P. Buettikoferi

[Kalambo]

Hello all,

I'm looking for any related information on the species Pelmatochromis Buettikoferi. I picked up 8 from a friend that are about 4" long. I can't seem to find anything via google on this fish what so ever. I would like to know the usual: size, sexing, tank requirements and spawning. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Mark Smith]

Hi Kalambo

I obtained some juveniles at approx. 18 mm total length in mid December 2009. They are now 10 cm, and just spawned for me two weeks ago, producing approx. 80 fry. I was quite surprised that their first spawn, at such a young age, was fertile. I did soften the water a bit in the past 6 weeks, and brought it down to about 10 dH, although I don't think harder water would have stopped them. They seem like a very hardy species.

[Simon Morgan]

Have you definately got P. Buettikoferi? I've seen P. nigrofaciatus wrongly labelled as Buettikoferi. If you have genuine Buettikoferi please tell me the source as I would be very interested in this species. It is quite peaceful according to Lamboj's book.

P. nigrofaciatus was very interesting to keep. I spawned them several times and raised loads of fry! They once layed eggs while the fry were still in the tank and allowed the fry to eat the eggs. I'm not sure if that was deliberate or not, I wish I'd kept them longer to test the theory!

[Darrell Ullisch]

Trust me, P. buettikoferi is not an especially peaceful species. I had four of them living with a breeding pair of salvini, and they were quite capable of taking care of themselves. However, they didn't breed until the bigger salvini male was removed from the tank for killing his mate. There were other fish in the tank, all Cichlids, mostly moderately aggressive species. The Buett-heads really started beating fish up when they took over, had to move them into their own tank.

I have a very productive pair right now, they breed in hard water, soft water, just so long as it's wet. If I could get them to you in the UK, I'd send you a batch, but I've never done any overseas shipping.

They are much more colorful than most of the photos I've seen, I have at least one shot that shows just how gold they can be.

[Simon Morgan]

Nice fish, thanks for posting! They should be more popular with those colours!

I might take you up on your kind offer if I had any room! I have guntheri and Ctenochromis polli spawning at the moment so I need all the space!