get prettier as they grow. Charles

The more history you have with a strain the better you get at predicting which fish will be the best breeders. It helps to have some knowledge of genetics. Charles

@@goliadfarms7029 The world of fish gets better with Goliad Farms in it. :) When sorting the fish and you get to see if your hopes and plans worked out to your expectations, has Mother Nature some times made her own decisions, stirred in that gene pool and made you all go "what??"?

@@johannessordfarne4553 Every time we process a breeding colony, I'm reminded that we only temporarily occupy this space and don't have that much control over it. Charles

@@goliadfarms7029 True. ... well, the things you do do, you do well. :)

@@johannessordfarne4553 Yes, that has happened many times. Charles

That would take a while on some of the strains where we are getting back to full production, but I might do that on a strain that doesn't have 60 or 70 males. Charles

They are one of my favorites. We started this strain in 2005 from a male from our Blue OB Peacock strain. He caught my eye and got a bunch of females. Charles

Thank you. We work hard to produce nice fish. Charles

Yes, we did. One of my personal favorites too! I will probably split that strain into Skyblue OB with other colors and Skyblue/Orange. Charles

Thank you for watching. Aulonocara are interesting fish for breeders. Greetings from Texas. I'm descended from two waves of German immigration, one in the 1730s and the other in the 1840s. Good fishkeeping! Also, our two dogs, Oso and Maya, are German Shepherd Dogs! So good dogkeeping too! Charles

@@goliadfarms7029 Hi Charles, many thank's for your Answer...very interesting! Incidentally, we have relatives in Philadelphia, (my great-great-uncle's family, on my mother's side)-He emigrated to the States in 1898-And in Plaquemine & Slidell, Louisiana.

@@klausoxen6597 That had to be a big surprise coming from Germany to steamy Louisiana. A lot Germans in the 1840s came to Texas because Count Braunfels had visited the Texas Hill Country in March during a very rare snow storm. As a result, he assumed the climate was similar to parts of Germany and went back with glowing reports. A friend of ours moved from Germany to Houston, Texas when he was twelve. They arrived in August. When they were deplaning through the jetway, he thought, "They have saunas!" He quickly discovered that was the climate. Charles

@@goliadfarms7029 sorry for my late reaction Charles ... when I visited my relatives in Louisiana a few years ago (August 1992), I was almost blown away by the heat / humidity there! How must my relatives have felt - without air conditioning - I thought to myself! I definitely felt more comfortable in Philadelphia, hihi! Greets Klaus 😊

Poor Oso gets told "No!" many times a day. By the way, I rarely tell him no. In the interest of marital harmony, I won't say who does... Charles

Yes, a feeding video is being planned. Charles

Thank you for watching the videos. I like talking about fish. Carl and Susie do the real work. Charles

Thank you for watching the videos. I like talking about fish. Carl and Susie do the real work. Charles

We have them available on our website (goliadfarms.com/), but our wholesale customers snatch them up quickly. Charles

Thank you. This is a stain we started working on in 2005 when I isolated a male from our Blue OB Peacock strain and gave him a bunch of OB females. Charles

Our Skyblue OBs throw a fair number of Golds. We just processed them this morning. I purged females with gold on the body and substituted some young very dull, silvery females. They throw the best Skyblue. Charles

We have thought about selling the compost, but at present we use some of it and give it to some friends. Charles

Yes, it's a very nice pastel blue. This fish is one of my favorites. Charles

Sorry for the tardy reply. Computer problems. Generations of selection have produced this line of fish. Raising lots of fish to select among is key. Charles

Could have been. The snakes that are found around the greenhouses usually choose to stick around. Charles

We will be offering them on our website in August after we process their breeding colonies again. Charles

Sorry for the tardy reply. Computer problems. We've built aquaculture netting inserts similar to the fry cages you see in the 300-gallon breeding vats. That didn't work as well as we'd wished. We haven't tried very fine liners, but I think you'd have to have a frame to keep them open. Charles

Email me at charles@goliadfarms.com about them. We are working on a tickler reminder in our fish database to keep up with requests like yours. Are you interested in the Skyblue OBs or the non-OB Skyblue Peacocks? We should be listing at least 1-2" and 2-3" Skyblue OB Peacocks in the next couple of weeks. By the way, we are working to make navigation of our Shop page on the website easier to use. Charles

