victorian cichlid

,
o
VOL 3
SEPT MBE
I
0.5
1974
published by the
1
.,.
victorian
cichlid
. society
1•
EOITORIAL
TVlO forthcoming events that we feel deserve special'
mention are firstly the Hoyal ~elbourne Show,and the' display
of Aquaria put on by the Aquarium 50ciety of Victoria,and the
open night that has been organized by the 2astern Districts
Aquarium SocietY,for October 25th at their club rooms.V.C.S.
membe~s are urged to attend these functions as in doing so
they will meet other aquarists and increase their fund of
fish keeping knowledge.Believe it or not there are some people
who keep· fish other than cichlids;so it is definately up to
us to educate this underprivileged minority.
T'he ,1.. S •of V ~ display is always worth seeing. /'.part
from the f: Holland \: type competition tanks (Just think of the
f~ your Oscar would have if you took him to have a look at
those) there will be crocodiles,marine fish and a:r gt eat' many
other aquatic oddi tie,s ~ Jefinately a display not to be missed
if you are at the Show Groundsl
The:~.D.A.S. open :might is the first inter-club
activity' that I can remember ever having been organized.':ith
such things as import restrictions looming there is a definate
need for all clubs ,and not or~y the executives of the clubs,to
work together and a night such as this is a step in this "_i~~,::;ct:ton
direction. There will be a table show for some fish called
danios ,and no doubt supper will be' provided.~-;e hope that a
strong contingent from our club will be in attendance,buT if
you are thinking of going please let Graeme know at the next
meeting
o-o-o-o-o-o-~o-o-o-o--o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
'rABLE OF CONT;;NTS
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The illiterate Cichlid.
Some Corresroncence
Bree·::'ing Discus ilTheir ll Vley ~
Minutes of J::..U[ust MGotin[.
New t1cmbers
Cich12somn Coryrh2.noirles.
-The Curvicers.
P[.2
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5.
6.
9.
9.
10.
12.
the
ILLITERATE
CICHL IDS
'-Daryl Hutchins-
Pelma tochromis ansorgii •••••• 1 call them the .:._::: tc.:c.-,
illiterate cichlid because they are the only cichlids 1 have
that obviously have not read the books ~nd consequently do
not behave as they are suppoed to. (How -:1.0 you like that Heinz,
yours only talk to you,most of ITif fish can read! ).According
to the ~xperts,like ~octor Axelrod they are not safe with
smaller fishes.I have found them quite the opposite.\lthough
they are not very kind to one another at times they don't
bother their tank mates at all except in defence of their
young.
These fish have been in my collection for four months,
they have spawned four times and each time behaved differently.
Any howtthis is their story.
Heinz informod me that ansorgii were becoming scarce.
Shocked by thm 'idea of a cichlid becoming extinct ~ decided to
do my cichliotic dut.T and save them from joining the dinosaurs.
After locating a choice pair 1 proceededto set them Upton the
28th .of April,in a 24-"xI211 x12 11 tank.The p.h. was' 6.4- and the
temperature750 F.The tank contained three pieces of broken
flower pot to receive the eggs and a clump of fontinalis to
make it look like a fish tank.Also in attendance was one very
pregnant female hi-fin molly. (1,:rromg water for her 1 know but
I can1t think of everything.)
On May 7th they spavmed on the inside roof of one of
the pieces of flower pot.The male fanned and occasionally
mouthed the eggs taking time off only to chase the female away.
Sometimes he was very vicious towards her and the chase
l.asted a. minute cir so.)\';rs. I\':olly;on th:.e other hand was toler­
ated to a surprisiWg extent,in that she was allowed to pass
within a couple of inches of the eggs ~efore being politely
requested to leave the immediate vicinity.Two days later 1
removed the female ansorgii but it was too late,she died soon
afterwards.
