Cyprichromis leptosoma

jeez, these fish are just so awesome!!

 

I love them!

Check out the nice surprise waiting for me when I got home from work just now:




Baby Blue Flashes!

Looks like two of the holding females have released their fry, I counted 8 babies.
Only 4 each on average, but hey, successful brooding...
It's their first time, and the young females were born in this very tank!

The third female is still brooding, AND it looks like she scooped up a couple of fry that don't belong to her!
She's BURSTING!
But shy.
I hope I can get a pic of this before she can't hold anymore, and lets everyone out of that over-stretched buccal cavity.

 

I managed to get a photo last night.
Was difficult, she hides right at the back of the tank, and it's hard to focus on her.
But you can see what I was referring to when I said she's bursting!

 

Well done great stuff...Those babies are oulik.

 

Can't wait for mine to start breeding. Although the all blue male is chasing everything in the tank. He is becoming super dominant and I am starting to worry about the other males.

 

How many do you have in total?

The more the merrier, of course, but mainly because aggression is spread more widely, and no single fish should be harassed to the point of exhaustion.
Lessons well learnt during mbuna days still apply here: we crowded them for similar reasons.

I mentioned earlier on this thread that blue males are more aggressive, and perhaps your experiences will bear witness to that.

I'm a huge fan of slate and wood in the cyprichromis tank, because the cyps use them both for cover, and the line of sight is broken.
Your Blue male has probably become excited by a female coming on heat, it's usually a sign.
Hopefully they will spawn soon.

Please post pics of the tank, so we can have a better idea of your setup?



@Nawaaz: oulik is exactly what they are!
Baby cyps always bring a smile to my face, they're so perky!


The last brooding female has fantastic mothering instincts. She can't fit the free swimming babies in her mouth like she wishes she could, so, although she's brooding, she's already practicing after-brood care on other peoples' kids!



While proud papa watches from below:

 

congrats @lep2soma, well done !!:congrats:

 

@aqua dude: Thanks!
But I can't take ALL the credit, the cyps were most obliging!


@adesh8028: Bro you were keen on getting a leptosoma colony started, if you like, I can earmark these fry for you?

 

Last night Supermom released the balance of the fry, there are 14 in total.

 

I think breeding has started. One of the yellow head males is constantly arround one female keeping all the other males away. She seems to have something in her mouth but it's not distended much, however she's not eating. Hope it's eggs and not just being tired. The all blue male is ignoring the yellow head males and concentrating on the yellow tail male.Tank is 128 x 52 x 60 = 384 liters with a a overflow sum containing another 120 liters return pump 4000 liters per hr10 Cyps and a pair of brevis with about 15 youngsters

 

She's holding

 

Full tank photo
What's your opinions about brevis, will they leave cyp fry alone?

 

Like the side and back did you make them?

 

@Zirk: Congrats on your holding female!

If that were my tank, I would remove the brevis and dedicate the tank to the leptosomas.

They do really well on their own, please consider it. No competition with other species is good if you're breeding.

 

@Zirk: I would also, along with the brevis, remove the blue male.

 

Howzit everybody, It's with great regret that I must inform you that the Yellow Head Kipili breeding colony I had been breeding here must have gotten mixed up with some Kerenege Bay during the import process. Most of you will know that at Stone Aquatics we take utmost care with these things and our suppliers assure us they do the same. It is however a fact that some of the juveniles are coloring up incorrectly as no Yellow Head Kipili should have that coloration. To show our commitment to keeping the African Rift Lake cichlids the way nature intended them to be, we are offering to recall or other compensate any clients who purchased Cyprichromis Leptosoma Yellow Head Kipili juveniles from Jack Stone to get in contact and see what we can do for you. We might not be able to answer your prayers but we definitely want to assure you of our commitment to open and honest trade. For those not in the know... We imported two different variants of the same species of fish (Cyprichromis leptosoma), the females look identical too each other and got mixed up in the shipping process. We're not sure how this happen but the babies in Zirk's tank show us that the variants have been mixed up and this is why Stone Aquatics are offering some small compensation to those who bought from us in faith that they would color up in a certain way. In the a world of mixed Rift Lake Cichlids it's important that you can trust somebody is doing their best for you and for the fish! Moderators may split this to my Sponsors forum if required, hoping we can let everybody who bought Yellow Head know so we can sort this out - many thanks!

 

Hi Jack
Have a look at Ad Konings "Back to Nature Guide on Tanganyika cichlids" page 73. Ad indicates a full blue male cyp like mine as from Kipili. Although he does not indicate it as a jumbo cyp like the Yellow head Kipili's. In other sources the yellow heads are also indicated as having 3 varieties of males, blue, yellow tail blue and yellow head.(cichlid forum) They also suspect that the breeders and collectors are breeding for certain traits and perhaps removing certain male colors in order to get more of the desired variety, in this case the yellow head males.

ps
The new females are huge and eating like pigs. I think the males are intimidated by them, I hope they will get over it.

 

Hi Jack
Have a look at Ad Konings "Back to Nature Guide on Tanganyika cichlids" page 73. Ad indicates a full blue male cyp like mine as from Kipili. Although he does not indicate it as a jumbo cyp like the Yellow head Kipili's. In other sources the yellow heads are also indicated as having 3 varieties of males, blue, yellow tail blue and yellow head.(cichlid forum) They also suspect that the breeders and collectors are breeding for certain traits and perhaps removing certain male colors in order to get more of the desired variety, in this case the yellow head males.

ps
The new females are huge and eating like pigs. I think the males are intimidated by them, I hope they will get over it.

later

 

Some photos

Some photos of my Cyps with the new females from Jack

 

They are very pretty