PUNDAMILIA...XYSTICHROMIS...NOT CRIMSON TIDE

[SGypsyMermaid]

nearly a year ago, i purchased some juvenile cichlids from fish2u.com which were labelled 'pundamilia sp. "crimson tide". i ordered them after seeing a picture of a "crimson tide" in seehausen's lake victoria rock cichlids. out of the six original fish, i lost all but 1 pair which now have their adult coloration. though very beautiful, the male looks nothing like any of the pictures that i have seen of a "crimson tide". it does, however, look exactly like the haplochromis(xystichromis) "red carp" from buyago rocks, pictured on page 100. the female is about half his size, is gray with a yellowish tint, with pale olive/yellow fins and a checkerboard pattern of black stripes. i check fish2u.com periodically to see if they've gotten any more in stock, but so far, no luck. :( the fish are currently in my mbuna tank, but i'd like to set up a 10 gal. tank with an eggcrate divider to see if i can get a spawn without the female getting murdered.

[SGypsyMermaid]

the male looks nothing like any of the pictures that i have seen of a "crimson tide". it does, however, look exactly like the haplochromis(xystichromis) "red carp" from buyago rocks, pictured on page 100.

i have to revise this somewhat--there is a picture of a "crimson tide" on p.81 of barron's that looks a lot like my fish, so maybe it's not mis-identified after all.

[SGypsyMermaid]

:shock: They spawned in the mbuna tank! i saw the female with the bulge, then i saw the male attempting to
keep the other fish out of the spawning area(he had his work cut out for him--this tank is very densely
populated.) how long should i wait before netting her and placing her in a maternity tank?--about 12
days? i don't want to move her too soon and cause her to spit. though this is her first clutch, so i don't
know if she'll carry them to term. i'm not interested in stripping her, i just want to get her out of the main
tank(and i'm not looking forward to that--i'll probably have to break down the entire tank to catch
her--it's one huge rockpile.) i'm so excited!

[Scotty]

You're having a good fish day 8) If you don't want to strip her, 12 days sounds about right, although you could pull her out a little sooner too. For some reason, I've found that my Vic females get more stressed out in a brooding tank than they do in their home aquarium. I usually pull mine out at about 17 to 18 days, gently strip them (the babies are free swimming and ready to eat by then), and put them right back into the main tank. With different species, you might have to experiment with how many days though. I've read that some Pundamilla Sp.s need to hold for 28 days

[SGypsyMermaid]

ok--maybe i'll wait a couple more days--i just don't want to lose them if i can avoid it. i'm amazed that they managed to spawn in that tank--it's positively swarming with fish!

[Scotty]

What I do when I get see a female holding is stick a piece of masking tape onto the tank with the date on it. Note the date the female spits, and you will have a relaible marker for future spawns from that species. Pull her out two or three days sooner the next time she is holding and you can either strip her right then and there, or put her in a brooding tank for just a couple of days. I wait as long as possible because the female does a better job than an egg tumbler, and I like to make sure the mouthbrooding behavior gets imprinted on the fry.

[SGypsyMermaid]

i can't catch her!...i don't want to break down the tank...those fry may be on their own! call me fickle, but i just saw an auction for 'half crimsons' maybe that's what the breeder meant instead of 'crimson tide'. the shot of the female was what caught my eye--looks just like my fish.

[Scotty]

I do have a last resort method for females who get too "net smart". Roll up your sleeves and get up on a stepstool if necessary. Unless your rockwork is gigantic you should be able to chase her out with your free hand and net her with the other one. If your careful you can get your hand/fingers in to any crack to flush her out. Don't forget to wash your hands first, and good luck :D

[SGypsyMermaid]

it's a rockpile half the height of the tank...runs the entire length of the tank... :bawl:

[SGypsyMermaid]

success!! i caught her sleeping on a rock at the front of the tank this morning. :party:

[SGypsyMermaid]

day 21--she spit!! can't tell how many there are, but some of them are albino.

[Scotty]

Albino- Get outta here :shock: Those should be cool to raise up to see as adults. What are you feeding them? I've been having great results with those "decapsulated" brine shrimp eggs. They give you BBS growth rates and are much more convenient.

[SGypsyMermaid]

i just feed 'em the same stuff that the adult fish get--just more protein and more stuff like the hbh graze which is very rich.

[SGypsyMermaid]

i also got some salmon starter pellets from regina111. she/he says that they are used in the fish farming industry to grow out fry.

[SGypsyMermaid]

ok--i got my 'half-crimsons'..i would say that they are a different species from my original fish...completely different barring pattern for one thing...the search goes on....btw, my albinos have disappeared. i just took the mother out yesterday--i wonder if she considered them defective or didn't recognize them as her fry, or if the other babies cannibalized them?

[Scotty]

Hey Gypsy- It gets frustrating, doesn't it :x I currently make sure I have an extra tank available whenever I buy new Victorians. This way I have somewhere to stick them if they are a different variant than my current stock. Luckily that hasn't happened yet to me, but I'm sure it will eventually.

[SGypsyMermaid]

you'd think that i'd stop buying them given all of the difficulties involved, but i find them so exciting! well, you know that you've got dibs on some of the fry--whatever they are. i just sent a couple more shipping boxes out to my sister's last night--eventually, i will get out there, too. your largemouths, you realize, are no longer fry and are spawning like mad!

[samak]

Salam Gypsi, if you have an albino in your fry , then there's a problem with your genitors( inbred) cause we never saw this type of fish in our haplo's fry. I don't want to make you feel blue but it's a strange thing to see albino in some spawns
Friendly Christophe

[SGypsyMermaid]

allo, christophe--it is possible that the fish are inbred, but the appearance of albino fry does not necessarily indicate that the fish are inbred. any two fish(possibly unrelated) which carry the albino gene can produce albino fry. furthermore, in the u.s., there is a definite market for albino fish--some people prefer them.

[samak]

Salam Gypsi, i saw many cichlids with albino color in the U.S( pulcher, haplos,etc..) , these fish are not popular in Europe, we want to keep fishes with naturals colors. I think we have to be careful if we don't want to see
some freaks( like ob.aulonocaras)
@+ Christophe

[SGypsyMermaid]

ok--here are pics of the fish...camera is not good and my skills are non-existent. i put up so many in the hopes that that would increase the likelihood of an i.d.

[jonah]

I'll make it easy on them. :)

www.cichlidgallery.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=mermaids-grotto

[SGypsyMermaid]

thanks, jonah--i actually meant to post the link that time! :oops:

[SGypsyMermaid]

then, i caught them spawning! too bad the pics are so fuzzy... :(

http://www.cichlidgallery.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album32

[samak]

Hello Gypsi, the pics are very dark, it's difficult to say what is this fish
friendly Chrsitophe

[SGypsyMermaid]

from the input that i have gotten, i am pretty much convinced that they are pundamilia sp. "half crimson", though a different strain from the ones that i purchased most recently.

[SGypsyMermaid]

if you follow the link, and scroll down a bit, you will find a short movie clip showing haplochromis sp. half crimson--mystery solved!! :lol: :lol: :lol:

http://www.petsforum.com/pida2001/TripleS.htm

[samak]

hi friends, it seems that the half crimson is a varient of Haplochromis"Paralabidochromis"rockkribensis and not a Pundamilia sensu stricto, because of the melanin pattern(chessboard pattern is typical of this species) and the fact that no half crimson has never been caught in the Mwanza shores.
Christophe