Meanwhile back at the flower pot the malo decided to
have the ;eggs for breakfast.It couldn 1 t have been hunger that
prompted that little trick as the tar...k vvas well stocked with
mosquito larvae and on the day concerned,a generous helping of
baby mollies(49).Hc was not observed attempting to eat the
mollies,infact he made a few half-hearted attempts to herd
them into a school.But,as·you all know,baby live bearers are
not very impressed by the prescence of larger fish and did not
co-operate at all.After a couple of hours the male decided it
was too much like hard work and gave it away.
Two now females were very generously loaned to me on
the 20th of June.One of them was placod with the male in a
3 •
..
THE ILLITERATE CICHLIDS.
- ':,_:T~"
42 1j xI2 i1 xI2 1l tank, (temp 800.F. P .h.6.2 ,d.h.I.2 .. ) which was
planted at one end and proyided with five caves at the other.
The tame was liberally stocked vvi th daprillia.
For the malo it was lava at first sight and his
behaviour was,to say the least,scandalous.His girlfriend,on '
the other hand was more intc:)::'ested in the daphnia.'Being a lady
and not wanting to speak with hor mouth full,she just slapped
him around a little when his persistent advances bocame a
­
little to much to bear.After about ten minutes she 'began-to
feel. amorous but alas ,he discovered the daphnia and the role~ ,. ,7.:
reversed.
The following Saturday (June 22nd.) They both ,had'
thl3ir brooding tubes Gxtonded and had taken on very- attractive, ~
but not spectacular colouring. Their bodies had an overall pink~ ,
ish hue;all scales edged in black,gill plates blue.A phosphor~-:'
escent white strip ran the full length of the dorsal edgc,'and'
the top edge of the caudal. The pattern in the dorsal and
caudal fins of the .,' male had darkened to- give a lace like
effect -and his ventral and anal fins were j,ct black .All finnage
of the female romained a dull grey.
'
r\;hile noting these colours I was fascinated by the
speed at which the 5 lateral spots on both fish were appearing .'
and disappearing-so I timed it; black to pink and black to black"·'
again 6 se~onds flat.It was like watching traffic lights change.
,
':'!e+l despite the fancy dress .,,'j\;:r, Ansorgii was not
having much luck convincing his girlfriend that she had been
wai tng :'for fhi~ all ,her life ,so T put a pair of. Congo Tqt-ras
in the' tank -to distract her for D. while.
The weeks passed with no result until he gave up
his insistent attitudo and tried a little savoir-faire.A tickle
under the chin and Q few swaet nothingswispered in her ear and
she came around to his way of thiw{ing.Thb stork madG his
delivery on the 1st of July and to my surprise ~he oggs worG
being tended by the female while pappa policed the araa.Tho
egg's were removed for artificial incubation; they were cylind­
rical and appeQrod to be attached by a very short thread.They
hatched in three days at 80 o.F., the fry worofree swimming 6,
days later on the 10th of July. ,
,
On July 11th the pair spawned again ,and the oggs
were removed once morooBut for somo reason the fr.1:died the
day after hatching" (except for one).
: ' '
'_ Si~ days lator 6n the 17th the little beasts did it
again. This' 'time the offending paront was madly digging holes
and baling up all the other fishes,keeping them well away
from the spa~ming sjte.I decided to let the parents keep the
eggs and see what othQr tricks they would get up to.Fomma did
all the caring for tho" eggs until they hatched and then went
into hiding for a day.On tho second d'ay she reappeared and the
pair began to share out the work in trUG cichlid fashion.In
four days the fry wore free swi~ning ( two days loss than it
took when they wore hatched artificially) and they stuck with
THE
ILLITER~TE
p
.­
CICHLIDm
4.
m6mmA while poppa tried to convince the other occupants of
the tank that hhoy should bo in tho next tank,with the malawis.
After a week the youngstors disappearod,,"':hcther or not the
parents were responsible for their ultimate demise I could not
say.
there you have it.A fish that kills its mate and
doesn't kill its ~ate;igmorcs other fish and then bales them
upOoDigs holes somctimos,donudcs or rips up plants occasion­
ally.ThiS' has left me just a little confused.
