Reproductive life span

[Nebraska_cichlids]

Does anyone know the the age when your "typical" West African cichlid ceases to produce offspring? Is there such a thing as "typical"? Does it depend on genus, size of the species etc.? Perhaps diet and/or number of spawns produced at young age? Male vs. female? Just curious!

 

[tjudy]

I think that the range of different types of cichlids in west Africa is too broad to make a generalization. For the most part, however, large fish have longer reproductive life spans. A Congochromis dimidiatus is probably old at 3-4 years, while a Tilapia butikoferi probably is just getting started at that age.

I had an albino P. pulcher male that was a successful father at 8 years old.. but he looked pretty ragged. The oldest female I have had produce good spawns (that I know the age of) was 5.