Melanochromis johanni
by Karl Schwarze
From the Monthly Bulletin of the Hamilton and District Aquarium Society, June 1999
Aquarticles
I have two thirty gallon tanks in which I keep my "Africans" and I keep a
variety of these cichlids. Among them were two pairs of Melanochromis johanni.
The males were separated but the females were kept together. Since I had raised these
pairs from half a dozen small fry given to me by a friend, I was wondering when they might
spawn. The males changed colour after about one year and became too aggressive to be kept
together. Nothing happened for another five months and I began to think my
"females" might change colour and become males. Finally I decided to switch
males between tanks and things started to happen.
The new male sensed his mates and within a few hours a spawning site was being prepared
by removing all the sand from the aquarium bottom, right down to the glass. Three rocks,
placed in a triangle, gave the site some shelter from invaders. Any fish coming close to
the sacred enclave lost a bit of finnage and the females were sometimes gently persuaded,
but more often wildly pursued. These games continued until the next evening.
None of the fish felt like eating but I could see a change in the mood of the females.
They began to fight with each other and the "Number 1" girl would occasionally
enter the nest. Breeding began just a little later. Male and female close beside each
other, they started to quiver and shake and while doing this, moved slowly around in a
circle. As soon as an egg was dropped, the female turned around and hastily picked it up
into her mouth. To their (and my own) annoyance, there was a male M. auratus
present who closely watched these procedures. He was too eager to pick up the eggs himself
and so disturbed the breeding pair. However, once the process had started there was no
changing their minds. They finally settled in to breed wherever they found a quiet corner
between the open rocks right on the gravel. This game took close to two hours and ended
with the female, empty at last but with a mouthful of eggs, sitting by herself in a
corner. This was not the end for the male however. He was busy courting female number 2
and with more success than the first. Almost immediately after the first spawning was
completed, the second one started. It was the same procedure all over. Spawning took place
whenever there was an undisturbed moment in the tank, and they changed their location
constantly. Finally all the quivering and squeezing had no more effect and this female
withdrew as well. I removed both of the females into different tanks where I gave them
shelter under broken flower pots. During the incubation period the females would not feed.
The spawnings took place on Feb. 8. Female "one" expelled 24 fry on Feb. 27
(19 days) and female "two" expelled 11 on Feb 28 (20 days). This was the first
spawning for both females.
Each female and batch of fry behaved alike. Motherhood was lacking in not giving the
little ones protection in times of "danger" but on the other hand the fry did
not seem too eager to look for protection in their mother's buccal cavity once they were
released and aware of their freedom. They preferred to hide under the rough edge of the
flower pot. I removed the females and gathered the fry together into one tank.
Once released, the fry were free swimming and able to find their own food. I fed them
powdered dry food and after a few more days, "topless" brine shrimp, on which
they grew even better. There was one thing that bothered me; they were extremely shy and
constantly hid under or behind the filter box, so that I could never really observe them.
A towel over the front glass of my tank, with a small gap at the bottom, helped finally as
did my dropping the food at the opposite end to the filter. Now they had to cross the
whole aquarium to get to the food. But as soon as I lifted the towel they were all back
under the filter! Now it so happened that I also had a spawn of M. auratus from
Feb. 22. These babies were not shy at all; they already came rushing to the front at
feeding time. My experiment proved to be right. Putting the two species in one tank solved
the problem. The outgoing auratus pulled the rather shy johanni away from underneath the
filter box. Feeding got better and growth became more rapid. After three weeks of Sur Gro
and brine shrimp I was able to change most of them to adult frozen brine shrimp. I kept
them (71 fish) in a ten gallon tank for six weeks, siphoning the bottom every evening and
changing 2½ gallons of water most mornings and evenings as necessary. They are now
transferred into a thirty gallon tank with some other "Africans". Their main
diet remains coarser Sur Gro and once a week treat of frozen brine shrimp or ocean
plankton. After nine weeks the average size is 3½ cm and I have not lost a single fish.
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