Nanochromis dimidiatus sp. Leza

[Richgrenfell]

Well,
the 1st spawn...they ate the eggs, this time i have free swimmers. The parents seem to be taking good care of them, so I will leave them both in there. Anyone know if water chemistry and or temp play a role in sex ratios? The ph is 6 and the temp is 81 F

Rich

 

[Neil]

Rich,
Congratulations! Mine are growing well and the parents have been great for weeks now, so you will probably be OK. I am sure that temp. plays a role, not sure about pH. Mine were spawned in about the same conditions as yours, so we will see if the results are the same.
Neil

 

[apistodave]

Actually I beleive that with westies the two most important things are Temp and the carbonate hardness--one for the sex ratio and the other for the actual fertility rate of the eggs--eg percentage of eggs successfully fertilised

 

[Richgrenfell]

Well,
the KH must be fine (i'm using rain water). I have over 50 fry. The male has taken over the brood, and the female now spends most of her time in the cave.

Rich

 

[Neil]

Rich,
My fry are more than a month old and still with the parents. They are models of parenthood. Excellent responsibility sharing and no arguing. I have kept 3 or 4 pencils in there to help that. no losses that I can see and still perfect parenting.
Neil

 

[froo]

Hi, I bought a pair of these this weekend and they are a very pretty species.
I keep them with killies (Aphyosemion hera & Epiplatys singa) in a 10 gallon tank, they seems so eat an do well (so far).

Anything I shall do or not do to have succes with them?
There seems to be many Nanochromis spec. in Steak&Linkes book but are there any new species order yet?

/Pär Jansson, Sweden

 

[Ariel]

Hi Pär,

Glad to see that I'm not the only one that likes to keep killifish with cichlids!

I found breeding N. dimidiatus to be fairly straightforward and not difficult, as opposed to the "silver spot" Nanochromis types.
I kept my dimidiatus in fairly soft, acidic water (pH ~6.5) with a temp. of 26 deg. C. and fed live Artemia napulii and frozen Mysis shrimp, along with some vegetable flake. 40% water changes every other week.
The parents did their job well, although it seemed as though having extra females in the spawning tank only encouraged the male to eggs and try to spawn with the next fertile female ... but since you only have a pair, you shouldn't have a problem. Just watch for aggression.

I have some photos of this "flavor" of dimidiatus on my site:
http://www.blackwaterfish.com/dimidiatus.htm

Also, I believe that some ichthyological work has started on sorting out some of the Nanochromis, but nothing is definite yet.

Have you seen Anton Lamboj's new book on West/Central African cichlids yet?

Hope this helps a bit.

Ariel B.

 

[froo]

Do the female turn (belly-)color when se want to spawn or do she stay yellow?

Any new info about the releasedate of the english version of Dr Lamboj´s book?

/Pär Jansson

 

[froo]

Yesterday my pair spawned, so this monday was harder than ever to leave home for work.

1)How long will it take for eggs to hatch, be larvae and free swimming fry?
What will be the best first food, Newly hatch artemia, micro worms or just LiquiFry?

2) Will my killies (Aphyosemion hera and Epiplatys singa) be bad for the fry?

/Pär Jansson

 

[froo]

What will be the diffrence between this species and Nanochromis dimidiatus "Zaire Red". Thay seem to be pretty look-a-like to me.

How many Nanochromis will be in Dr Lamboj´s book?

/Pär

 

[Mike Wise]

Pär,

Lamboj considers both Leza (listed as Leias) and Zaire Red as being populations of N. dimidiatus.

Anton's book discusses 8 scientifically described & 3 undescribed species. Among these are 25 different forms. If you haven't seen it, I will bring the book with me to Norway in March.