In conclusion I would like' to E~dd that this is my
first literary contribution;the first of many,to the Cichlid
Nonthly.I urge othor members to take a few moments now and
again· to" do the same (or bottor).It appears to me,cven in my
short ass'ociation with the club' that the magazine has at-out
half a dozen regular contributors .~r ost of them already hold
a position of responsibility within the club and it seems
unfair for them to have to do all tho work.I h~vo been in
a similar situation an~ it really got me down after a while.
So get those pens firing-it 7 s a good magazine and it deserves
support.
So
P.S. If your arm is brokon 1 1 11 come around and take
dlc~ation for you.
5.
i ...,
A LETTER E'ROM nTRI-F LRISH "iD ULRITJr'l SO CIETY
DeE,r Mr. st aucl e ,
,
My club, the Tri-Parish .ta~nrium Society of
Louisic;na,woulcl be very intereste('1. in exchcmginE bullet:in,s
)iith your cluQ.We h2vc s'ent two bullG;tins( one in March ,2nr:' .
one in M[~y) to you but we 'lon IT know if they ever reached
their r,:l,estin2.tion.Our club is not C'" Cichlid specie,lty 'g-rou,p,
but wo (~O h['..ve 2.. lr,rge rer centc'Ee (If so c2,ller', "Ci chlidNutsl'
in our midst ;myself inclu·'.c(~. Crmld you pleLse send us a copy
of your bullet~n ~s we would very much like to hear from you.
\
• i
1/1,e". wculc1 also 'like to include your so qiety in
our internation8.l Pen-:Pal program, whi ch W2 arc, e..t this tim~,,.
r,ttemptiD.[.' to establish.If ynu he-.vG p.ny T.'lembcrs in yrur club
who woul(~ be intcrestc'1 in wri tint; to a ren-pal with ;the same
interests2s their cwn,please h2ve them send tpeir:
Nam~~LG.(~ress,Mcdn interest(s) ,iif-G(frr th0se une.QF :!l,8 yrs,.) c:nr1
preference &s to the type of Pen-Pel desired (ex. Boy, Girl~ etc.)
T.r{e' "e:ddreE;s for ~ corresprmdencc is: T.F .1~.S. "
,
c/- Warren ,Lund Jr.,
913 ME',ryland Ave,
',.'
KENNER, LA. 70062 .•.U.S.A.
Their n~~es will be printed in our m0nthly bulletin and sent
to our exchange clubs allover the United St2.te.s and ,Canada.
We ,will also send you a list of names of people who are lonklng
for pen pals.
.'
.
..
G00d Luck with y(lur club. Weill be waiting to
hear from you., Ci chlid Power!
,.
Sincerely, Yours, . '
Warren Lund Jr ~
.
:President , Tri-Pe,rish
Lqu2.rium Society of'LA..
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...
.-a:r~
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::.:':~.,.,..,.
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~,
l:LSO, , A LETTER FROM' EASTERN DI$~RillS ID..U.L.~IVM SOCrEllY.
',' ..
-=
'President:' R'on Turner,
Secretc::ry: Jack Morris, 2 Linden Rd,
Ringwood, 3134 •• Vic.
Dear· Sir,
"
At the last meetin[ of the Feder2tian of l~uarium Societi~s,
(Vic. Branch), it was Suc[osted thE~t open nights should be held
at different Societies. We support this suggestion as we·feel
it would be beneficiRl to 211 Societies end to the future goodwill
and fellowsh~p we have e.ll croatec:' by forming the Federation.'
,
.
.
Our President takes this oPDortUnEY to invite your members
to our General Meeting on Oct. '25, at the Nune.wading Library Rf)oIDs,
Whitehorse Road, Nunawadi~£, ,commencinc at 8.15 pm promptly.
