exLamprologus ornatipinnis

[a.d.wood]

As a Lake Tanganyika shell dweller I think these qualify as dwarf!!!

Male showing off!

And a side shot of the male (ornatipinnis translates as ornate fins, a good name!)

The female has the yellow forehead as well but is generally a bit darker

And some of the youngsters arguing

My fish house was soft water focused up to the start of 2011, a change of water supply (and my view of keeping things simple) saw the switch over to hard water. 1 day I'll come back to my Apisto's!!

Andrew

 

[killiguy]

The ornatapinnis in Australia are no where as colourful as yours no yellow on the head.These appear not to allow multiple generations to grow up together unlike many other shellies,each batch has to be harvested
Nice photos

 

[Rod]

Based on descriptions on The Cichlid Room Companion I'd say these are
exLamprologus sp. 'aff. ornatipinnis'

What I've seen in Australia is better described as exLamprologus sp "ornatipinnis zambia"

 

[a.d.wood]

The ornatapinnis in Australia are no where as colourful as yours no yellow on the head.These appear not to allow multiple generations to grow up together unlike many other shellies,each batch has to be harvested
Nice photos

That's what I have found, this pair will produce fry every 3 or 4 weeks and in the week that leads up to the new batch of fry emerging the parents will 'remove' the current batch of fry. Easiest I have found was rather than trying to catch all of the fry, spook the adults, they dive into their respective shells and you move their shels to the new tank!

I did speak briefly with Ad (Konings) about ID s there is very little available on what differentiates the zambia variant etc. One of the things highlighted was position of the shell opening and given the amount of sand these guys shift weekly to bury and open up the shells again they know what they want!! With Zambia the opening was horizontal to the base of the tank (that's the same as this pair), with ornatipinnis the opening was vertical to the base of the tank??

Andrew

 

[Rod]

http://www.cichlidae.com/gallery/genus.php?id=263

Interesting....on this site some of the fish under the "zambia" description look like ones in Australia.....strong black line on dorsal and tail,
yet some photos in same description by Ad (Konings)....look like your fish(yellow on the head)???

 

[Rod]

Picked up 7 juvies on the weekend (last available for that source).....will post photo's later

Chap I got them from had a nice adult pair....with lots of yellow in the top of the tail (I wrongly assumed they were the parents)
they look similar to these....http://www.israquarium.co.il/FishPhoto/Lamprologus ornatipinnis.jpg
Tank they were in wasn't artifically lit and fish were backlit via a window....didn't notice yellow on the head but???

When I got home and they had settled in....I noticed the juvies were different....no yellow?.....gave him a quick call and found the juvies were from an earlier pair he had.....different locality??
Juvis look like these....http://www.ciklider.se/tanganyika/grafik/lamprologus_sp_ornatipinnis.jpg
I've done a deal.....we will swap fry when we've bred them....then we will both have both varieties!!!

Interesting...I've been doing a bit of research....some sites say they get to 50mm max others 90mm....perhaps different localities grow to different sizes....or they maybe in reality different species?
They Adults I saw were at least 70mm for the male....juvies? I'll find out!


Love yours Andrew!
Your post has inspired me!!!

 

[a.d.wood]

Afternoon Rod,

Given the variation in coloration and marking you get in many of the Tang Cichlids (just look at Tropheus for starters) it wouldn't suprise me to find this level of variation exists in the other cichlid inhabitants.

I collected my ornatipinnis in September 2011 as sexable fish that had been imported from Germany (tank bred fish), just been out to measure my pair, the female is ~30mm SL and the male ~40mm SL (add on another 10mm for caudal fin in both cases) so 70mm (including fins), while large would be acceptable if we consider these fish may grow a little bit larger in our tanks than they would in the wild. 90mm just seems far too large, especially for a species where both the male and female inhabit neothauma sized shells (if yours behave the same as mine then separate shells!!).

When first put together the dominant male filled in all available shells placed in the tank leaving only one open (for himself to use), the females have to pluck up the courage to uncover their own shell and then defend it from him trying to fill it in again (wiggle forward through the sand on their belly pushing sand out behind them), at some point a mutual acceptance occured and in my 75 litre tanks (18x18x15" tall) this resulted in the spare pair being removed before the male removed them for me!!

Even now that they breed on a regular basis there are only ever 2 shells open at any one time (despite the tank containing 6+ escargot shells), the males own and the females brood shell. As the fry gain confidence (and age) they will start to use the males shell, that seems to be more a case of 'because they are near it' rather than the male taking a share in brood care. I can go into the tank and manually empty a shell that has been filled in, within minutes the female will be there filling it back in again!!

Enjoy them

Andrew