beech@engr.uky.edu (Wayne Beech) (02/08/88)
Hi,
I have a question about african cichlids, namely kenyi's. I have a pair
and have been trying to get them to spawn and havent had any luck. The
male and female are about 4 inches in length. The male has always been
very bright orange and very aggressive. shortly after I purchased the pair
the male killed several fish so i separated both the male and female kenyi
from the other fish and the male almost killed the female so i moved the
female back with the other fish for about a month or so. during the month
the female changed from her original color of purple with black stripes to
a really blah white color and then started to turn orange with red fins.
well the female was looking pretty good so i put her back with the male
and they seemed to get along fine for a couple of days. they did all the
things you read about them spawning. the male shook rapidly any time the
female was close to her, etc. well yesterday morning i came down and
the female appeared dead. after checking it out i found that she was alive
but it looked like all her scales had been eaten. currently i have her
in a "hospital tank" hoping she recovers. anyone have any suggestions as
to what im doing wrong or should i give up on this pair and try some more?
almost i heard recently that kenyi's are one of the few freshwater fish that
are capable of changing sex.....does anyone know about this?
Thank you,
wayne
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=============================================================================richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton) (02/10/88)
The Rift Vally system in Africa is comprised of lakes Malawi
(previously Nyassa), Tanganyka (sp), Victoria, and probably
more I can't remember.
Fishes belonging to Family Cichlidae from these lakes
are collectivly called 'mbuna', or 'african cichlids'
by hobbyists.
The water in the lakes in the Rift Vally is somewhere bewteen
tap water and seas water in specific gravity - ie. it's FULL
of dissolved minerals, although all the lakes differ with
respect to this.
the primary diet of mbuna is stuff called 'aewofe' (I know I
spelled it wrong, but I don't have my books handy at the moment)
which is a algae/zooplankton mixture growing on the bottom
and rocks of all the rift vally lakes. It's growth is supported
by the mass quantities of bird guano.
Mbuna are both terratorial and chooling at the same time. Large
colonies of Mbuna congregate, but during breeding season, males
(or females) will stake out a terratory and defend it.
They will mate with a passing by member of the opposite sex, but
not set up a pair bond like other cichlids.
This then is your problem. To breed african cichlids, the ideal
environment is a BIG tank with lots of rocks and a dozen members
of 5 or 6 species. When you see a female with a moiuthfull of eggs,
remove her.
A pair of mbuna is almost a guarentee that the male will mercilessly
attack the female, and eventually kill her.
They are community breeders, and the only thing that prevents a male
from killing a female he just mated with is the distraction
of other fish, be they members of his species or not.
If you can put other Kenyii in the tank as well, that would be a good
start, although ideally you have a big tank and lots of different
africans.
--
"It's too dark to put my legs in my munitions"
richard@gryphon.CTS.COM
{ihnp4!scgvaxd!cadovax, philabs!cadovax, codas!ddsw1} gryphon!richarddalka@ihlpg.ATT.COM (Ken Dalka) (02/11/88)
> anyone have any suggestions as > to what im doing wrong or should i give up on this pair and try some more? > almost i heard recently that kenyi's are one of the few freshwater fish that > are capable of changing sex.....does anyone know about this? > I have not spawned the Kenyi specifically but did spawn some of the other mouthbrooding african cichlids from lake Malawi. I believe that they all spawn about the same way. This are a few of the things I can remember off hand. Males are VERY agressive. They can and will spawn with multiple females at the same time (called polyamous rather than monogamous, excuse my terrible spelling here). In fact, its recommeded to have multiple females so that the male will not be picking on the same female all the time. At least two is recommended but more would be better based on tank size. Once they do spawn the female keeps the eggs in her mouth and sometimes it is difficult to tell she has them. Its not real obvious. The best and easiest way is to check how shes eating. She wont until the eggs hatch. But there is a big problem that occurs here. Since the female has the eggs in her mouth, she can't bite to protect herself so the male gets a big advantage here. This is where You can lose the female so you have to keep watch for the eggs and either transfer her (yes, you can, eggs and all) or move the male. but its trickier than you might think since if you move one female the other gets beat up by the male. If you move the male, one female gets the advantage over the other. You just have to try what you can and watch carefully. Some of these problems can be lessened by tank size. I was using a 38 gallon tank (3 ft. long). The bigger the better. Also, there is an excellent book put out by tetra about cichlids. The name escapes me but I think its by "Lowe". Its definitely one of the best books Ive read as far as getting useful information about habits and spawning of specific fish. It describes all cichlids including the ones from Malawi. -- Ken Dalka (Bell Labs) ihnp4!ihlpg!dalka IE 2F-518 (312) 416-7437