~he format for the evenin t:: sh211 be a question Panel ma(le up .
by members of different SocietieS. The table show will be the
Danio$pecies and is open to all visitors. Our rules for the table
'.'
1"l;:h"'" --'j
., '" ~-'1't'i.nn8(1.on oth~r page)
...~ r •
T.--'•• '.
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6.
BREEDING DISCUS IITHEIR"
WAY ~
'."-
~:.;::;;;;.:;;.;;;;:.;.;:;..,.;;;..:;;:.;;:;....;;...;;.-~~
Fascinated by discus fish I bought two sm211 brown ones from a
dealer nearly two ye2"rs ago. H2,ving only st2rted with tropical
fish 2, few months earlier I W2.S not [it 2.11 treating eny of the
fish with the care end precautions they c'<.ll require. As a result I
lost quite a few because of acidity, it did not take long till we
were left With one discus only. Our dreEms of breeding were
obviously cut down to ZGro.
Soon afterwards we bought another pair of smallies. The same
fate applied' to these <md when the second of thG first pair one
morning was afloat I w~s left with one of the second pair only
and firmly decided not to give discus a further go anymore •••
What a f2miliC'..r 'story! 1':. year and a half ago a stimulating lect.ure
by a breeder from SingapoTe made us decide to tackle discus more
professionally. A dozen brown ones we went for this time. The
morte.lity-rate was consider2.bly less now. But as it takes Quite
a while to grow large discus from small ones, time took its'toll.
All good intentions must have helped Q lot, but acidity of water
must have harmed 2. lot too! Gradually the smaller ones in the
lot died off: Seven left, feve levt. But as time passed they
grew to 3 or 3~ inches.
Always however; the smallest in the gTOUp sep2rated from the' .
school and died for unknown reasons. Even when the wavy red lines
of coming-to-age began to 2ppGar we lost another one or two. So
finally we were left with two out of the dozen lot, plus the
survivor of th.e early attempt s. Thc:t was nine months ago.
In the mean time we hQd been lucky to buy some of the fish of
~-mo·ther 2quE:,rist who hud to give the game away.
lrrnong the catch
were two nice discus with auite yellowy tinge, of about 3i inches.
For a short while I kept thcrn separately, but then I dedided to
put all discus together in one tank to see what would eventuate.
That was 2bout 8 months ago. They he,d 2. good time in -their 40
ge.llons tc~nk of 18 inches high 2.nc'l grew reasonably well.
Six months 2.go I put them in the f~sh house in a smaller tank
ensuring e. tempa.r2.turc of 2.bout 86 2.11 the time. Aft er a few
weeks two of the fish pnired off: our oldy on~ one of the other
aqu2rists, which we gQve their own 30 gallon t2nk with a nice
bIg slate. Wi thin a few deWS they were no sing the slate up and
down. One morning: nbout 300 eggs, pcxents fDnning. Next day:
all eggs gone, presUI!l2bly eaten.
Six days later 2nother big batch of eggs. Same story.
Six de.ys lat er: srune events.
Six day s In.t er: repee.t. "
And so on.
I
!
"
Till the sixth lot of eggs w~s attended by the parents. After the
second day What die1. I see: fl little "flea" swimming around 8Jld
getting on to one of the parents to suck food from the body. That
was promising because at lGQst that was a living fish 2nd thus
.". the parents couJ.dr'rc1u'~0 offSI:":lngo
'
7.
Breeding Discus "their" WDy ,cant Id ••••
But where the hell did the fish come from when the parents w.ere
attending eggs, wondered my husband. Must have been 8. survivor ,-. .
of the previous het ching, he concluc,t:cL Next morning: eggs
being fanned, flea still Ground. Few hours later: eggs gone,
flea still SWimming.
Th2.t night: flea gone too.
Seven days 12ter: seventh lot of eggs. Next day at night bunches
of eggs already moving and wriggling. Two days l~ter free swimm­
ing fry - very few only Dnd parents staying near slcte with fry
sucking body. Three Qnys later p~rents still not head hunting,
about sixteen small fry sucking the p8rents.
