WHOLESALE SERIES: TROPICALI: LABEOTROPHEUS CAERULEUS

I think I remembered the latin correctly on this one and more one to stick in my mind as these come from one of three great lakes in Africa's stunning Rift Valley.

Running north to south the three biggest lakes are Lake Victoria, Lake Malawi (where these guys are from) and my favourite Lake Tanganyika.

Lake Tanganyika is the second largest lake and more like an inland sea but not...quite. It does contain a TYPE of salt and has crabs and even jellyfish. It is also extremely deep too.

The depth should not hold any life as oxygen is non existent at more than about 15 metres depth and as the lake is a mile deep...hmm or is that TWO, it has a great deal of water.

Mind you what with it sitting in a volcanic rift I have wondered about its depths as we now know that life only needs water and those deep see hot vents harbouring many forms of life?!

Often sold as Yellow Lab Cichlids and these are Mouthbreeders.

PSEUDOTROPHEUS ZEBRA of LAKE MALAWI

Well that is IF that is what they are still listed as...

...they change the names every so often to make themselves feel important, lol.

Anyway another of my favourite groups of fish second.... third only to Cyathopharynx furcifer and the Tropheus genus both of Lake Tanganyika this family is from Lake Malawi. An absolutely stunning valley in Africa known as the Great Right Valley home to many humongous lakes and the three famous ones and as well as the two mentioned of Malawi and Tanganyika you also have Victoria among other smaller ones. Lake Tanganyika is almost in inland sea and even has its own Crabs as well as Jelly Fish!

Now these are all beautiful fish but many keepers do not understand them and do not like them. They avoid them as they fight, but DO look after their eggs and young by mouth-brooding them, and prefer to keep brain dead fish that eat their own eggs no sooner after laying them, lol.

The truth is these fish come from large lakes where competition for feed and reproductive space is in demand. They are not used to being up close all the time and when feeding they will happily all feed together. But then when it comes to attracting a female they are territorial and will fight in enclosed spaces.

Only having a few rocks is a mistake too as they then fight over the rocks?! LOL!

No there are several tricks to keeping them by either having  a trio of a male and two females or better still around 10 of them together. This way no one gets picked on enough to be harmed.

Also make no mistake the ones who get picked on tend to be the smaller ones but if they suddenly found themselves to be the larger specimen they in turn would be doing the bullying!

This territorial behaviour is purely down to food and protecting and rearing the eggs from predators and other cichlids that would eat them.

They do not all have stripes but DO come in a dizzying array of colours including reds, oranges and yellows!!

The yellow dots on the fins are to encourage the female to pick up sperm in her mouth after she has gathered up the eggs so that they get fertilised.