Common name/s - Multifasciatus or Multies

Scientific name - Neolamprologus multifasciatus

Family - Cichlidae

Origin - Lake Tanganyika, Africa

Maximum size - 5cm

Difficulty - Very hardy, readily accept most prepared and live foods. Omnivorous.

Water Parameters - Hard water with a high range pH 7.5 - 8.5 , temperature 24 - 28 degrees

Feeding - Frozen, dried and live foods all readily accepted.

Sexing - Males are usually of a slightly larger and stocky nature (although still quite small - they are one of the smallest rift lake cichlids) It is easier to sex animals that you can view together as differences are subtle and difficult to detect unless observed in conjuction with behaviour. Males tend to dominate female fish.

Breeding - These fish are not difficult to breed. Being shell dwellers it is less likely to have any success without shells available for the fish to live in. Each fish will require its own shell. Ideally shells should be of freshwater origin and around six cm across.

Males will display infront of the females shell usually by shivering at the mouth of the shell. The female will return dancing if she considers him a suitable mate. After a few days of this courtship eggs will be laid. The territory during this period will be ferociously guarded by the male who will not hesitate to take on much larger and aggressive cichlids (if housed in a community tank) When the eggs hatch it is not uncommon not to see any of the juvs for a period of a week as they will seek shelter in / around the shells of the parents. Often once these cichlids start breeding they will continue developing a large family group of cichlids with older siblings assisting in the care of new hatched fish.

General Comments - These fish are extremely good candidates for a tanganyikan cichlid community. Whilst (as with most African cichilds) it will aggressively defend its territory it is a small fish and unlikely to actually cause any damage to other cichlids. Do not keep with larger piscivorous cichlids as it may be eaten without a shell to shelter in.



This post has been edited by juanveldez: Sep 1 2007, 06:30 PM