JORG Posted January 12, 2009 Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 The Champsochromis caeruleus is commonly referred to as the Malawi trout. It is an open water predator reaching a maximum lenght of 18 inches and has a lake wide distribution. It has a reputation of being some what aggressive but I have never noticed anything extreme, the male gets a little defensive of his breeding area during spawning but other than that he seems fairly mild tempered. I have 1 male and 9 females ranging from 5-8 inches that I bought as 10 unsexed 2 1/2 inch juveniles (I know lucky I should have bought a lottery ticket that day instead :shock: ) I keep them in a 220 gallon tank filtered by 2 FX5's along with 1m/6f Protomelas spilonotus "liuli" ,1m/2f exochromis anagenys ,1m/2f Buccochromis spectabilis ,2m/3f Dimidiochromis dimidiatus and a pair of Sciaenochromis freyeri and they all get along well. I feed them once a day with the 3mil NLS pellets and the odd treat of unwanted fry. The spawning activity is always cool to see the male starts to get hyper once he sniffs out a ripe female and pretty much clears out the other fish from his breeding area usually around 4 square feet. When he is not busy chasing away tankmates he will dig a shallow pit in the sand and once the pit is completed he will start chasing the ripe female relentlessly only stopping his pursuit to chase away any intruders getting close to his breeding area. The female will eventually come into the pit with him where they will do the typical mouthbrooder spawning (see pics) only stopping when the male darts off to chase away any intruders looking for a free egg snack. The size of spawns have varied in size depending on the female and how many eggs the male swallows before the female gets them in her mouth but they have run from about 35 to 80 eggs so far. If I want to keep the eggs I have to strip them before the next feeding as all my females have spit the eggs as soon as food hits the tank--- They love the NLS I guess--- but hopefully they will outgrow this behavior. Here is a pic of the male pic with egg in the sand female sucking up egg (it's already in her mouth she's quick) couple pics of them fertilizing the eggs And a female with her mouth full Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnaw Posted January 12, 2009 Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 I never saw one before. Nice looking fish. Great shots as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishful Thinking Posted January 12, 2009 Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 That male is stunning! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patrick Posted January 12, 2009 Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 Awesome capture, thanks for sharing that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RD. Posted January 26, 2009 Report Share Posted January 26, 2009 Great shots Jorg! I have a juvie male champ growing out in my 125 & I can't wait to see him start to mature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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