I think P. Demasoni ... Can someone confirm?

[slund]

I purchase these of what I believe to be Psuedotropheus Demasoni about a year ago as fries and up and till know I was sure that is what they are. I have three of them and LOVE THEM, I want to get some more but I need to be sure of the species first.

The reason I am doughtful is they are not very aggressive as P. Demosoni's are supposed to be or at least that is what I found out from other and heard all of their horror stories. Mine are not that way. Everyone get's along great in the tank which includes 2 Convicts (male & female), 1 P. lombardoi (female), & the 3 P. Demasoni. (The P. lombardoi is in there temp till I get another tank set up)

I believe the P. demasoni's are 2 females and 1 male (I did that vent examination thing on them, but I am no expert)

Could someone please take a look and verify what they are?

[Seedy]

They do look like P.demasoni, but then a again, so do a lot of the P. elongates. I can't confirm 100% I'd say I'm about 70% sure....any one else?

[tom]

demasoni

[Matt V]

i agree.
and nice ones at that.

[slund]

Thanks guy's, I appreciate your feedback. I guess not all demasoni are little monsters after all. They are my pride... now I just need to get the suckers to breed, any hints?

[Seedy]

You won't start noticing aggression problems with them untill they get big enough to breed...IME demasoni are fine when kept 1 to a community tank(I have stocked a demasoni in almost every community Mbuna tank I've ever put together), but they are super aggresive towards their own and need 4 or MORE females to every one male...and then you can still expect the male to kill (yes kill) any compitition in the tank (and that includes look-a-like species) I had one even kill a full grown P. elongate who was quite a bit larger than the demasoni...

[Matt V]

breeding?

well, it's an mbuna. (my) most mbuna seem to breed by simply thinking about it. that is, they're REALLY easy. flat space. couple of females. IME, change the water, leave the light off for a day and voilà - little cichlids. (the light thing might just be a coincidence IME, but hey, it's worked so far!)


shouldn't be a problem to get them to breed, but seedy is right - more females!

http://www.gcca.net/fom/Pseudotropheus_demasoni.htm

[slund]

Well the P. lombardoi (kenyi) is a look-a-like species and they are like buddy buddy. She is also a very aggressive species and they get along fine. She just release a brood of fries a couple of day's ago in a seperate tank (then I put her in the demasoni's tank as a temp). When she was in her own tank she hated me comming anywhere near the tank...of course she was holding her babies, but that just proves that she is aggressive, that is why she went into the demasoni tank and not the Victorian tank. Anyway's she is a sweet little angel now.

But yes I do agree that breeding fish are way more aggressive than juvies...but I have had my demasoni's for about a year...when do they start breeding. (I suppose I should mention that 2 are about 2 1/2" and the baby of the group is about 2")

I tried the lights out after water change and nothing...I heard somewhere that adding cooler water might help but not tried it yet. Any clues?

[Matt V]

any luck getting your demasonis to breed?
if not, what size tank are they in?

you also might want to take the other females out of the tank - especially the kenyi. i don't know squat about CAs, so I don't know what the convicts would do in there - probably nothing but get harrassed by breeding demasonis... but the kenyi should probably go elswhere.