The other three grown-ufo discus in the mCDntime had shown signs
of likes and dislikes so the two we considered to be "engc.ged"
got their own tank too, with 2nother big slate, much alike the
one in the other tank. But they were not really going for keeps.
They did not even nose the slnte much. However they appeared to
us to be of the old type, you kno",: not permissive but let-it-grow.
Whilst the sixteen SIDEll discus were With their pexents, still :feed­ ing from their sides, the parents laid enother huge bstch of eggs
on the slate f with the 3 or 4 days old fry feeding on them. I had
a good look at the probl em situation 2nd rang Heinz. fty aU are in
trouble" he s2.id little encour2~ging. "Try to take the eggs away
and see what happens."
Back I went to the fish house. First I took the empty slate from
the other tank end carefully I put that in front of the slate with
eggs. That slate I then removed very carefully. What to do with
these eggs, I thought.
I can put them with the other discus but they will eat them
prob2.bly, I thought. Accepting that fe.te I put the slate in
with the two discus that were engaged, and never had had eggs
before. I put it in the same position as the slate that I had
taken out a minute before.
Nothing really happened in the tank with the fry. The male was
only very angry c.t a fish next doors , e.s USUB.l.
The engaged ones, however, 2.ppeexed very interested in the eggs.
They di,d not meke an 2ttempt to eat them. Every now WId then a
little fanning. l~d when 8~ night my husband moved en airstone
near by, one of them bec8TIle very cmgry 8.I1d attacked the hand!
The following morning all the eggs had gone! But in the afternoon'
I discovered that the pair had mO,veil them to the side of the slate,
Where a hundred or so were 8lready \vriggling, with the fa st er . -.
p2.rents being busy f.snning cmd looking at the event s. Suddenly
I realised that it was quite possible that they would die in a
couple of days, because foster parents Without eggs of their.
own would not be able to feed the little fry from their bodies.
That night they were still wrigglinG, more of them, with the
foster parents still attending o In the fosters we could see the
scale pattern becoming more pronouncecl... Would that be a sign of
body secretion becoming available?
8 ..
Breeo.ing Discus "their" way' cant fc1
Time would. tell"
Next morning: 811 fry attended by the fosters, picking them up
and spitting them back on the slate when they were fallen to
the bottom.. The sight of that ~evotion was beautiful. What
a lot to do for them, an~ that 211 so unexpectedly. The scale
p~ttern is very pronounced by now.
Next day: the fry try to eat from the si~e of the foster
parents. About 200 or 250 of them. The fosters chenge colour
from bleek orvery dark to yellow in seconds, something we
never observed before. They seem to be very hungry so I feed
them little bits of becfheQrt, sever~l times a day.. Not all
the fry is on the fosters: some are still on the slate. But we
can see them growing.
The first fry in the other t~nk ere now SWimming away from the
parents e~d enjoy their brineshrimps~
Before the egg lQying I h2d just cle2ne1 the tanks very well and
given a third water chcill£e. Ph was exactly 7.
,It is now 8 weeks 1 e..t er • Of course: we have lost a few of our
youngsters. After several weeks of three good brineshrimp meals
the fry are since two weeks on a twice a day meal of finely
shredded beefhesrt.. Probably sarno 200, or so still going strong
and grOWing up to bigger fish, no longer with the parents ..
The somewhat older fry that ha~ stayed with the true parents
are also since a few weeks on their own in a t2~k.
A week anQ a.half ago, guess what haprenerl: The parents laid eggs.
A few days later~ e2ten for the most, with a few surviving for
some morE: clay s, till the lest of a few that h2::l hat ched were
gobbled up. Four days ago there were new eggs. You know what
we did? Swopped the slate with tho one that was in with the
fosters. A..110. you may guess right: the.t n.evote couple started
fanning ag~in, has moved the egss around an1 they ere now
wriggling, with e.. few alre8d.y on the fo sters' body feeding.
