Lake Victoria Basin, West African, Madagascar & Asian Species • Pelvicachromis taeniatus "dehane"

[DeadFishFloating]

G'day guys n gals,

I'm pretty new to West African dwarves, having in the past kept a range of South American dwarf cichlids.

I have started out with two pairs of Pelvicachromis taeniatus "dehane". Currently both my pairs have four to five week old fry. I have some pretty average photos of my two pairs and fry.

[tranced]

nice!! congrats on the fry

[mbudd]

great looking fish.i just purchased pelvichromis taeniatus moliwe.dehane are next for me also.good luck with them.great fish to watch

[DeadFishFloating]

Thanks guys. I removed the fry this week to two fry tanks. I pulled 17 fry from each pair, bit of a coincidence. I am keeping each spawn seperate for the time being.

[DeadFishFloating]

Time for an update.

Both lots of 12 week old juveniles have been moved to growout tanks. They are approaching 1 inch total length. I am still keeping the spawns seperate. I plan to take 3 female from tank #1 and 3 males from tank #2 and grow them out in the hope of ending up with a mated pair. The rest of the juveniles I will sell when the are larger.

Tank #1


Tank #2


The juveniles are starting to show a little bit of colour and I believe I can tell the sexes of the larger juveniles. Females are showing an ocelli in thier dorsal fin, while the males are the ones with red tinted dorsal, caudal and anal fins.

Female


Males


Couple of random shots




Unfortunately I lost my older pair this last month. First the female died, and then the male seemed to pine away.

My younger pair have spawned again. They have 5 week old fry, which I will pull this weekend.

[monisaab]

lovely fish and nice pics...

[Chromedome52]

Pelvicachromis taeniatus are supposed to have a preference for breeding with siblings; you might want to keep some of both sexes from each pair. The paper on this indicated poor pairing (i.e., fighting, spawn eating, etc.) between non-siblings. Of course, the fish in the experiment were a Nigerian form. You could try repeating the experiment with a different form.

[dwarfpike]

Not sure how I missed this ... awesome that you have been bit by the westie bug. The Dehane are one of the better looking P. taeniatus. Sporting any other Pelvicachromis?

[michael l]

nice pics, what size tank are the parents in, just picked up a pair of kienke and makoure amd would like to set them up for breeding, also any other hints you can give me....

[DeadFishFloating]

All my breeder tanks are 24"x12"x15", though I only fill to about 12" high. I have mopani rootwood with anubis nana tied to it. I also add an Indian Almond leaf once a week. I do two 20% water changes a week with 50% tap water and 50% rain water premixed in a water drum. Some times my mix is more like 75% rain water.

[DeadFishFloating]

Not sure how I missed this ... awesome that you have been bit by the westie bug. The Dehane are one of the better looking P. taeniatus. Sporting any other Pelvicachromis?

Hey dwarfpike. At the moment I am just keeping the dehane. At this stage I'm just going to keep dehane, but there are a few species I'm keeping a spare tank for if my LFS managers to get them in. Pelvicachromis taeniatus wouri, Pelvicachromis sacrimontis, Pelvicachromis sp. blue or a quality pair of Pelvicachromis pulcher.

It's been a long time since I've seen some quality pulcher. I don't think any new blood has been imported for quite some time.

[dwarfpike]

Hopefully you will get some of the Enigmatochromis lucanusi into Oz ... especially since they are still usually sold under their older name of P. sp. blue fin. Such a beautiful species, but they are the P. sacrimontis would need larger tanks than the P. taeniatus or P. roloffi would. A bit more on the nastier side, even more so than the common krib. I also like P. signatus myself.

I agree with you on the rarity of seeing quality P. pulcher, even here. Normally you have to watch out for wild imports, but because kribs are so common and inexpensive, you don't see imports too often. Luckily there is an importer in WI with close ties to Ted Judy so they quite often get in some neat westies.

[Rammer]

Interesting, too bad I didnt inquire about the other species of Pelvicachromis. I have a pair of P. pulchers in a 46 gal. Just got them yesterday, they are doing well and suprisingly come to the top to eat! The water is 20" deep, my rams never came to the top. The female is fat so hopefully I can get them to spawn in a week or so. Your fish look pretty good! How big are your grow out tanks?

[Rammer]

Being that you guys were speaking of the wild P. pulcher not being imported as often as it maybe should be. I found a online retailer/importer that only sells the wild P. pulcher. As far as I know all of their fish are wild caught, and aside from the P. pulcher they have about 20 other species of Pelvicachromis including the Enigmatochromis Lucanusii "blue fin". Message me if you guys are interested in the site, I think if I posted it, it would be removed.