We do sell online to hobbyists. The fish we are currently offering can be found at goliadfarms.com/. Click on "Shop" to see available fish and sizes. Charles

That is a good idea. Next breeding cycle I'll give him his own females and then inbreed for his color pattern to set the strain. Fish strain naming contests could be useful. Charles

On our website. Here is a link to the Skyblue OB Peacock page: goliadfarms.com/shop/skyblue-ob-peacock/ Charles

Thank you for watching. We hope to be entertaining as well as informative. Charles

That is a good definition! German Shepherd Dogs are highly inbred and are great dogs. Reputable breeders continue to eliminate any deleterious genes. We inbreed for size, coloration, health, rapid growth, and longevity. Charles

Thank you. It is one of my favorite cichlids. Someday we'll set up a white board so I can go through the genetics that produces this coloration. Charles

We will continue to do videos of our cichlids as we process breeding colonies. If you have a specific question, please let me know. Charles

We attempt to process breeding colonies and the associated vats every 3-4 months. If we don't harvest the breeding colonies by 4 months, we begin losing production from older juveniles predating their younger brethern. Charles

We sell them as long as they are good fish otherwise. Charles

Carl and Susie are supposed to be working on offering t-shirts. I'll pass the cap suggestion to them. Charles

Thank you for watching our videos. We try to be informative as well as entertaining. It looks like hard work to others, but it is my very overgrown hobby. Charles

Yes, we have some for sale. They are listed on our website at goliadfarms.com/. Charles

Yes. Their ancestors are primarily Aulonocara species from Lake Malawi. But they are aquarium strain manmade hybrids. The OB pattern is reputedly from a Pseudotropheus species. Charles

We look forward to your visit. Too bad our Texas Indigo wiped out most of our Copperheads. We could have sat in the yard, watched the Copperheads, and enjoyed some wine. Right now, outside the cicadas are deafening! Charles

@@goliadfarms7029 Sounds like the most wonderful time!!!😁♥️🌿🐟🐍🐸

@@marypaigeflynn4512 I toyed with hosting a Copperhead Fest, but alas, the Indigo ate most of them. One night, pre-Indigo, we counted 28 Copperheads in the yard. Here's a blog I wrote about one our grandbrats (grandkids if you must) name Creepy Copper. goliadfarms.com/creepy-copper-the-copperhead-snake/ Charles

@@goliadfarms7029 well, I think the Copperhead Festival sounds like a good time 🐍😁🤣 Maybe, I could even set a booth up there for my daughter's natural and organic beauty products 🤣🤣 I can see people now flocking from all over to come to the Copperhead Festival 💪🙏😁🐍 thanks for the read Mr Charles!! I'm up to seven Grand brats now 🤣🤣🤣♥️

@@marypaigeflynn4512 Eight grandbrats here. If the Copperhead population recovers, we'll have to do that. Charles

It is a beautiful strain of Peacocks, one of my favorites. Charles

Originally, I've been told, it meant "orange blotch." But as time has gone by, it has come to mean blotching of any color OB Peacock cichlids usually have black blotching. Charles

The music is only playing during the intro. The full video starts about a minute or so in. If you watch from there, you should be able to hear everything. Thanks for watching!

Since that is probably me talking, not being able to hear could be a blessing. Seriously however, as Carl explains after the intro you'll get all the audio. Charles

When we offer them, it will be on our website at goliadfarms.com/shop/. We will be making more fish available in the next couple of weeks. Also we are working at improving the shopping interface. Charles

Carl is working on improving our videos. Glad you liked it. Charles

On our website goliadfarms.com/. Charles

Thank you and thank you for watching. Charles

They are awesome fish, aren't they? Charles

I'm ambivalent about which way to go on this strain. I'll probably end up splitting it into a solid skyblue line and a orange/skyblue line. Now, if only Susie will agree to more greenhouses and vats, I'll have room to do that! Charles

