Malawi Cichlid

Malawi Cichlid

(Haplochromis mloto)

This is one of the African Rift Lake cichlids, from Lake Malawi. It does not have a widely used common name, but is similar to other related species commonly referred to as "Electric Blues" or "Peacock Blues". Males of this species grow to around six inches (fifteen centimetres) in length, and exhibit the brilliant blue colouration, whilst females only grow to around four inches (ten centimetres) in length, and are a silvery brown in colour.

This species, like other African Rift Lake cichlids, prefers hard alkaline water, but will tolerate softer, less alkaline conditions. Temperatures between seventy five and eighty de 131b123b grees Fahrenheit (twenty four and twenty seven degrees Celsius) seem to suit them admirably. They will accept most foods, and should be fed a variety of live, fresh, frozen and dried preparations, including some vegetable matter such as cooked, skinned green peas.

Like many cichlids, males are rather territorial, and adult males in the same tank will set up and defend their individual territories, often fighting quite fiercely and incurring injuries to one another. They will also chase away other species that venture into what they consider to be their territories. As such, they are not really a community fish, although in a large tank, they can be kept quite satisfactorily with other species, and apart from an occasional lunge at another fish that comes too close, they will coexist quite well. In contrast to the males, females are quite peaceful.

They are maternal mouth-brooders, in other words, the females carry the eggs and newly-hatched fry in their buccal cavities until the fry are free-swimming. During this period, the females do not eat.

Spawning takes place in the substrate, where the male scoops out a depression by moving mouthfuls of gravel around. He pursues a receptive female, who often has been lingering in the general vicinity of his territory anyway, and invites her to his spawning area, where they deposit their eggs and milt, after which she gathers the fertilized eggs into her mouth and goes on her way. Unlike many cichlids, the male plays no part in the hatching or rearing of the young.

Because of their mouth-brooding characteristics, they are quite easy to breed, even in a commmunity tank situation. Although the actual spawning may not often be seen, the observant aquarist will know when a female is carrying a batch of eggs by her sudden behavioural change. She will be seen to swim around close-mouthed, and tending to avoid other tank members, and will not join in and eat at meal times. My strategy on observing such a female, was to wait for about fourteen days after this initial observation, then carefully net her and, holding her gently, open her mouth using a cotton bud, and flush the fifty or so now well-developed fry into a container of tank water by moving her submersed mouth back and forth in the water. In actual fact, the females would tend to spit the fry out when I opened their mouths, so the process was quite simple. After removing the fry, I would return the female to the tank, where she would resume her normal activities immediately, apparently quite unperturbed by the experience.

At this stage, the fry are fully developed and quite large, and can be fed on a variety of fine foods, including baby brine shrimp, vinegar eels, fine flake food, squashed cooked green peas, etc.

My method of rearing the fry was to house them in a floating container in the main tank. This consisted of a good sized square plastic ice cream container with a large area of each side cut out and squares of fibreglass fly screen mesh stuck over the holes with a suitable glue. Strips of styrofoam were glued along the top outer rim of the container to provide floatation. This instant rearing tank was then floated in a corner of the main tank, held in place by the pressure of the glass aquarium cover, or by a piece of twine tied through a hole in one top corner of the container and attached to a suitable anchor point to prevent the container from floating around all over the tank. This method enabled the fry to have the benefit of the full water flow from the main tank, plus most waste matter would be taken out and captured by the aquarium's filter. Fry could be kept in this way until they became overcrowded, by which time they were ready to move on to their own tank anyway.

Using the method described above, I successfully reared many hundreds of young Haplochromis mloto. The above description is written in the past tense because I haven't bred this species for many years now, and currently have only two old males, around seven or eight years of age, remaining.