Hi, i recently got into west african cichlids and purchased a book called Cichlids From West Africa by Dr. Wolfgang Staeck. In the book i found a page of Nanochromis Dimidatus which I belive is the same as Congochromis Dimidatus. This is where a started to get confused in the photo in the book there in a pic of a Bright red fish, but when i look up Congochromis Dimidatus i see a fish that looks nothing like it. The photo is by Hans-Joachim Richter and when i try to find it online i get nothing. I've seen forms of people talking about the "Ture Congochromis Dimidatus" but im not sure what there refuring to. Dose anyone have any info on this fish?
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Cogochromis dimidiatus
- Thread starter Njd
- Start date
Hey njd!
I’m not an expert on west african cichlids, but i do know that c. Dimidiatus is still on my wishlist.
There is a few threads on this board about that species.
I don’t recall seeing any red “version”.
Could it be due to its an older book and the colors got shifted a bit?
If i remember correctly, they got split into congochromis/nanochromis according to which side of the Congo basin they are found.
Check out the videos from russel tate,
To get a good idea of their original habitat.
https://m.youtube.com/@RussellTateAquaEcoAfrica/videos
Last thing. I saw that ruinemanns in netherlands have them on their list, so check if your lfs get fish from them.
-r
I’m not an expert on west african cichlids, but i do know that c. Dimidiatus is still on my wishlist.
There is a few threads on this board about that species.
I don’t recall seeing any red “version”.
Could it be due to its an older book and the colors got shifted a bit?
If i remember correctly, they got split into congochromis/nanochromis according to which side of the Congo basin they are found.
Check out the videos from russel tate,
To get a good idea of their original habitat.
https://m.youtube.com/@RussellTateAquaEcoAfrica/videos
Last thing. I saw that ruinemanns in netherlands have them on their list, so check if your lfs get fish from them.
-r
Congochromis was divided off of Nanochromis in 2007. So all literature older than this will use Nanochromis.
C. dimidiatus is regularly imported into the EU and by no means a rarity anymore. Still has some exclusivity, though.
The political problems in their region of origin are getting worse at the moment. So any of the next import shipments might be the last for a while.
The book by Staeck is almost 30 years old. The colours in these older prints don't hold as true as one might think.
C. dimidiatus is regularly imported into the EU and by no means a rarity anymore. Still has some exclusivity, though.
The political problems in their region of origin are getting worse at the moment. So any of the next import shipments might be the last for a while.
The book by Staeck is almost 30 years old. The colours in these older prints don't hold as true as one might think.
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Njd, your English copy of Linke & Staeck's West Africa book, published in 1994, was originally published in German in 1984. As such, the information and some identifications are 40 years old and dated. Richter's photos (and ID) are from the 1970s. If you are truly interested in Westies, I suggest that you look for a (relatively) newer book by Anton Lamboj. In 2007, while at the ACA convention in Denver, I was privileged to take Dr. Lamboj, his wife and daughter on a day-long tour through Rock Mountain National Park. I still smile when he was mesmerized by seeing a humming bird dance in front of his face while surround by a herd of 25 - 30 elk/wapiti. I got his book from him the that just started being distributed. Even then he told me that genus and species names in the book would change in the future - just like a taxonomist, they change the names to confuse the aquarist!
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It's not the age of the book that's the problem. It's that the ID of the fish might be wrong. I went digging in my 'black hole' of an aquarium library. The oldest book by Richter that I have (Aquarienfische im Blickpunkt, © 1984) shows the same specimens but different poses. I'm pretty sure I saw the same photos in a TFH magazine in the 70s, but I didn't have a chance to look through them all. As for the fish in the photos in Linke & Staeck, they seem to me to be most similar to Congochromis sebinae (= C. sp. Makoua/Genema). There are several species in genus that can show a bright orange/red color in certain moods.
