[cichlidaholic]

We've had a group of fry from our Cynotilapia White Top Galireya growing out in a tank with some acei fry, and the White Tops were getting too aggressive for the aceis, so we had to do something with them. Since we plan on turning one of our 55G into a single species tank with the White Tops, we just dumped the sixteen 3/4 inch fry into the main tank with their parents, hoping for the best! (Right now it's a mixed tank with several species in it, all adults except for some juvie estherae.)

Here's a pic of two of the tiny males having a bit of a showdown while in with the acei...(I wish the "bystanders" hadn't wound up in front of them, but I still think it's amazing to see how nice these guys can look at 3/4 inch!) See why I lost interest in my Cobalts, Joea???

Anyway, back to the unusual behaviour...

When we caught them and dropped them into the main tank, it caused quite the frenzy with the adult fish, but the father stepped right in and herded the fry all to a corner, and has been quite busy herding them ever since! (That's an adult female with her tail to the camera on the right, she just released another 22 fry this weekend!)

He is even referee-ing squabbles between them, and manages to keep the entire group on one side of the tank or another, but always together. If there is a little stray, he goes after it and quickly brings it back with the others! It will be interesting to see how long he keeps this up! It makes me tired watching him. (Mom pays them no mind!)

My male zebra long pelvic Galireya seems to be really interested in the fry - he's peeking through the hole in the spaghetti rock in the above pic, and has even butted a few of them with his head, but the White Top male steps in, every time.

The fry are just about a month or so old, and have grown really fast, and with the other batch that we have growing out in a tank by themselves, we will have our single species tank.

Just thought I'd share this interesting behaviour and the pics! I've never seen this happen before. It's almost as if he knows they are his!

Kim

 

[jhunbj]

Hey Kim....any cyno. white top fry for sale? I would love to have some of those awesome looking fry. :thumb:

 

[why_spyder]

I've never had my white tops do that?! That's crazy!

 

[noki]

Almost sounds like some sort of residual parental behavior but is probably more just some sort of Alpha behavior in a group, a dominant male keeping order over juveniles who pose no threat nor are of breeding age, so they are treated different from adults.

How often do people put a large amount of young juveniles in with adults like that...? It is rarely done, and having a bunch of juveniles survive naturally in a fish tank would be rare also. It is hard to imitate the lake itself with the huge amount of living space with all ages of a species living together in a loose group. Continue to observe and experiment.

If the juveniles are that attractive, they should become quite popular.

 

[why_spyder]

I keep offspring with the parents many times - and have never observed such a behavior.

 

[Cichlid Power]

Beautiful pics and interesting behavior. I've never seen anything like that.

My white tops still have not bred.......

 

[noki]

there are different species sold as "White Top Afra", so hopefully people are not getting these mixed up.

 

[cichlidaholic]

These are not classified as afra...Yet...Much to my confusion!

This is the first time I've ever added a group of fry back to a main tank like this, so noki is right...This may be totally normal behaviour and we just don't give it the opportunity to happen very often!

A week later and he's not hovering over them as much as he was, but he still manages to stand guard pretty well! When two of the little guys flare up and go at it, he comes flying in from out of nowhere and breaks it up. As far as I can tell, I haven't lost a one of them, and there are many other larger fish in the tank that could easily have eaten them a thousand times over. The female White Tops totally ignore the little ones, but Dad seems to be determined to see them survive! We'll see how he feels when they are old enough to start hitting on his girls! :lol:

Eventually, all the other fish will be removed and this tank will be dedicated solely to the White Tops. I have another large clutch of them in a grow out tank right now, and will be adding some of them when they are large enough, as well.

Kim

 

[why_spyder]

Most Cynotilapia have yet to be described. I was told that instead of calling them "afra", that they were to designated with "sp." in the name. That's the case with my C. sp. Lupingu. I've seen them labeled as "afra Lupingu" and "ndumbi Lupingu" but they haven't be described so I've just left it as "sp. Lupingu"........

And to really confuse matters - there's a few "white tops" on the market. I've seen C. sp. white top 'Likoma's (also a nice metallic blue) and I've seen my C. sp. Lupingu's called C. white top 'Lupingu'! The names of many of the Cynotilapia are confusing. To make matters worse - I've found that some locations in the lake have two variants of Cyno's in one spot - how bad do you think that would be if both were exported under the same name?!

