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NOTE:
This article has been written before my 1999 (October) trip to Lake
Malawi. But all the main points and especially the part related to
tank spawning are the same.
FOREWORD:
Spawning fishes is, or should be, the final goal of any real
"cichlidiot" and also of any serious aquarium keeper. As a
matter of fact among the reasons that lead an aquarist to
"chose" cichlids as the fishes to keep in his tank(s) is
the opportunity to have a close look to the countless numbers of
courting, spawning, guarding of fry and the very interesting
behaviour of those unbelievable fishes. I feel a "clever"
aquarium keeper must
end up in cichlids and never "leave" them. Despite the
fact that cichlids are somewhat demanding fishes (just think
about water changes…) they're extremely "addictive".
Years ago I decided to house my first group of africans in a 125 lt
tank. Guess what? Right now I'm running as much as 1300 lt of
"Rift Valley water" splitted in 6 tanks (shared only with
a few : Plecos & Synos).
For
the sake of thuth nothing of what I'm
going to speak to you about in this article, should be taken as
"scientific" in the true meaning of the term
but should be received as what a "curious" cichlids keeper
has witnessed, learned, guessed and reported in more than ten years
of cichlid keeping, most part of it focused on Malawians. This
article will be divided in two parts:
SPAWNING
IN THE WILD
I
have a few "on the field" informations to share with you
since I'm a hobbyst. I refer to my 1997 trip to Lake Malawi. We
spent about two weeks on the Lake visiting Nkata Bay (Malawi itself)
and its surrounding, where we only snorkelled (remarkable time we
spent at Chikale Beach) and the coast (Tanzania) from Mbamba Bay to
Liuli, were we've had both snorkelling AND scuba diving. (See my
article entitled Diving
Lake Malawi).
During
these eleven days, the first experience ever of actual diving in the
Lake is probably NOT the best starting point to set up absolute
"truths" on cichlid's spawning habits. You should also
consider the fact that there are scientists who have devoted their
lives is studying cichlids. That's why I will never, neither in this
section nor in the following (aquarium habits) state anything like
"The X cichlids, when courting his female, will act so and
so" but, humbly, I'll report to you that: "I saw the X
cichlid acting like this while … " but that may well NOT be
the "rule"! There are very few cases that I've witnessed.
Lake Malawi cichlids have to be divided, as usual, in two groups:
M'buna and Utaka that - in the wild - continuously interact among
each other.
M'buna:
These are more "friendly" and it's not very difficult to
see their displaying behaviour, i.e.: to see a male, in full
colours, shaking with all fins opened in order to attract a female
(I wish him luck…) or "servicing" a flat stone. Looking
among rocks and crevices it is not that difficult to find
"carrying" females used to hurry back in the dark once
they realize you're looking at them. Also "fights" among
males were easy to be observed wherever we dived.
Utaka:
It is not difficult to meet schools of females (most likely of mixed
species) and males guarding their nests in the sand. But I've never
seen the "real" spawing in progress.
Generally
speaking I noticed that the deeper you go the less shy the fishes
are (possibly because of the the dimmer light). As a matter of fact,
at Higga Reef, I've seen many Protomelas sp. "Taiwan Reef"
males, each one attending his cave, with the most incredible colours
I've ever seen (from 25 mt. and deeper). And my underwater camera
refused to work! Bad luck ! In another instance (this time at a
depth of about 20 m) a female Tyrannochromis "swollowed"
an unbelievable amout of fry from the bottom upon our arrival. As
soon as she noticed us shaking and swimming towards her I suppose
she told her fry: "DANGER!". Suddenly the group stopped
looking for food, divided itselt in two parts facing the mother, she
opened the mouth and quicky one half entered her mouth, followed by
the second one. Then she had a quick look (to be sure none that no
fry remained "outside"?) and disappeared in the dark with
her whole cargo. All that story has taken me more time to tell than
it tool the fish to do it!
Final
note on fry (both for M'buna and Utaka):
After their final release in shallow water they stay there (the more
the site is crammed with rocks the better it is) picking food from
substrate. Hot shallow water and lot of light results in a real
blast of algae growth.
That's
all folks, I know is not that much but this is all the "first
hand" info I can share with you …
CAPTIVE
SPAWNING (IN TANKS).
First
things first, here is the list of the Cichlids I've spawned, not to
show You how "clever" I am but because I need it to
introduce my notes starting from this point:
Cichlids
from Rift Valley:
Lake Malawi:
Labidochromis caeruleus "Electric Yellow",
Aulonocara hansbaenschi (no fry survived!!!),
Pseudotropheus sp. "Msobo" - Wild
Labeotropheus fuelleborni "Katale",
Haplochromis (Astatotilapia) burtoni,
Lake Tanganyika:
Ophtalmotilapia ventralis "Mpimbwe",
Neolamprologus multifasciatus,
Neolamprologus brevis,
Neolamprologus brichardi,
Lake Victoria:
Haplochromis nyererei,
African
"riverine" cichlids:
Hemichromis
lifalili,
American
Cichlids
Herotilapia
multispinosa,
"Cichlasoma" Meeki,
"Carrying
on the species" that's
the unspoken rule every live being on earth follows according to the
inscription of its own genome. This task is performed by means of on
unbelievable number of courtings, spawning, guarding offsprings and
specialized behaviour all around the world, in (and under) water no
matter if if is fresh, brakish or salt and regardless how
"wild" the environment is. There are animals (such as
mammals) who have chosen, along the course of evolution to
"produce" a limited number of offsprings while others
(fishes are among the latters) selected a procedure relying on a
"mass production" of fry managed by the "survival of
fittest" rule. Among tham all our beloved cichlids which happen
to be among the more "fussy" parents.To my knowledge
"bony fishes" (almost every fish living on this planet
except sharks and rays) can be - with really few exception - divided
in three "macro-groups" (even if that division is NOT
correct from the scientific point of view it serves my needs for
this article very well):
Livebearers
(no cichlids in this group, again as far as I know).
Egglayers (this group includes
a lot of cichlids).
Mouthbrooders (spawing habits
typical of Rift Valley cichlids but not limited to them, it includes
some marine fishes, distant relatives of cichlids and more. Note
that Arowanas, among others, are male mouthbrooders. (See my
Arowana
page).
Continued
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