LOUISA D. GEITENBEEK.
show CU'e one fish per t2.nk 9" per person, Emd sh8.11 contain only
gravel. Your own sho~ t2nk will suffice, should you have lights,
so muCh the better. The prize will be 8 trorhy awexded by the
Federation.
Could you pleEse <:',c1vise us of the 2,pproxim2.te number
attending, and the number of show t811ks being entered, before
30th September. Th2nk you.
Yours f~ith!ully,
.:I2:'~~~J'JIorEl~~ (SecretC'.ry.
9.
MINUTES OF
T:i~EET1NG:
14/8/1974.
The meeting opened at 8.15 pm with the President
in the chair.25 members and 3 visitors were present.
Apologies;Toni Lloyd and Jack strong.
New members were welcomed.
1,Unutes of July meeting wore t"alccn as read on a
motion moved by Ron and seconded by Nick.
Treasurer's Report;
July balance
f;' 400.89.
Expcmses
i 191.62.
r20S-'~-2f.
Aug. balance
This report was received on a motion moved b$ l~ob and seconded
by Peter ll.
CorrespondenCGiGxchanges including a ver,r interesting
Vol I. No I. Cichlid News from the C.S.N.S.W.
From B. Y). A.S. inviting all members
to an ppen night on October 25th.Please let the Secretary
know at the September meeting if you aro planning to attend.
From T.P.A.S. 10uisiana,exchange of
bulletins and confirming their pen pals scheme. ,
Vic moved,Poter D. seconded a motion that correspondence be
received.Carried.
Badges are still available at i 1.00 each.
Mini Auction.
Bob asko'd for suggestions for prizes for tha Annual
Raffle to be held in ,conjunction with the Anual ,,~_uctitnn.
An expression of sympatby was conveyed to Bert on
the loss of his wife.
Peter then entertained and educated us on the l.Big
, Uns ll other than Cichlasoma ~~ngels ,Aequidens and Discus.
Daryl moved a vote of thanks to Peter at thG conclusion.
Draw prizejPlants to Theo and Clive.
Table show;=3 Nick (acuticeps),Theo (brasiliensis)
and Heinz (splondida).
2 Peter (uaru).
I Daryl (multispinosa).
The meeting adjourned for supper at IO.20pm.
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On the behalf of the membors the Council wishes
to extend a warm welcome to ,the following new members.
Fred Rose from Vvesterrrll,ustralia.
R.S .Wheeler
Ii
Canberra Marineland.
Bob Drenker.
Neil i}\!hi tford and family.
John J,~sma.
r'1i
10.
CICHL ASOfv1A
CORY Pf-IA,f\/OIOES
P.ROBINSON •
_-- ----- - ._---- - -_._­
.
This fish. is probablY,in my 0plnlon, one of the most
beautiful cichlids imported inmo Australi3 in recent years.I
don't know of anyone who has seen a matu~e chocolate who has
not beeniIJlP1'essed by it 1 s magnificent appearance and proportions •
. It is a laIge fish,attaining 20 cm.,or 9 inches in
Length,and was discovered by Heckel in I840.The colour of the
fish is basically a reddi.sh-brown vii th an overlay of olive­ green irridescense.A large black spot is usually displayed in
the centre of the body. 'The adult male fish develops a qui te
heavy :t:o;rehead hump which increases in size with age until. it
ressembles an Aequidens like head.The fish are very happy in
soft acid water kept on the warm side,75-80 0 F.
Breeding these fish is simple once a compatible
pair has been found.I found that by placiv~ six fish together
in a 36" tank one pair sorted themselves out and proceded to
exhibi t gre<tt beligerance and anil110si ty towards the remaining
four.Their ferocity was qUite stariling as until then the fish
had been qu~te placid and inoffensive 9 as cichlids go.