Sorry to get waaay off subject but, felt like it was somewhat related to a comment made earlier in this thread. :wink:

By the way, cichlidaholic, I'd love to see pictures of your species only tank of white tops when you have done.

 

[maxwell1295]

There is a lot of confusion regarding this species. The fish Kim pictured above is known by many names. I've seen them called White Top Hara, Galleriya Reef/Galireya Reef, White Top Galileo, and Blue Reef among others. I just picked up a group of them and they were sold to me as F1"Cynotilapia White Top Hara". I had my eye on another set of F1's that were labeled "Cynotilapia Hara Galireya Reef".

I believe there is another White Top Cynotilapia from Likoma, but I'm not sure whether that one is the same fish or another species altogether. I've only seen pics of males on Aquabid, but no females. I've also seen them labeled as Pseudotropheus.

It is kinda confusing... :-?

 

[cichlidaholic]

there are different species sold as "White Top Afra", so hopefully people are not getting these mixed up.

noki, mine aren't mixed up, but it is possible that they are getting mixed up in the LFS...They are wild caughts from a reputable importer here in this area.

maxwell1295, are you referring to Psuedotropheus pulpican (kingsizei)? I used to keep these guys, too, and the males look very much like the Cynotilapia White Top Galireyas, but the females are very plain and drab looking. Males are hard to tell apart, IMO.

I also have some Cynotilapia sp. Mbamba (two variants) that are commonly sold as "afra", but they aren't classified as such. According to my friend and importer that I get most of my fish from (he does the fall dive with Ad and Stuart EVERY year and brings in some really great fish for us lucky Ontarians) they may eventually be classified as "afra", but as of now, they aren't.

Kim

 

[maxwell1295]

Kim, that's not the fish I was referring to. What I meant was that this fish was originally classified as a Pseudotropheus until Konings took another look at it and decided that it was a Cyno. Check out the last post in this thread:

http://cichlid.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=163

Here are some more good discussions that may be of interest:

http://wiscichlidforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=2430
http://www.midwestcichlid.com/phpBB2/vi ... php?t=2063

BTW, my F1s are from some WC parents of J_N_S, who posts here.

 

[cichlidaholic]

Thanks for the links! I found the last one especially interesting, since I have wild trio of the Ps. long pelvic Galireya, as well! (plus about 100 fry and juvies from them!)

Looks like the White Tops are one of the favourites for everyone! I must have a perfect balance in my tank right now, though, because I don't find them anywhere near "semi-aggressive". They are no more aggressive than any of the Yellow labs or acei I've kept!

It will probably take me a year of grow out to get this tank where I want it to be, but I think it will be worth it. And with the amazing colouration I'm seeing from the little ones, it shouldn't be boring.

Kim

 

[maxwell1295]

The fish I have (a group of eight) are about 2" in length. The color is amazing, especially on the males when they get "fired up". The tranformation from dark blue to almost white is incredible! It happens in a matter of seconds. Now I'm in even more of a rush to get the 125 set up. These guys are going right in as soon as that happens. Hopefully, that'll be in another week or two at the most.

 

[why_spyder]

Here are some more good discussions that may be of interest:

http://wiscichlidforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=2430

Hey, that's my thread. I didn't think anyone read that. lol. :lol:

 

[cichlidaholic]

You have some really great pics in that thread, why_spyder! Just one look makes it easy to see why these guys are so desirable.

Kim

 

[maxwell1295]

That thread is linked to in a bunch of forums. I did a Google search on "Gallireya Reef" and that was one of the links that showed up.

 

[teqvet]

Here are some more good discussions that may be of interest:

http://wiscichlidforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=2430

Hey, that's my thread. I didn't think anyone read that. lol. :lol:

That thread is gone

 

[why_spyder]

Here are some more good discussions that may be of interest:

http://wiscichlidforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=2430

Hey, that's my thread. I didn't think anyone read that. lol. :lol:

That thread is gone

Yes, when the WCF got redesigned most of the old threads were deleted.

 

[yogurtpooh]

hey i just moved my white tops from a 4 feet long mixed tank with a bunch of other mbuna to their own 3 feet long species tank, its been 3 days and the dominant male has not colored up at all. Infact all of the fish have female colors, as before the domaint male was constantly colored up and the subdominant male was also always colored up. Luckily no aggression at all so far. Any tips on this or is this a waiting game? I added a yellow tail acei and it really brought the entire tank out and about but my rock work is very limited.