tuba and company

[Willem Heijns]

now that I have most of my fish back I'll start a blog on what is happening in my tanks. this one is about a 400g in which I currently keep:




a beautiful pair Tomocichla tuba (10"), the main inhabitants




a pair Astatheros rostratus (7")




a pair Archocentrus centrarchus (6")




a group Amphilophus flaveolus (4")

all fish are wild from Nicaragua, except for the flaveolus which are bred from wild ones in the lab of Prof. Axel Meyer.

nothing much has happened yet. they only arrived this afternoon.

[Willem Heijns]

some fishes were slightly damaged on return, probably from fighting. added salt to the water. that usually helps.

[Willem Heijns]

this group is doing fine. the centrarchus pair has taken up the habit (again) of spawning every three weeks. the only problem is that the male thinks he's a mouthbrooder. every egg the female lays on the substrate he immediately takes in his mouth. I never saw him with a "mouthful" though . of course I feed my fish well.

[Willem Heijns]

the flaveolus are starting to pair up. they are only 5-6" in size and just over one year old. yesterday a big surprise: the first spawn! the breeding colours are interesting albeit not spectacular. I'll see what happens.

[Willem Heijns]

the spawn was lost soon enough. but another followed, and yet another. this is turning into a spawning frenzy! luckily none of them lasts. it is simply too early. also I think it is becoming too crowded for tuba. I guess I'll have to say good beye to a few flaveolus...

[Sandman]

Do you still keep Nigrofascuatus from Ometepe Island ? I was looking at the October 2001 Cichlid News and saw your article, what great photos.

[Willem Heijns]

I'm sorry. no more nigrofasciatus.

[Rick Thibert]

Any more T. tuba spawns willem?

BC

[Willem Heijns]

I'm sorry, no...

[Willem Heijns]

I edited the first post. pics!!

[RMac]

Thanks for posting all those pictures up! Never seen a Tuba, wow, what a great looking fish, the color and patterns... sweet.

[Con-Man-Dan]

Willem,

Any new pics of the flaveolus?

[Willem Heijns]

Not yet, please be patient.

[Willem Heijns]

A new challenge. The group of Amphilophus flaveolus is outgrowing the tank. Two pairs are constantly breeding, so Tomocichla tuba and Astatheros rostratus simply have no room to move. There's twenty or so flaveolus in there. I think I'll remove most of them and leave maybe a group of 5 in the tank. Another wet day tomorrow....

[Con-Man-Dan]

A wet day in the fishroom beats any dry outside the fishroom

[Willem Heijns]

I hesitated for a week, but today I've done it. It turned out I have 24 flaveolus and only five of them are left in the tank (2 males, 3 females). the others were split into two groups (14 of them went in the amarillo tank). tuba is now turning into being the boss of the tank.

[chc]

I those tuba become too big of a handful, I'll adopt them from you!

Great photos!

[Willem Heijns]

Removing the flaveolus really had an impact on the behaviour of all fish left in the tank. The flaveolus pair had saved their fry (even after the ordeal of removing all decoration and catching those fish!) and had half of the tank as their territory. But today I noticed the fry had disappeared. And now the five flaveolus are fighting to form "new" pairs. Tuba and the others don't know what to do. The rostratus seem better off, they are even courting once in a while (after eight years!).

[Willem Heijns]

The centrarchus male had finally lost its mate. No wonder, because he used to eat every egg she laid immediately after she had put it on the substrate. After a few weeks on his own I was able to recollect his three wild companions (also from Laguna Xiloá) I once kept, from a friend who had taken care of them for almost a year. They (one male and two females) returned to their tank last Friday. It took the resident male no more than two days to mate with one of the females. And the surprising thing was: he didn't eat any of the eggs she laid. I checked a minute ago (after the first night) and the eggs are still there. Am I finally going to breed my wild Archocentrus centrarchus?

[Willem Heijns]

Archocentrus centrarchus hangs its larvae on plants and other objects instead of putting them in a pit. My pair tried to hang the larvae on the front glass, which of course didn't work. Subsequently they lost the fry. I hope they will be more clever next time.

I brought down the number of Amphilophus flaveolus in the tank to about five. Amongst them a pair which spawns regularly. Right now they have a swarm of fry. While leading them through the tank they reached the other corner (8' from their home base) where the pair engaged in combat with the male tuba. After a couple of vigorous encounters they withdrew, but not without leaving a few of the fry behind. Much to my surprise the tuba didn't eat the fry but started protecting them. This has been going on for two days. He chases every other fish and the fry also follow him. Yesterday I even saw him take one of the youngsters into his mouth and spitting it back in the group. There's a foster parent for you!

If only he would do all this with his own mate.