by richardb-at-cognos.UUCP (Richard Brosseau)
Date: 31 Jan 92
In article <1992Jan30.182652.11474-at-seq.uncwil.edu> knapp-at-seq.uncwil.edu ( <* Michael Knapp *>) writes:
+Summary: Algae out of control
+
+Hey all tropical fisher out there. I am new to this group and
+have a few questions about my Lake Tank I have.
+I have 2 lamprolongus leleupi, 1 larger than the other and
+he is very agrressive. Also I have a Malawi M. Auratas (spell?).
+Anyhow, the first question is how do i get rid of string algae
+growth on my plants, which BTW, the Leleupi's don't
+seem to eat my plant. Incredible!
Lelupi are carnivous; they'll eat small fish if you let them.
+I know that Mollies will
+eat the str algae but i am afraid that the Leleupi will surely
+kill the molly before it can eat the stuff. Anyone have any
+suggestions of other fish or cures for this problem?
Just clean the algae by hand or get more Malawi cichlids. I don't know
of too many algae eating (commercially available, that is)
Tanganyikas other than the Tropheous group, but you don't want to
mix these with meat-eating fish. Tropheous don't do so well on a
high meat-content diet.
+Also I was wondering if there are any bottom dwellers that could
+handle this tough invironment. Comment are most welcome!
+I put a talking catfish in there but he got beat up pretty bad.
+So I put him in a small 10 gal community tank I have set up.
+Will the cichids leave him alone after a while if I put him back
+in there?
Leleupis's just don't like bottom-dwelling catfish. I had a Syndo (cp?)
multipuctus in with 6 lelupis and it got beat up pretty bad.
+Finally, has anyone had much experience with breeding L. Leleupis
+and is it possible to tell the sexes apart? Someone told me
+that the females are noticeably smaller is this true?
I put 6 2.5 inch leleupis's in a 30 gallon high community tank and a
pair spawned within 2 weeks. I isolated them in another 30 gallon
tank and had lots of problems with aggression (male beating up the
female). I would partition them apart for 3 weeks and fatten up the
female then let'em go for 2-3 days. They would usually spawn about
once a month. I never did get the fry past the wriggler stage; I was
feeding beef heart and that apparently builds up a population of
timy white worms that attack the eggs and wrigglers.
The male eventually killed the female. I think thats the way most aquarium
female cichlids finally die.
If I was to do it again, I'd leave the in a (larger) community setting
so that they can hit other (dither fish like Aus. Rainbows of even
L. compressiceps) fish and leave each other alone. Loiselle suggests
housing these fish in a tank at least 6 feet long; I tend to agree.
The female might be smaller than the male but that won't do any good
if they aren't ready or willing to pair up.
I strongly suggest Loiselle's smaller African Cichild book; the one thats
part of a series on keeping aquarium fish by Tetra.
--
Richard Brosseau - Cognos Incorporated UUNET:uunet!cognos.uucp!richardb
BITNET:ccs.carleton.ca!cognos.uucp!richardb
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