After removiYJ..g the b,:.'ttered and unpaired fish from
the tank the mated pair promptly set to and begen flowerpot
cleaning and sand shifting.The chocolate cichlid,like all
cichlasoma;species,seems to enjoy excavating the under-gravel
filter,a peculiar habit which seems to be confined to the
cichlasomafamily.
Within a few days the fish had spawned on the side of the
flowE.r-pot,and considering that it was their first effort it
was a creditable one.l esti-~,lated they were guarding 300 large
orange eggs.Seven days later the proud parents wnrw shepherding
the mass of fry- around the tanlc.­
Defence of the fry was undertaken by the male,hovered in
the immediate area of the school ~s a last line of'protectio~.
The chocolate parents displayed all the t=-pical cichlid care
and behaviou~ during the first 6-8 weeks.
Eowever,after this time most chocolates break tho .~~~ '3, ....1.. ~;-5.0.1
tradition of being model parents and beware of the consequences!!!
'rhey obviousley have a sweet-toothas they suddenly sho~N a
preference for" chocolates l ' -they polished off over '200 over
night.
One day they were happily tending about 230 young healthY
chacs and the next day there YITre only twenty l~ft hiding in
the corners and their parents were bUsy guarding another 300­
400 freshly laid eggs.This procedure has now been repeated with
the second batch of fry at about the same stage of development.
11 ..
CICHLASOMA CORYPHANOIDES;
The spavming was even larger with about 500 fry milling
the devoted (~) parents.
I would suggest that anyone wishing to breed thmse
cannibals of the family Cichlidae should remove the fry
3-4 weeks leat he be left only with a pair of well fed
Cichlasoma cory~hanoides.
If any cichlidophile has any information regarding
peculiar trait I would be very interested to hear.
around
beautiful
after
this
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DEAR DOROTHY DISCUS
Last month I wrote to you asking you what to
d{» about my mixed up Pelmatochromis thomasi foster parenting
some angle fry.This week a £emale angel discovered the fry
tank contained young angels.She then moved in,forcing the
thomasi to retreat to the rear side of the fry tank,while she
took over the front.
The fry now have two foster parents,what do I do
now.
D.D: Is there a normal fish in the Robinson fishroom?
In answer to one letter just received we wish
to state categorically that there is no truth in the rumour
that Dorothy Discus has run off with Oscar and is living in
sin in a Cueensland cow~une. ED.
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The next meeting will be held on 'riednesday the 11th of
September at the usual time and place.(see inside front
cover.The table show will be for APISTOGRAWm~ species.
THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE RPJ\!!II::REZL .
12.
If)ecur v Iceps.
-Allan BaylissI first·· saw Aequidcns curviccps about 2 years ago
and was initially unimpressed by them,until I saw them in
breeding condition and realized how exquisitely beautiful
they were.
A prmminen;t Ji'·olbourne bird breeder once said:' If you
have live stock thBn' you also have dead stock;: ~This I found
applied equally to fish but ,after losing seversl curviceps
I finally cracked it fo.r a breeding pair.t"'y main reason for
keeping cichlids is to .observe their broeding habi ts •.Each
fish I attempt to breed I allow tho parents to rear their OWE.
young.However this procedure resulted in the clITYiceps eating
their young on four occasions.
Following this I obtained a further four curviceps
and these turned out to be 2 breeding pairs ,which both spawn­
ed within a week of each other.These eggs were taken away and
raised artificially~The p.h .. was about 6.6,and hardness 140
ppm.Temperature was about820 F. The eggs hatchod in 3 days
and the fry were free swimming in a furthor threo.They were
fed first on brine shrimp and then dried food and boef heart
which was added to their diet after three weeks.Not to be
out done,however,the parents laid again on the hti~d week
following their spawning and this time successfully raisod
the fry.The p.h. and hardness were the same but the temperature
was lower,about 780. In this instant the eggs again hatched in
three days,but were not free swimming until late on the 7th
day.Another thing I noticed was that the fry left with the
parents bogan to eat beef heart a good two weeks before the
ones that had been.artificially raised.
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