Sunday 28 July 2013

Neolamprologus Calliurus Breeding and Care

Got a group of 6 Neolamprologus Calliurus from Qian Hu last year.    They were almost adults when I picked them up and hence chose 2m and 4f from the store.   The males were about 2" and females were about 1.5".   Unfortunately, I lost one of them during transit and was left with 2M and 3F.

I made a new set up (24" x 24" x 16") for them with fine white gravel as the substrate.    Introduced 6-7 large apple snail shells in the tank with cave formation in the center with few rocks.    The shells were supposed to be for the females and males would hide in the caves.    I had read that they were harem breeders.    






After few days, each of the females occupied one of the shells and the males were on either side of the rock set up.    Within 3 weeks they were all well set and one of the males started courting 2 of the females.  I fed them Hikari Cichlid Gold Sinking (crushed) and made 40% water changes every 2-3 weeks. 

To my surprise, with in 8 - 10 weeks, I had the first batch of fries.    The fries were well guarded by the female with the male playing the supporting role.   The rest of the colony didn't seem to bother the fries.    However, after couple of days, I notice that other male had jumped out of the tank.   I presume he was harassed by the breeding male.   In the first batch, about 10 fries survived.

In the next 3 weeks, saw the fries emerging out of the shell of another female, which confirmed that they were indeed harem breeders.     After couple of weeks, lost another female and the cause is not known.   The male is about 2.75" and females are about 1.5".   The two remaining females breed regularly and fries from both the females co-exist without any issues.   I feed them Hikari First Bytes for the first 15-20 days and then crushed powder of the Hikari Cichlid Gold. I usually remove the fries when they are about 6-7mm in size and most of them seem to survive post that.

Thursday 1 September 2011

Cyathopharynx furcifer

I got a group of 20 Cyathopharnyx Furcifer 2 weeks ago.   Have read that full grown Furcifer is a treat to watch, especially the males when they color up.   

They were about 3cm in size when I got them and right now they are about 4cm.    They happily accepted Hikari Discuss Gold and NLS Thera A(1mm).    Occasionally I feed them frozen artemia as well. They are pretty active and seem to swim around in a group.

After nearly 3 months, I see that the largest male is about 3.5 inch and starting the develop the blue colors on the body and fins.    

Sunday 22 May 2011

Neolamprologus Leleupi - Breeding

Leleupis are among the most colorful Tangyanikans available in the hobby.   Got a group of 6 from one of the fellow hobbyist and were about 2.5" in size.  They were yellow leleupis with a shade of Orange.    I gave them a 6' foot tank all for themselves with lots of hiding places using pile of stones as well as small clay pots.    They were 2M and 4F.   One of the male was very dominant and obviously the alpha male.    Fed them regularly with Hikari Excel (with small amount of Hikar Bio Gold mixed) and occasionally gave them frozen bloodworms.



Soon, there was a pair formed and they spawned in one of the pots.    After about more than week, saw very small fries one top of the pot.    Soon got a packet of Hikari First Bytes and started feeding them.   They were all fine for next few days until I noticed that their numbers was reducing slowly.   With in a week, most of them were gone.   I was not sure if they were eaten away by other leleupis in the tank.   The same thing repeated the next time the pair spawned.



I had heard that leleupis form a strong pair and continue to stay and spawn together.   This was not true in this case.   I intended to leave the breeding pair in the tank and remove the other leleupis.   While I was doing that, realized that the same male had bred with another female at the opposite end of the tank.     This was probably the reason the frys were not surviving beyond few weeks.

After I moved the remaining leleupis to another tank, I had several successful spawns of Leleupis.    They accepted Hikari First bytes for the first 2 weeks and later they survived on crushed pellets.   The Ph of the tank was about 7.4 and did a 40-50% water change every 2 weeks.  

Saturday 14 May 2011

Leptosoma Cyprichromis Kigoma - Breeding

I had got a group of 10 Cyprichormis Leptosoma "Kigoma" from Bangkok in September 2010.   They were about 2" in size. Initially, I had put them together with a group of Black Calvus in a 5' tank.    Once they grew to about 3.5" and started showing colours, I moved them to a 6' tank.    They were 2M and 8F in the group.   I sensed that they were adults now and could start breeding anytime now.  I fed them with NLS Thera A (1mm) as staple food and occasionally gave them frozen blood worms and artemia.  







In April 2011, I noticed that they were spawning with 2 of the females holding eggs.    After 3 weeks, I could notice the females were barely able to hold the frys in the mouth and one could see the eyes of the frys through their lower part of their mouth(translucent portion).



On 14th May, I was surprised to see 13 healthy 6-7mm frys swimming in my tank.     I can't imagine how these tiny mouths can hold 6-10 frys of that size in their mouth.   Amazing!

They are now taking Hikari first bytes as well as crushed Hikari pellets.

The frys are doing pretty good and they are about 1 week old.   The good thing about the Cyprichromis are that they don't seem to bother the frys even though they may not protect them.   So as long as it is single species tank, the frys are safe.

Thanks to Hayath, have been able to get some close up shots of the frys


Here are some additional pictures of the colony taken by Hayath





Following links are very useful for differentiating various Cyprichromis species:

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/kennel/inutarou/cypriver/cypriver.htm
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/kennel/inutarou/02/cyprichromisjumbo01.htm
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/kennel/inutarou/03/cyprichromisspjumbo02.htm
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/kennel/inutarou/04/cyprichromisspjumbo03.htm

The first link confirms that the species that I have is Cyprichormis Leptosoma "Kigoma" !