@@goliadfarms7029 Both lines would be wonderful to breed, sky blue and sky blue orange. I personally like it if a population shows a little natural variation in phenotype. Would also be nice to breed the best colored individuals with sky blue with or without orange together, to just keep all individuals with sky blue and no gold. To select and to build up a steady strain with sky blue first. The orange fin color could be correlating with the food type too as you have sayed concerning red Aulonocaras before. Ram

@@ramsarva8479 Right now I've opted to go with the varying phenotype, but given space I'll probably split them in the future. Currently all of our fish get the same diet so have the same opportunity to express red and orange. In the past I experimented with feeding some strains with red cherry shrimp. Within three weeks reds and oranges popped. Charles

We are working toward allowing visitors soon. We'll post instructions on our website when ready. Susie (wife and business manager) is planning a farm fish festival like the one we had in 2008 in conjunction with the American Livebearer Association convention in San Antonio, Texas. Charles

@@goliadfarms7029 I would love to attend that someday.

@@FoxyFoxyShazam We look forward to your attendance. Charles

Cichlids, especially those from Lake Malawi, rival marine reef fish in colors and patterns. Charles

Thank you for watching the video about this pretty fish. Charles

Thank you for watching our video. Charles

We used to use floats in the sumps. When the level dropped below a pre-set point the valve would turn on and add water. Those were damaged by Hurricane Harvey and we haven't reinstalled them as yet. Currently, we trickle well water in at a rate that keeps the sumps full. If, in one of the many daily greenhouse checks I make, the sump is low I turn up the water flow. When the sumps are overfull, which can happen if I have the waterflow set too high or when we siphon vats to process them, the water overflows into irrigation ditches. At present that water is used by a grove of black willows in a diked off two-three acre patch. We will be clearing the willows and planting a fig orchard I hope this coming winter. We are propagating fig trees from a great fig planted by my great-grandfather in 1908. That tree and four of its clones are producing a bumper crop of figs just now. Charles

Happy Fourth to you! This is a very pretty OB Peacock strain that doesn't photo well (they look white in photos) but seems to video well. Charles

Thank you. It is one of my favorites as well. We started this strain in 2005 when I noticed a Skyblue OB male in our Blue OB Peacock strain. We now also have a Skyblue Peacock, a peacock without the OB gene. Charles

Thank you. We are recovering, but it'll be a couple of years to get back to full production. Charles

They are very nice. Next time we process them at the end of this breeding cycle, I'll place them in an aquarium for videoing. Every time I've photographed them, they turn out white. I'm pleased that the video shows their true colors. I want Carl to do a frame grab showing those colors to replace the bad photo on our website. Charles

Thank you. Carl is doing a great job. Charles

@@goliadfarms7029 Charles do you have any tips on shipping fish. Packaging, and preparation. Possible an interesting video idea

I really like the Skyblue OBs. We also have Skyblue Peacocks, same color but not OB. We processed the Skyblue Peacocks July 1st, but I don't remember if we videoed them. Some of the sump fish are very interesting. Charles

We work hard to raise pretty, healthy fish. We give them great water conditions, good food, and good habitats. They respond by producing fish like in the video. Charles

Why would I ever say that to the Gandhi of Aquaria?

I try to handle them out of water as little as possible. Although, some fish like plecos can tolerate being out of water much longer. Charles

@@goliadfarms7029 Of course. Forgive my insolence.

@@oombaclyde5736 No problem. Absolutely no offense taken. Charles

And that mulm is loaded with beneficial bacteria and lots of tiny food for fish fry. If we allow a bucket to sit overnight, we get swarms of Paramecium. We just haven't figured out how to video that effectively. Charles

I'm working toward providing more history, more genetics, more breeder selection, more breeding techniques, etc. in each video. Charles

@@goliadfarms7029 can’t wait. Thank you!

Hello to you. Thank you for watching. Charles

Thank you for watching this pretty fish. Charles

I can't imagine a Peacock breeder would want to use RO water. The good thing for us is that our fish seem very happy in the their dirty conditions! They prove that by being healthy and producing lots of fry. I think hobbyists are encouraged to keep their tanks too clean. Mulm is loaded with beneficial bacteria. We have given mulm to hobbyists to charge their filters for natural cycling. Charles