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A
very beautiful fish closely resembling the Red empress at least as
far as the females are concerned. Its unique fat lips are coupled
with an interesting color combination which includes an intense
yellow, red, green and blue (look at the second photo - though no
photo can fully reproduce these colors). Grows to more than 25 cm (the female up to 17 cm).
Frankly, I can't wait to see the male
reaching its final adult size. Judging from the photos I found in
some books, it should become a magnificent fish. If a male Red
Empress is already in your tank, you should introduce a Chilotilapia
euchilus considerably bigger than the empress because aggression is
guaranteed.
I
do not have any experience with breeding it but I am afraid that
cross-breeding (with the Protomelas taeniolatus) may occur because
the females of the two species look very similar. Well this was not
the case and the spawning has finally taken place. Two of the
females are now carrying. This advanced my knowledge on this fish
very much. Chilotilapia euchilus was proven to be a very territorial
fish and very aggressive, too. It has recently occupied one third of
the tank as a spawning place and chases any intruder ferociously.
There is absolutely no hesitation no matter who the intruder is or
what the size of it is. It should be noted that his courting is very
"intense" and he will chase the females all over the tank
almost all day long. In view of that (one of the very few species to
do this all the time) it is recommended to have more than one
females in order to split the harassing. It is definitely not a fish
to be kept in small aquariums or with slow swimmers.
This
species in captivity is also a herbivore (one of the very few
species to feed on Vallisneria) and unique in that it eats in the
vertical position, probably because of the shape of its lips. In
nature it feeds mainly on invertebrates which he vacuums from rocks
with his specially designed lips which form an air-tight trap. Due
to its large final size and the fact that it is an open water
swimmer, the fish should be kept in a big tank. Relatively
peaceful with other species (except the P. taeniolatus). However
there is a lot of intraspecies aggression and this is evident even
between females. Missing scales and intense fighting is all too
common. If I were to start all over again I would not get three
females. I feel that one would do the job. Of course this comes in
contradiction to what I said earlier about the continuous chasing by
the male but one has to follow one of the two alternatives.
The
hobbyist should know that males of this species - as with many other
Malawi Haps - takes a very long time to reach sexual maturity, final
size and develop its magnificent coloration. In view of that, the
hobbyist should either wait patiently until this happens or buy
already adult fish, which do not come cheap. Many thanks to Samuel
Li from the African cichlid list for
correctly identifying this fish.
Minimum
tank size : 200 cm / 750 liters. This species is a good swimmer
so provide a lot of swimming space. Hiding places for the female is
recommended. Specimen in photo : 20 cm
For
a close up of the male and a photo of the male see next
page. There are even more photos in subsequent pages including
photos of the female, fry and a photo of the carrying
female. |
