Odd P. sacrimontis behavior

[tjudy]

I have a pair of the red form of P. sacrimontis that are managing a spawn completely outside of a cave. The female cleared some gravel (and plants) out of an planted terracotta flower pot and laid the eggs on the inside about 1/2" from the rim. Once the larvae hatched she has moved them to various small pits around the aquarium, but never into a cave or even into a place that is completely covered from above (such as under a piece of wood). Currently, she has them sitting on the sand at the base of the flower pot the eggs were laid in. Her color pattern is consistent with a female sacrimontis that is brooding larvae, but she and the male are behaving like a pair that are guarding free swimming fry. They are already communicating with each other and trading off the hovering duties.

There are three caves in the aquarium set up in the way that other P. sacrimontis have found appealing. This is the first spawn for this specific pair, and they are wild fish. What makes the situation really intriguing to me is that they share the aquarium with 8 voracious Arnoldichthys spilopterus (African redeye tetras). With fry predators like those around, one wold think the cichlids would use any cave they could find.

 

[gerald]

That is odd. I had some Nanochromis spawn on the side of a sponge filter, but that's because there was no cave -- just leaves and moss. It was just a temp holding tank not intended for breeding.

 

[tjudy]

The pair still has their fry. I want to raise some of these, so I will likely siphon them out today (after getting some video).

 

[tjudy]

Video of the pair with their fry... http://tedsfishroom.com/2012/08/06/who-c-a-r-e-s-pelvicachromis-sacrimontis/

 

[Mike Wise]

This is my favorite Krib. I was breeding them back in the 80s, but couldn't sell them until they were adults. Everyone just thought they were Pv. pulcher. I wish I could find a pair as red as my first wild pair. Both were bright red; the male from chin to caudal peduncle, belly to lateral band. I'll have to see if I can find the color slides and scan them for here. They were a great pair. I don't think I lost many fry. My target fish? 4 Congo Tetras and a common Rainbowfish - in a 29H. Since they are a CARES fish, maybe I should find some and start breeding them again. They'll certainly be more challenging than my Pv. 'taeniatus' Lokundje, which breed like flies! Already taking up 4 tanks.

 

[Mike Wise]

Scanned a couple of old slides (March 1985):

Pv. sacrimontis A (red) pair:

Pv. sacrimontis B (green?) pair:

 

[aquaticclarity]

Any chance that you have any more pictures of that first pair of Pevicachromis you could scan in and post? I don't know that I've ever had a red male with an occeli before! The lone yellow male sacrimontuis that I have has one (and yellow have been a VERY hard form for me to come by) but the red's normally don't.

Do you remember if they were wild caught fish?

 

[tjudy]

Jeff,

The red male I got from you on the last order, the one that is in the video, is a red male with ocelli....

 

[tjudy]

I also notice that in Mike's picture of the green morph, the male has a blue bar and no ocelli... I think our assumption that red have no ocelli and greens do is false.

 

[Mike Wise]

Here is a little history before another photo of the red male. Back in September(?) 1984 I got a call from some African cichlid (Rift Lake) enthusiasts. They wanted to know what a 'Giant Krib' was. I told them about (then) Pv. sp. aff pulcher and also warned them that they were very rarely exported. "You might get just big Kribs." One told me that the importer said that they were BIG and color-wise different from any Kribs he'd gotten before. I agreed to go in with them for a bag of 25. When they came in, 2 other hobbyist came to my house where we took turns picking fish. They were what is now called A. sacrimontis of both the 'A' (red) and 'B' (yellow/green) color morphs (Staeck & Link book). The fish were all fully mature with some close to 4"/10cm long. They weren't skinny or stressed from shipping. My guess is that the importer had had them for a while and couldn't move them because everyone else thought they were just big Pv. pulcher. I was happier than a kid at Christmas!

Here is another photo of my 'A' pair, the female in her breeding cave:

Speaking of ocelli, here is a Pv. pulcher bred by Rick Haeffner (now Curator of Herps and Fishes at the Denver Zoo) back in the late 70s when he was just starting college. He wanted to see how many ocelli he could put on a Krib. This was one of his culls(!) that he gave me. He had some with double rows of spots on the caudal! Truly incredible fish!