It has been 6 months since I bought 4 Cyathopharynx Foai "Cape Kachese" adults. I set up a, mostly open with one divide located about 1/3rd accomplished with plants and three river rocks, 165 gallon 6' with a 55 gallon sump that moves about 900-1000 gph after head, dim spot lighting etc. I added 15 or so Mpulungu dwarf cyps and the foai. I also purchased 12 juvi Cyathopharynx fry from a local source, my goal being to pull females from the juvi group once I can sex them so I can hopefully end up with 2m and at least 6 females if not more. Don't worry I'm not interested in keeping any of their fry since the local source said that his fry were C. Furcifer "Nyanza-Lac" but I desperately want them to breed, dig bowers etc... If I ever did keep fry they'd be to replenish my own group but that seems far off anyway.
SO, 6 months later I have added 4 of the juvis which I suspected would turn out to be female to the main tank and the other 8 juvis remain in the 80 gallon grow out. I have posted pics of what I suspect is a male from the adult group and fellow forum members agreed that he was, however he has yet to do anything resembling male behavior.
He is 5" at least and he lacks long ventrals, as do the others although his are a bit longer, he has not even the beginning of a lyre tail and, aside from some fairly obvious yet still silver marbling pattern on his back he is just another silver fish! He does not dig nor do the others.
Meanwhile in the grow out tank at least two of what I'm positive are males are defending each side of the tank and, though they are not yet digging, they are turning blue with Yellow and black fins!!
My problem is that, with all due respect to the Nyanza lac variant I was very much hoping to see th Kachese Foai in full dress. They were adults when I bought them as the add from Bluechip said "Adults 4" and breeding"... They are not wild so I guess I just didn't expect their settle in period to go 6 months!
I have a couple of concerns that may be causing them not to breed. #1 the cyps are aggressive, they're dwarves but they are claiming their territories aggressively toward the Foai. In the photo of the whole setup you can see the left 1/3rd of the tank which is open. I set this up to be one of to bower areas but one of the blue tailed cyps won't allow any other fish in that entire area most of the time. You can see poop on the sand on the left and none on the right because the cyp male doesn't allow the foai to sift through that area for longer than 3 seconds or so.
#2 Perhaps I have 3 males and 1 female? If that is the case will they not color up or dig because there aren't enough mature females?
Can these guys be vented accurately/easily? I'd risk scaring the **** out of them to photo their vents just for the peace of mind of knowing that it has something to do with the setup or tank mates.
Should I remove the cyps? There is a pair of Brevis right in the middle of the tank but they don't bother anyone.
It's so frustrating looking on an image search or on youtube at all these spawning Cyathopharynx vids with males colored up with bowers that are MUCH smaller than my so called male/s! It's also very frustrating that the juvis are coloring up in the tank across the fish room which is a four foot tank !! Why will they color up in a less than ideal 4' setup but not in the big tank which has been meticulously designed for them! WHY!!!
Here are some pics I just took today of all four adults. The largest is 5" give or take a mm. He is the one I was told was male in other posts. When I ordered them I ordered 2 males and 2 females, I'm still hoping that's what I got but if they're NEVER going to color up and dig then what's the point anyway! I'm almost ready to hang it up with these guys but I've got so much invested in them.
The so called male... This pic best describes how he truly looks all the time although if I snap one at a certain angle he looks a lot greener. Is he truly a male? To me his ventral fins look too short for him to be at his size?
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Here is what I thought was the second male. he got an infection from an eye injury (I had Lace rock in the tank for a month or two after I got them... I didn't realize how much they run into things so I replaced the lace with round river rock and much less of it.) which led to pretty severe popeye about 4 months ago. He has since recovered and was in a hospital tank for 3 months getting treated with everything under the sun until I realized his eyes were not going to go back to normal, incidentally one of his eyes appears to be permanently swollen and I believe he is blind in one of his eyes because when you look straight into it it reflect red like camera redeye or something. He is also a different basic color than the others although he wasn't when I got him. ??? . He has been a shade of gold since I moved him back from hospital a month ago.??
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Here is one of the 2 smallest ones and what, if I got what I ordered, should be 1 of 2 females. That is if the other two are males? One of the two smaller ones (They're smaller but they are definitely adult size at 3.75-4") has a bit more color, perhaps a bit darker fins and a few reflective blue/green scales but the only one that has anything resembling an obvious amount of color is the big one in the first pic. This pic is of the "female" with more color. She is also a bit grumpier than the other small one who is basically docile and non-confrontational... So is the Golden one in the pic above now that I think of it.
