Prettiest Fish In Lake Tanganyika...

Andrew

Andrew

Members
That oughta raise some hackles!

In stock now, Lamprichthys tanganicus, the Tanganyikan killifish. In my humblest of opinions, the prettiest fish in the lake. Actually, it's in my top ten favorite of all fish!

Come by and see at

SCALES Tropical Fish Warehouse
 
Andrew

Andrew

Members
No BAP points? Not even for Acarichthys hackle-i, or perhaps Hackle Discus? Wait, what about catfish, Centromochlus hackle-ii? Jeez, I gotta read the rules again.
 
Pat Kelly

Pat Kelly

CCA Member
Remember what I always say Ladies and Gentlemen.

Always support the stores that support us.

Scales TFW supports the club by sending us members, giving us donations and giving members discounts on fish.
 
Andrew

Andrew

Members
$14.99 each, before your 10% discount. Plus, buy five, get one free. So if you buy 6 fish, $12.75 per fish.

They are around two inches, big enough to be real fish, small enough to endure short trips in a bag. Two of the larger fish are showing male colors right now.

As most of you know, these guys are extremely sensitive to ammonia buildup in a bag, especially as larger fish. Get them established in your tank and keep them clean, they'll live forever and produce huge numbers of eggs laid in a top mop that can be easily hatched in a tumbler. Newly hatched fry are big enough for BBS and will often take small particles of dry food. The trick is to buy them local when they're young (anyone will tell you, it's not just a ploy to get you to buy them from me...) to establish a breeding group.

No one else in the area is breeding this fish right now...

This is one of my top fish. In fact, had I the cash, I would put these fish into a large (several hundred gallon) tank and raise scads of them to school in Vallisneria beds with Polypterus ornatipinnis and Phyllonemus typus. Yep, a Tanganyikan tank with no cichlids.
 
Pat Kelly

Pat Kelly

CCA Member
No one else in the area is breeding this fish right now...


ooooooHHHHH something I can flood the market with?????????????????????????????
 
Andrew

Andrew

Members
Still here... Gonna have to feed them to the frontosa if they stay much longer! Or set up a display tank for them (please, don't make me do that...)
 
longstocking

longstocking

Members
lol it's a pretty good price for the buggers. Atlantis is offering them at 20 bucks a pop... same size.

Not buying anything at the moment though.... going out of town in a few days. Hopfully when I get back they are still there.
 
maddog10

maddog10

Members
I am going to be by tomorrow afternoon and I bet 6 to 10 of them go home with me! Of course you are going to have to tell me how to keep them alive!
 
longstocking

longstocking

Members
If somone in the club gets them GREAT ! I'd like some but I can always get some fry from them. I just don't like placing new fish in my tanks then leaving for a period of time. Not the smartest option :lol:

It is a really good price mike... good luck with them.

I've only read about them.... so I would need andrews help too !

I've heard they need large tanks though.... with docile tank mates. Ie: no lamps.... 4 foot or greater? They get to 6 inches ! huge killi !!!
 
Andrew

Andrew

Members
Not a difficult fish to keep if you are already used to the higher demands of Tanganyikan fish as regards water quality.

Keep them clean! Nitrogen buildup is the big killer. The person I saw with the most success had them in a 55 gallon tank with a bare bottom. Think of them like discus. Keep them clean, feed them a lot. I recommend twice daily feedings. Once a high quality, high protein dry food like NLS pellets, once a meaty frozen food like small krill, brine shrimp or white mosquito larvae. Light doesn't bother them unless it's very intense and comes on as a surprise. In other words, if the room is dark and the lights come on, they'll spook pretty bad. set the timer for a half hour after the sun comes up or the other lights in the room come on. pH and hardness isn't as important as with other lake fish as they readily swim up the rivers feeding the lake. Of course, ammonia is much more toxic at higher pH so it may be valuable to keep them in harder water with a pH between 7 and 7.5. Eric Bodrock didn't use anything to adjust water parameters from the tap.

Breeding is also not difficult with a healthy colony. Hang a dark (I've seen forest green work well) nylon yarn mop at the surface. Every 4-7 days pick eggs (they're very tough, like little glass balls). Put the eggs in a tumbler. As they hatch, remove the fry to a rearing tank and start feeding live BBS and frozen Cyclop-Eeze. You should have a near-constant supply of eggs with a healthy adult colony.

Docile tankmates? Naw, not really. These guys are bigger at full size than most of the popular Tanganyikan cichlids except frontosas. Plus, they occupy the higher regions of the tank instead of the sand or rock substrate where your other fish are more likely to hang out. As I mentioned in another post though, I would keep them with Phyllonemus cats or another smallish catfish. Perhaps a group of lamps or julis in a larger aquarium.

I'm working with a few customers on ideas for keeping them. One combination will be a mostly empty 46-gallon aquarium with a small pile of rocks in either corner populated with calvus or comressiceps. Another 45Tall will have a group of shellies at the bottom and some cyps to school with the killis. Of course, the breeding species tank would be among the most spectacular species tanks you could set up.

My experience with the fish is limited to the time I've had them in the store. Most of this info comes from Eric Bodrock and a fellow named Joe Bolterman who had these fish in this area some years ago but has since moved away.
 
longstocking

longstocking

Members
Great info andrew !

I was thinking 6 foot tank with C. fucifer ! I thought about putting them in with my P. typus but wouldn't the cats eat the eggs ?

I read an account that Cyprichromis don't work well.... and some of the tougher lamps ie : Julies, Leleupi, trets... etc
 
Andrew

Andrew

Members
The Phyllonemus probably wouldn't eat the eggs if you are using a top mop. In other words, the catfish probably aren't going to swim up to the top of the tank looking for food. The killis normally spawn in bottom vegetation and in cracks in the rocks and in these circumstances the cats would almost certainly eat the eggs.

I've heard mixed reviews of keeping them with cichlids. My conclusion without trying it yet is that if the cichlids are relatively small or young, it won't be a problem at least in a large display tank. Obviously for maximum production of killis they should be by themselves. I don't know about cyps with killis though. I was thinking about mixing Paracyprichromis nigripinnis with them since they don't get as large as leptosoma or some of the other species. They might not even school at all, with the killis near the top of the tank and the Paracyps at teh bottom. Plus, you've already got plenty of blue and yellow color in the killis, so mix it up with some rosy-red to contrast.

Finally, once the population and breeding prorgram is established, most people don't mind a young killi or two getting munched since they'll be so many of them. A la George Richter, they are, in fact feeders, for many species in the lake naturally.

I bet Altolamps would grow quite quickly in a tank with killis or another breeding population of fish...
 
S

Steve

Members
"Prettiest Fish In Lake Tanganyika"

Is it just *too* easy to say that this is setting the bar kinda low? (No, no, you Tang people, don't even start. As Bob Dole would say, "You know it, I know it, and the American people know it.")*

I'm pretty sure that the reason these big eyes don't mix well with Cyprichromis is because they covet the same part of the tank.

Cheers,
Steve (who's still irritated that he got suckered into buying some small N. brichardi last year at a club auction . . . tribbles with teeth!)

(* C'mon, I held this comment back forEVER!!)
 
maddog10

maddog10

Members
I got mine today!!

This is what the juve's look like! Less than 2" long (they get about 6") and man do they move fast.

lt-2.jpg


lt-1.jpg
 
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