Pelvicachromis taeniatus Dehane

[Nebraska_cichlids]

I have bred the Moliwe morph many times, but recently switched to Dehane. I've got one single pair that is getting along great. However, no breeding activity yet. Is there anything that I should do differently? In a nutshell, here is what I do: the pair is all by itself in a small (10G) tank, decorated with a few caves, driftwood, and a couple of plants; sandy substrate; water = 50/50 blend of (hard) tap water/DI water; temps in the low to mid 70s; diet = very diverse (flakes, frozen).

I'd really like to get them going!

 

[aquaticclarity]

Some pairs of taeniatus won't breed for me either. No reason, just one of the quirks of the species. Sometimes large scale changes in the environment-new tank, decorations, large scale water value/temp changes, other fish present-will get things going...but I know you know these things and have most likely already tried some of these "tricks".

Jeff

 

[Nebraska_cichlids]

Jeff, I tried most of what you suggested, but stayed away from dithers (because of the small tank I'm using) and the increase in temperature (the temperature in my basement stays in the 70s in winter and I had some bad experience using heaters in small tanks). I just checked my water parameters: pH about 6.5, nitrite not detectable, nitrate less than 20 ppm, GH less than 60 ppm, KH less than 40 ppm. Do you think the water might be too hard? I could increase the percentage of DI water in my blend.

Janos

 

[aquaticclarity]

Are these wild caught fish? Regaurdless I don't think the water values are out of line. The small tank space MIGHT be a factor but I had P. taeniatus Wouri spawning in a 10 gallon before.

Try some cleaned up feeder guppies or the like as a dither. They shouldn't bother the kribs and it wouldn't be a huge loss if the kribs wipe them out.

Jeff

 

[Nebraska_cichlids]

The male is wild caught, and the female is F1. I'll give dithers a try but will try to locate some (cheap and small) West Africans.

 

[ed seeley]

The male is wild caught, and the female is F1. I'll give dithers a try but will try to locate some (cheap and small) West Africans.

Don't know if you'll get them cheap but some Chromaphyosemion killies would fit the bill for your tank IMHO. Mine get on well with Lampeyes and A.agassizi and even some of the fry survive in the tank.

I'm just trying to remember which species is sympatric with the Dehane morph! If I find out I'll post here.

So far it seems Poropanchax normanii, Epiplatys infrafasciatus infrafasciatus and, I think, Chromaphyosemion (Aphyosemion) sp. aff. splendopleure 'Dizangue' - but I'm not 100% on the latter it may be another closely related species!

 

[tjudy]

Dehane was a hard for for me to crack also. In the end I ended up rotating individuals and groups several time before a pair was successful. I would start with three wild pairs, let a pair develop and separate it. Eventually I would get three 'pairs'... but no spawns. Then I would throw them all back together try again. Usually I would lose an individual for two due to aggression and replace them whenever I could. Ultimately I moved a group of six (two males and four females) into a 33 long and decided they would either spawn or eliminate each other. I choked the tank with driftwood and caves. A pair spawned a few times in this group set up, but the other fish were terrorized. I never got more than a few dozen fry, and those proved to be not very hardy.

 

[Nebraska_cichlids]

Ed: I like your suggestion with the killies. I don't know much about them but have been keeping a few species with some of my dwarf cichlids in the past. I'll start shopping around.

Ted: I wish I had more than one pair of the Dehane but they are not all that easy to get by. At least my pair is getting along very well. Perhaps it's just a matter of time...

 

[jmtrops]

I spawned them 8-10 years ago. Had 2 pairs in a 30 gallon. Lots of driftwood, Java fern, anubias and clay caves. I think I used 10 to 1 RO/tap water which would have put it at around 30-50 us conductivity. The spawns were about 50 fry and they were easy to raise, grew fast.

Jim

 

[Nebraska_cichlids]

Jim: After reading your message, I took a measurement of the conductivity in my Dehane tank. It's about 445 uS, which is much higher than what you had in your tank. I'll probably change my DI/tap blend to 80:20 or 90:10 and see what happens.

Janos

 

[jmtrops]

445 Wow, that is higher than what I keep my central's at. You should be ok if you get it down around 100us. Your GH and KH reading seem ok so there is something else making you conductivity so high. http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/manage...mbi_Water2.html
Check out this article on hardness and conductivity, it might help pinpoint what is making it high and not your GH.

Jim

 

[Nebraska_cichlids]

Jim, the link that you provided doesn't work but I'll do some searching on my own. I went back and check the conductivity in my tap water (650 uS/cm) and my DI water (20 uS/cm) separately. Good news, the DI water is fine. Theoretically, a 50/50 blend should give me a conductivity of about 335 uS in the tank. I think mine is slightly higher because the tank was set up as a 100% tap water tank, and I started using the 50/50 mix a few weeks back with my weekly 25-30% water changes. This results in diluting out the tap water in the tank, as opposed to an instant drop to 50/50. (Not sure I'm expalining this very well.)

I'll change to about 90/10 over the next few weeks. This should get me where I need to be.

Janos

 

[jmtrops]

650 is high, do you keep any rift lake cichlids? Yes the 90/10 should do it. I'll check the link.

Jim

 

[jmtrops]

http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/index.html
click on "Aquium managment"
click on "The water"
There will be a list of articles, the first few are from Lenny Llambi and are pretty good.

Jim

 

[Nebraska_cichlids]

No, I don't keep any cichlids from the rift lakes. I find West Africans more rewarding. My job keeps me really busy and the about 20 tanks that I'm running is about the max. that I can comfortably handle. (The spousal level of tolerance is a limiting factor too.) Anyway, I figured it's better to dedicate my tanks to my favorite region (plus two rare Asian cichlid species) rather collecting a wild mix of species from all across the World.

I'm fairly familiar with (water) chemistry but glanced over Lenny's articles anyway. They are well done.

 

[james595]

Install an underwater speaker and play some Barry White.

 

[Nebraska_cichlids]

To up the spousal tolerance level or to get the Dehane going?