Twice Upon A Tank

by Joe Berberich

This is a tale of two species of mouth brooding cichlids breeding in the same tank and all the problems it causes. The two species were Lodotropheus sprengerae commonly called "The Rusty Cichlid" and Labidochromis tanganicae or Sp.Yellow commonly called "Lions Cove." Both fish can be found in Baensch/Riehl Aquarium Atlas set. The Lodotropheus is in volume 2 page 918 and the Labidochromis is in volume 3 page 792.

I was at one of our meetings and in the auction that always follows there was a bag of baby "labs" about half an inch long and six in the bag. I have always wanted to breed them and all my other attempt had failed for one reason or another so I bought them to try one more time. I placed both bags of fish in an almost fish free 55 gallon tank and forgot about them. About two months later TBAS had a study group meeting and thanks to Robert Stagno bringing in a lot of baby fish, they had a cichlid grow-out contest. This was to see how the fish looked with different members raising them in different ways. I thought I would try and I got four Lodotropheus about three eighths of an inch long. When I got home that night I looked them up in my books to find out something about them because I knew totally zip. I found they mixed well with "labs", so after checking water for pH, hardness and temperature I put them in with my "labs" in the 55 gallon tank and I kept the records that went with the grow-out contest. All this took place about the middle of 1997.

I continued to monitor their growth until the contest was over, I could see both species growing at about the same rate. I was cutting back on the number of tanks I had so I decided to make one set up just for these two species. I completely redid a 55 gallon tank that sets in the wall of my TV room. I later found out this was not a great idea. The tank was equipped with an underground filter with uplift tubes and refillable media cartridges. In the middle, close to the back, I inserted a big piece of driftwood with a slab of slate screwed to the bottom. Over this I placed about 3 inches of washed colored gravel. Over this I arranged from 50 to 70 pounds of rock to make caves, dens, niches and other places to hide. The air was supplied by a Dyna-master air pump and was filtered by a 250 hot magnum with a pro 30 bio-wheel.

After watching the two species of mouth brooders I noticed how shy they could be, so I decided to add a few other fish to the tank so they would not be so timid. Into the tank went two harlequin rasboras, a pand corydora catfish, a rubber pleco, three coolie loaches and two albino corydoras catfish. The rest of the fish contained four surviving labs and three surviving lodtropheus.

This summer we had a guest speaker at one of our club meetings who not only had just returned from a fish finding trip to Central America, he spoke on "Cichlids of Central America" and offered to show us around his own private farm. This man was Mr. Don Conkel, whom many consider one of the top leaders in the field of cichlids all over the world. The trip was great, his workers, his wife and of course Don himself treated our whole group like friends and not like visitors that they had to put up with. We also were allowed to buy some fish. I also learned how to tell the sex of my labs, which I could not find out before. Well, I bought four baby labs about a half an inch long. After getting home, checking the water and all, into the tank they went. A few weeks went by and a friend asked me how many baby labs I bought. I told him four, why? He said he saw five in the tank. I said he could not count right, he said if I could do better, then prove it. At first glance I saw the four I had bought as they were all the same size, then I saw another one that was half their size, proving he was right and that my labs had spawned without my knowledge. But just as I got excited the largest Lodotropheus male came up behind it and inhaled it in a flash. There went the end of the labs first spawn. If nothing else it made me trust my friends counting and made me start watching both species much more closely. While I started to look for unusual hanky panky in the tanky, my two largest males of both species went mono/mono and the end result was one dead male from each species.

And then it happened; my female Lodotropheus had her jaws blown out like a chipmunks and within a few days one of the female labs was in the same condition. Now contrary to most films or books I found it very hard to get either female to pose with her mouth open so I could count the eggs or even the fry when they hatched. But by watching close and often, I finally ascertained that there were from eight to twelve eggs per female. Plus it took approximately 21 days to reach free swimming stage but even then it was hard to find them in the cracks of the rocks and the mother's mouth. The Lodotropheus was spawned first with the male being approximately 2 1/4" in length and the female only 1 1/2" in length. The male is larger and during breeding has bluish or purplish coloring in the front half of the body while the female is more or less just rusty.

The male is larger and during breeding has bluish or purplish coloring in brown. The eggs are dark colored as are the fry. The labs spawned next - about three days later. At least that is when her cheeks ballooned out. The male was approximately 2 1/2" in length with the female being a little smaller at approximately 1 1/2" in length. Both the male and female are canary yellow with a black dorsal fin topped off with yellow. The anal fin is yellow from the body but turns black at the ends. The male has black pectoral fins while the female does not. Males seem to get slightly bigger, but overall, labs are hard to sex until they get about 1" or bigger in size. The eggs are light in color and so are the fry, almost a pale ivory and changing more to yellow as they grow.

Before, when I had said I set up this tank that it is in my TV room wall and later found it was not such a great idea, well that is why this article is being written instead of the easy way of simply bringing in six fish of each species. When the two big males died, it took me 45 minutes to dig them out of the tank. While four inches of this tank sets on the wall the rest hangs out into my long but narrow utility room and between the door and the end of the room. Now if all the rocks and such were not enough, there is a wooden two by four stand supporting the tank. Above the tank is an 8-inch wrap around shelf with the pump and other fish related stuff. Plus this shelf is about 16 inches above the tank and has a fluorescent dual 48 inch light hanging from it. Next to the wall is a large upright freezer and between it and the tank is where I store the portable food trays. The rest of the utility room contains the hot water heater, washer, dryer and other household goodies. So take it from one who knows, do not set up a wall tank without giving it a lot of forethought. This tank was already in the wall when I bought the house. That is to let you know it was not my brainstorm of an idea.

Both species were spawned in the same tank, therefore everything was the same. The water temperature was between 78 and 82 degrees F. The pH was approximately 7.8 and the hardness, using county water, was about 250-300 ppm. All water changes were small, about 20% except one about mid way of the 90 to 120 period that was a 50% water change. No special foods were given to the fry. They ate what they could find in the tank and are doing quite well.

The baby labs that I acquired from Mr. Conkel are now almost the same size as the adults I already had. I again wish to thank Mr. Conkel for the information about sexing labs and also fro the fine specimens that his fish are turning out to be. Not a sick or dead one in the group!

This last part is just my thought about breeding fish in a set-up or landscaped tank. Think twice before you do it and then DON'T! Even in a tank set up in the hall or in a room with lots of space it is a huge pain in the anal fin to try and catch baby fry. A ten or twenty gallon tank with a couple of rocks and one pair breeding on it is best. Until later, good people, keep those fins wet.