Not Your Average Pelvicachromis pulcher!!!

[aquaticclarity]

I moved my wild pair of Pelvicachromis pulcher Ndonga from there humble 15 gallon tank into my newly redecorated 125 gallon West African tank. These are fish Ted brought back from his Cameroon trip and was gracious enough to share a pair with me. The fish have grow up a lot in the last two years with the male pushing 3 ½” (nearly 4”) and the female is just slightly smaller.

This is the first time in a long time that I have gotten a good look that these guys. I’m stunned by how beautiful they have become! Now to unlock the secrets to coaxing them into spawning…easier said then done as both Ted and I have spawned our fair share of Pelvicachromis and so far have been unable to get P. pulcher Ndonga to do anything!

Hopefully better pictures to come...I just wanted to be sure to get some shots while the fishwere out as they are extremely shy fish. The fish had been in the tank under 30 minutes when I shot these pictures.

 

[ed seeley]

Interesting that the male doesn't have a pointed caudal fin. Is that true of all Ndonga or has he just lost it?

 

[aquaticclarity]

I haven't seen enough P.pulcher Ndonga to answer that question. Hopefully Ted can shed some light on the question after he takes a look at the male(s) he has. Maybe I have a male taeniatus ndonga. That would explain why they aren't spawning!!!

 

[animalmgc]

definetly a nice lookin fish wish u luck in spawning them

 

[tjudy]

We collected 6 pairs of P. pulcher 'Ndonga' (and worked hard doing it! Not tons of them in the stream), and all of them look like this. We did not collect any P. taeniatus at this location. I brought three pairs back and Anton kept 3 pairs. As of the last time he and I talked about it, none of the fish have spawned.

The Ndonga region is geographically isolated from any of the large watershed around it. To the east and south is the long and narrow Sanaga River system that extends to the east all the way to the Congo watershed. The the east and north lies the broad and flat Wouri River system. The reason for the isolation is a coastal range of steep hills that form the eastern and southern border of the Ndonga area. Immediately to the North is an estuary that is fed solely by the runoff from those hills. These short, fast-moving streams collectively make up what we call Ndonga.

The hypothesis is that the Ndonga P. pulcher is a remnant population that has been cutoff from the populations much further north and west by the rise of the Atlantic Ocean after the last Ice Age. Prior to that happening the coastline of West Africa looked very different. Here is a map of Equatorial Guinea: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/7221.htm I chose it because it shows the island of Fernando Po (a part of E. G.). If you imagine the coastline starting in Nigeria and running across the Bay of Biafra to Kribi, Cameroon (and probably further south than that), in a curving path far enough out in the bay that it included the island of Fernando Po on the mainland, you will have a picture of what the coastline was like. P. pulcher currently exists in Nigeria and Benin near the coasts, and in that one little place Ndonga, Cameroon. When the water level was much lower, the range probably extended along the coast from what is now Cameroon to Benin.

So why that spots... who knows. There are several possibilities. One is that somewhere way back in the gene pool history the population there were some hybridizations bewteen P. pulcher and P. taeniatus. Another possibility is that the species evolved spots. The population is certainly far enough away from the Lagos, Nigeria, populations to prevent gene flow, so it is reasonable to suggest that the phenotype in Ndonga is the result of the natural progression of evolution.

I have tried everything I know to get this fish to breed... including giving a pair to Jeff, as risky as that was... :wink: The only person I know who reported spawning it is Steve White, who told me that the pH was near 5.0 when they spawned. I tried that and did not get any results. Jeff and I are both trying large tanks and lots of current at the moment. A few boxes of this fish came in to the USA four years ago. I did not get any (I snoozed, I losed). Lots of babies did not appear is the hobby, so I can only assume that it has proven to be a very hard fish to spawn.

I do not know if Anton Lamboj is going to address the Ndonga population in his upcoming revision of Pelvicachromis or not.

 

[tjudy]

Here are some images of P. taeniatus from Ndonga.. for comparison.

 

[Joe Gatchell]

Wow, Ndonga has nice looking pulchers and taeniatus.

 

[Joe Gatchell]

Did either of you ever get these Ndonga pulchers to spawn?

 

[aquaticclarity]

Nope

 

[gerald]

Ted - Do the wild pulcher from Nigeria and Benin totally lack dorsal & caudal spots? Domestic pulcher sure have plenty of genetic plasticity for fin spots, in both sexes -- or do you think the domestic "kribs" with spots are all pulcher x taeniatus hybrids ?

TJudy wrote: "So why that spots... who knows. There are several possibilities. One is that somewhere way back in the gene pool history the population there were some hybridizations bewteen P. pulcher and P. taeniatus. Another possibility is that the species evolved spots. The population is certainly far enough away from the Lagos, Nigeria, populations to prevent gene flow, so it is reasonable to suggest that the phenotype in Ndonga is the result of the natural progression of evolution."

Male tail shape: I suspect the spade-shape will develop more with age, as it does in domestic "kribs."
How old are the fish pictured? Some of my males (domestic) dont get much of a tail point until about 1.5 yrs old.