Klaus, what is this world coming to? I've got Tanganyikans!

I think this is the male:


And female:


They are a breeding pair, so soon we should see little ones.

Any tips or things I need to know?

Kim

Very Nice pair Kim, I can't wait to see how they work out for you!

BRICHARDI...........







Hey, I'm just joking Giggly Giggly Giggly Giggly

The only "tip" I can give you is to keep the pair by themself in a tank because as soon as they start breeding, they will own that tank. The beauty with these fish is their "family life" and that you can see best when they are by themselves. Most members of the Neolamprologus Brichardi complex hold IMHO some of the prettiest cichlids in the lake.

Enjoy Cheers!!!

That's exactly why I wanted to try them...The little Bolivians got me started on all this neat parenting stuff, so watch out...You never know what I'll come up with next!

Pete was threatening to move them around to a few other tanks this morning...They seem to have resolved my snail infestation in the tank they are in!

Really nice fish, I believe they are F1's from a wild group that Larry got in a while back.

I have the pair alone in a 25G long tank, but once the tank starts to fill up, I'll move them to a 40G breeder, which is where I planned to put them initially.

Kim

At the incredible LFS where EVERY tank is a planted tank in San Francisco they have a colony of Brichardi, and a few months ago when I went in they had a CLOUD of fry they were guarding. Great shop...

I'm really curious to see how these guys do for you.

And I have to admit, I keep eyeing Fronts and Tropheus in the LFS's...

And Rams and Geophagus...

And...

MTS is a terrible disease. blinky

at one of our lfses they have a nice mixed lake african cichlid display tank (probably 100 gal). in it they had a pair of brichardi with what looked like about 3 generation on fry. the pair had a little cave area they protected and none of the other fish including a large male venustus, a front and various other large fish messed with the brichardi and their babies. any thing that came near got chase off. the same lfs has a pair of albino brichardi in a 24 gal nano - very cool.

I'm pretty excited about these two. They are absolutely amazing looking in person. If I'm right, Larry says this variant gets alot larger than other variants of brichardi, but I am not sure what part of the lake they are from. Hopefully, when he gets back from Halifax he'll fill me in some more.

I'm going to leave this as a single species tank, just so I can watch them do their thing with their young. I don't even have a pleco in there yet. Brett had some Synos in with them, and still tons of fry in various stages of grow out, so I'm assuming it's okay to put bottom feeders in with them, but I'm trying to let them settle in first. I have some pretty decent sized BN plecos and plan to move one in there later - that may be a mistake because they may not accept it as well now that the tank is "theirs". I'm afraid to put any Synodontis in there since it's a smaller tank size.

I tried so hard with the marunguensis that Klaus gave me a couple of years ago, and I really loved them, but they kept killing each other off, so I guess the only way I would have tried something like this again was to know I had a pair to start with.

It's going to be another learning experience for me, but I think it's time I branched out a bit!

Kim

Nice addition to your fish collection, Kim!

I have seen these at a few LFS's in our area as well, but unfortunately, I
don't have enough tank space to try them!

I wish you success and please post up some pics of them when they are
spawn and are guarding their fry!

Giggly Giggly Giggly

Don, I like your wish list whoot whoot whoot whoot

Congrats on the new fish Mrs.C. I love all the "Princess of Burundi" variants. As a matter of fact I am looking for some more as we speak. Good luck and keep us posted on their "settling" in.

nice fish kim!
i had a wild pair a couple years ago(when i first started cichlids)
the male just beat up the female to the point of no lyre tail and black scratch marks. i got them back together and had tons of fry(150-200ish) i got rid of them because i was upgrading to a new tank and when i sold them, after a few weeks when i told her im selling the tank, she told me not to! so i gave up my pair for no reason.. At least i got my Gracilis Wooo hoo!! but only 2/4 survived.

btw, if they are the jumbos, are you talking about the fulwe rock guys?

I've not seen any aggression whatsoever between these two. In fact, tonight I came home and turned the light on to find them in the conch shell together!

I don't know how old they are, but they are like an old married couple...The larger one (which I think is male) kind of puffs up his face at the smaller one now and then, but that's about it.

Hopefully, they are getting ready to spawn...

Kim

Nice pair, I have a pair that killed one and we moved the other before they got to it real bad..

Looks great. Keep us up to date on the breeding. My pair has been kept in check by my julies, leleupi, and comps/calvus.

Well, one of them proved to be a jumper...We found it dead in the floor this morning.

Now I start all over...

Absolutely made me sick...I really love these fish.

They'd been exhibiting spawning behaviour for the past couple of weeks. I guess I can always hope there are fry in the tank that I haven't found yet.

Kim

That's a very sad discovery, Kim!

I hope you can find another to replace it or that you do indeed have some
fry that you can grow out to replace it with!

Good luck!

sorry to hear that kim worry wart!
out of 4 gracilis i got 1 left now :(
1 died of some sickness
1 died because he was a male(dominant yellow lab killed all the males in the tank)
1 died of un known causes.
1 is still alive.

Oh that's too bad Kim. They are a pretty fish. I hope you have some fry in there somewhere.

Do you know if it was the male or female? Will you be able to find a suitable mate for the remaining one or will you have to find another pair?

I wish I knew which one it was...I can't tell, could never tell them apart. They were pretty close to the same size, and their finnage was identical.

I'm watching for fry, but I don't see any yet. I know how tiny they are, so it may be that I just can't see them.

I will probably take this adult back and start over with a group of smaller ones and hope for a pair.

I wonder if they grow as slowly as some other Tanganyikans?

Kim

Kim are daffodils easy to find in your area? They are a very similar neolamp to brichardi, but I prefer their coloration over the brichardi. They seem to have a little bit better temperment as well.

Yes, daffodils are readily available everywhere you look.

But these are jumbo brichardi Fulwe Rocks, and I plan to get more of them.

Larry got them in awhile back and Brett (Fogelhund from CF) got them from him. They are larger than the average brichardi, and really look nice in person.

It's my camera skills that suck! Giggly

Kim

Kim, I think that top picture looks fantastic. I can see a lot of detail on the body and can tell it's a very pretty fish. It's too bad you lost one. :Sad:

I should be getting some more soon...I just don't know if I'm getting more adults or will get young ones to grow out and pair off. It was so nice having the pair that got along!

Kim

kim, the brichardi's pair up real early, i think at 2inches?
somewhere near there. im not sure if it will still be the same if yours are jumbos because jumbo cyprichromis take longer to mature then the regular kind, so it might be the same for the jumbo brichardi's.

kim, your photo skills are fine Tres Bien!
lol my photo skills sucked really bad when i had my pulchers. they were as bad as AP's Giggly
joking AP :) your pic taking skills are fine.


kim, just dont move the brichardi if they pair up. mine got really nasty after they were in my tank. the owner had fry before and then when they were in my tank, the male almost killed the female. she was in such bad condition that i had to put her in another tank for weeks before she was good enough to go back in. but in the end, they had tons of fry Wooo hoo!!