Steatocranus sp. 'Dwarf'

[tjudy]

About a year ago I obtained a group of Steatocranus that were contaminants in a shipment of S. sp. 'squarehead'. They were quite small and matched the description Anton Lamboj had given of S. sp. 'Dwarf'. They were all just about an inch long when I got them, but the males were well developed already, and the level of aggression towarfds each other was off the scale.

Now it is a year later and I have three left. Two males and a female. They are extremely shy. A pair (defined as male and female) live and ignore each other in a 55 gallon tank. The extra male has grown into a pretty impressive little fish. Here are a couple bad images of him. I am working on better shots.

For scale, that ceramic cave he is coming out of has a 2 cm diameter opening. Compared to other well-fed Steatocranus species of more than a year in age he is pretty small.

So... in this age of newly discovered Steatocranus.... what is he? Other than Anton Lamboj's talk on dwarf cichlids from West Africa I have not seen the name 'dwarf' referenced. Is this one of the new types recently written about by Schliewen?

Also... I earlier posted a question about the sp. 'Squarehead' I have (that were in the same shipment as these 'dwarf'). I sent a note to Heiko Bleher about them, and he replied to me via PM that the fish is probably the same fish Schliewen has called Kisagani.

 

[Nebraska_cichlids]

Ted, I originally posted the pictures below in the "Square Head" thread (http://forum.apistogramma.com/showthread.php?t=7996). After seeing Jeff's comment, I figured your thread might be a better place for my images. The pictures below show my pair of what I believe is to be sp. Dwarf. They came from the same batch as yours. Like yours, my Dwarf spent pretty much all day in hiding. I am considering to move them to a smaller tank all by themselves.
Janos

 

[tjudy]

My experience is that two males will not tolerate each other in even a tank as large as a 40 Breeder. My male that is in a 55 gallon tank with a female will chase her on any occasion that he sees her. He will even stop eating to chase her. I started with 8 juveniles in a 20 long, but the aggression was so bad that I had to separate all males after a week (and the loss of two fish). Of the original eight I am down toe three.

 

[Nebraska_cichlids]

Ted (and others), I heard back from Uli Schliewen. For my "Dwarf" he's leaning towards "bleheri" but he can't tell with certainty. I'll try to get better pictures (perhaps after isolating the two fish) and will send them Uli's way.

Janos

 

[tjudy]

If your smallish Steatocranus are the same as mine, and Anton and Uli are identifying the S. sp. 'Squarehead' as bleheri, then the two are very different. The body shape, head shape, nuchal hump, visibility of lateral lines, the extend of fin extensions on the males... all very different. At least between the fish I have as sp. 'dwarf' and what they are saying is S. bleheri.

The above image is the male S. bleheri is a normal dress... no stress. Almost no body pattern at all. Below is a female with her lateral lines lit up.

See the short fins on the female? Those of the male are barely more pointed. The sp. dwarf has some impressive fin extensions.