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Here is the other small one who is all kinds of plain and I would be very surprised if she was not female. She never chases anybody and just scoots around sifting sand.
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Here is how the tank is setup
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I think my next fish room purchase is going to be a punching bag.
SO, 6 months later I have added 4 of the juvis which I suspected would turn out to be female to the main tank and the other 8 juvis remain in the 80 gallon grow out. I have posted pics of what I suspect is a male from the adult group and fellow forum members agreed that he was, however he has yet to do anything resembling male behavior.
He is 5" at least and he lacks long ventrals, as do the others although his are a bit longer, he has not even the beginning of a lyre tail and, aside from some fairly obvious yet still silver marbling pattern on his back he is just another silver fish! He does not dig nor do the others.
Meanwhile in the grow out tank at least two of what I'm positive are males are defending each side of the tank and, though they are not yet digging, they are turning blue with Yellow and black fins!!
My problem is that, with all due respect to the Nyanza lac variant I was very much hoping to see th Kachese Foai in full dress. They were adults when I bought them as the add from Bluechip said "Adults 4" and breeding"... They are not wild so I guess I just didn't expect their settle in period to go 6 months!
I have a couple of concerns that may be causing them not to breed. #1 the cyps are aggressive, they're dwarves but they are claiming their territories aggressively toward the Foai. In the photo of the whole setup you can see the left 1/3rd of the tank which is open. I set this up to be one of to bower areas but one of the blue tailed cyps won't allow any other fish in that entire area most of the time. You can see poop on the sand on the left and none on the right because the cyp male doesn't allow the foai to sift through that area for longer than 3 seconds or so.
#2 Perhaps I have 3 males and 1 female? If that is the case will they not color up or dig because there aren't enough mature females?
Can these guys be vented accurately/easily? I'd risk scaring the **** out of them to photo their vents just for the peace of mind of knowing that it has something to do with the setup or tank mates.
Should I remove the cyps? There is a pair of Brevis right in the middle of the tank but they don't bother anyone.
It's so frustrating looking on an image search or on youtube at all these spawning Cyathopharynx vids with males colored up with bowers that are MUCH smaller than my so called male/s! It's also very frustrating that the juvis are coloring up in the tank across the fish room which is a four foot tank !! Why will they color up in a less than ideal 4' setup but not in the big tank which has been meticulously designed for them! WHY!!!
Here are some pics I just took today of all four adults. The largest is 5" give or take a mm. He is the one I was told was male in other posts. When I ordered them I ordered 2 males and 2 females, I'm still hoping that's what I got but if they're NEVER going to color up and dig then what's the point anyway! I'm almost ready to hang it up with these guys but I've got so much invested in them.
The so called male... This pic best describes how he truly looks all the time although if I snap one at a certain angle he looks a lot greener. Is he truly a male? To me his ventral fins look too short for him to be at his size?
Here is what I thought was the second male. he got an infection from an eye injury (I had Lace rock in the tank for a month or two after I got them... I didn't realize how much they run into things so I replaced the lace with round river rock and much less of it.) which led to pretty severe popeye about 4 months ago. He has since recovered and was in a hospital tank for 3 months getting treated with everything under the sun until I realized his eyes were not going to go back to normal, incidentally one of his eyes appears to be permanently swollen and I believe he is blind in one of his eyes because when you look straight into it it reflect red like camera redeye or something. He is also a different basic color than the others although he wasn't when I got him. ??? . He has been a shade of gold since I moved him back from hospital a month ago.??
Here is one of the 2 smallest ones and what, if I got what I ordered, should be 1 of 2 females. That is if the other two are males? One of the two smaller ones (They're smaller but they are definitely adult size at 3.75-4") has a bit more color, perhaps a bit darker fins and a few reflective blue/green scales but the only one that has anything resembling an obvious amount of color is the big one in the first pic. This pic is of the "female" with more color. She is also a bit grumpier than the other small one who is basically docile and non-confrontational... So is the Golden one in the pic above now that I think of it.
Here is the other small one who is all kinds of plain and I would be very surprised if she was not female. She never chases anybody and just scoots around sifting sand.
Here is how the tank is setup
I think my next fish room purchase is going to be a punching bag.
