S. casuarius and S. tinanti

[Simon Morgan]

My African Blockhead Cichlids (Steatocranus casuarius) and Slender Lionhead Cichlids (Steatocranus tinanti) both spawned on the same day! (Saturday 1st December).
How random, must be something in the water
Fingers crossed I can get some fry, they are great little fishes.

Not a bad result after buying the tinanti as recently as September

[Simon Morgan]

Pics:

S. casuarius



S. tinanti

[Darrell Ullisch]

Probably not random, more likely one of two things:

1. Water changes in both tanks on the same day. Particularly if it was a large water change. However, if that were the case, I'm sure you would have connected that.

2. Large change in barometric pressure. Fish are extremely sensitive to pressure changes via the Lateral line pores. Large drops in the barometer are usually connected with heavy rainstorms in the wild, so they spawn in expectation of fresh food being washed down from the land upstream. Particularly notable in riverine species, such as the entire genus of Steatocranus.

[Simon Morgan]

In hindsight I think you are completely spot on. About 10 days previous, I had moved the fish into larger tanks, which contained fresh water. A few days later there was a very heavy rainstorm that lasted about 12 hours, and there was probably a large drop in pressure at the same time.
The fact they it happed by design and not by chance is even more amazing, if you ask me!

[Simon Morgan]

Check this out, it's a recording of the barometric pressure from Stansted on the week leading up to the spawning:



It starts falling on Monday, has a little dip on Thursday and then bottoms out on Saturday, the day of both spawns! I am gob-smacked!!

[Simon Morgan]

The S. tinanti spawned again about six weeks after the first time.
Again, it coincided with a drop in atmospheric pressure:



They spawned on 11th January, the Friday on the chart!

[seanie112]

hi there new to this forum


i have just brought a breeding group of these for my 77x17x18

will be picking them up in the next couple wks


there's not much info on these fish
ill add some pics of them when i get them home

[Simon Morgan]

[quote="seanie112"]there's not much info on these fish [/quote]

You need "The Cichlid Fishes of Western Africa" by Anton Lamboj.

I've also written about these for the BCA and published the same article here: http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/f ... hp?t=26874

"The Truth is out there"