Neolamprologus Leleupi 'tanganyikan Lemon Cichlid'

[Katster239]

hi all,

just noticed my fish have spawned! i honestly didnt even know i had a pair, apparently its quite hard to tell with this breed? just wondering what the best thing is to do with them, both the male and the female are around 10cm long and both are very brightly coloured compared to a lot of the photos ive seen on the internet.

the tank is around 55l and the tankmates are the pair of shiclids and a catfish, should i be sperating the male and the catfish? or will the female look after the babies? also what do they eat? will she put them on rocks with algae? thats what i remember the kribinsis doing at my friends place, some help would be great thanks!

i also took a video and put it on youtube if your interested, its pretty grainy but you can see them!



thanks all

_Kat

fish and spawn

 

[dthoffsett]

N. leleupi is a solitary species. When breeding occurs, a sexually active male and a ripe female will pair off; however, the bond rarely lasts longer than a month. In the wild, spawning occurs in the female's cave. Spawning will also occur in the female's cave in the aquarium if one is provided, otherwise they will pick a dark spot among the rocks to lay the eggs. If you use a flower pot or ceramic cave, make sure both the male and female have their own and that they are placed at opposite ends of the tank. When the female is ripe, she'll be fuller around the abdomen. Spawning will begin by the female leading the male to her cave. She will then attach her eggs on the sides of the cave and the male will swim over them, depositing his sperm.

Broods number between 50 and 250, although expect a value closer to 100. Note, Neolamprologus leleupi is a secretive cave spawner. You may keep and breed this fish for years and never see the eggs. If you do happen to see the eggs, expect them to be pure white, not yellow or orange. White eggs are perfectly healthy and not necessarily fungused. They will hatch after about four days. If your female disappears for several days, she may be guarding a spawn. After they hatch, the male and female will trade off guarding the young until they are large enough to go out and face the world. N. leleupi are fantastic parents. You can keep the fry with the parents until they get quite large. In fact, it is almost necessary to keep fry in the tank with the parents to garuantee continued harmony between the parents! Multiple spawns will peacefully coexist in the tank. Once the fry hatch, it is important to have fry-suitable food available for them. In addition, a bright light to promote algal growth can be beneficial.

Taken from here: [URL="http/"http/www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/n_leleupi.php""]http/www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/n_leleupi.php[/URL]

What speices of catfish do you have? If it's a predatory species you'll want to remove it temporarily.

While your tank is fine for a single pair, once the fry reach 1/2-inch you're going to need a larger grow out tank, ideally 20gal or more.

 

[Katster239]

the catfish is a cukcoo catfish? its very shy, i hardly ever see it, its a shame seeings how expensive it was. probably about 6cm long.

also in the video notice the dark upper lip on the female? is this normal or just bad breeding? it started out much darker when i had dark gravel but cince changing to the sand there colours have gotten much brighter but that little bit of dark is still on the lip. any reason why? ive also noticed that others i've seen have a slight hump on the head where as mine look quite erm.. streamline, is this because mine haven't reached full maturity?

thanks again that info was very helpful

 

[dthoffsett]

the catfish is a cukcoo catfish? its very shy, i hardly ever see it, its a shame seeings how expensive it was. probably about 6cm long.

also in the video notice the dark upper lip on the female? is this normal or just bad breeding? it started out much darker when i had dark gravel but cince changing to the sand there colours have gotten much brighter but that little bit of dark is still on the lip. any reason why? ive also noticed that others i've seen have a slight hump on the head where as mine look quite erm.. streamline, is this because mine haven't reached full maturity?

thanks again that info was very helpful

I'm not too familiar with the speices, but I think I read somewhere the black markings signal she's sexually mature and "ripe", not sure about the hump either.

The cuckoo catfish is one of the synodontis species, can't remember which S.multipunctatus or S.petricola either way I think they like to be in groups which may be why he's so shy. Oh, and they will predate on any fry they can find, however, unless you are looking to sell them this could be a good thing as the leleupi are prolific breeders according to that article.