My Experience with Pelvicachromis subocellatus
The Yellow-cheeked Kribensis
by Joe Solge
From Gravel Gossip, Diamond State Aquarium Society, Delaware City
Aquarticles
I purchased a sextet of half-grown Yellow-cheeked Kribensis at a DSAS auction. They
turned out to be four males and two females. As with the garden variety Kribensis, P.
pulcher, the females are more colorful, sporting the yellow cheeks for which they are
named as well as more yellow on the end of the tail and the upper half of the caudal fin
where there are also numerous black spots. The spotting is also found on the back half of
the dorsal fin. The males have some yellow on the cheeks, but are more pastel colored that
the females, with extensions on the unpaired fins and no spots. The dorsal fin of the male
is edged with red, below which is a band of lavender. Male coloration seems more
mood-dependent than in the females. Both sexes get the pinkish red abdominal coloration
when in breeding/territorial mode. I have to admit my limitations in describing these fish
on paper but, in general, I find them more pleasantly colored than P. pulcher.
They were placed in a 20-gallon long aquarium that was filtered by an undergravel
filter run by a powerhead. Lighting consisted of one 20 watt full spectrum fluorescent
tube on a timer that kept the tank lit for approximately 10 hours daily. Temperature was a
fairly constant 78F degrees, pH ranging from neutral down to 6.0 depending on my sometimes
erratic water changing schedule. Hardness obviously varied with the pH – my well
water starts out fairly hard (not measured specifically for a long time) with a pH of 7.5.
These fish and their fry seemed unfazed by this range of conditions, despite the
conditions they inhabit in the wild. Companion life-forms in the tank were 5 or 6 white
clouds, two full-grown whiptail catfish, a large cutleaf watersprite and a number of Cryptocoryne
wendtii. There were also four terracotta flower pots on their sides, a length of PVC
pipe and a few rocks in there – caves aplenty! Foods consisted of a mixture of flake,
pellet, freeze-dried and frozen fare. Picky eaters these fish are not.
These fish bred successfully for me twice. Each time the pair colored up significantly
and became very territorial, particularly around their chosen cave. The female stayed
inside the cave most of the time, with the male patrolling the perimeter. While not
particularly violent at this time, they made it quite clear to their tankmates that there
was a point beyond which they had best not trespass. These observations were made somewhat
in retrospect since I could never be sure they had actually bred until they emerged with
the free-swimming cloud of fry. The cave entrances all faced the back of the tank. Once
they emerged with the fry, it became necessary to remove the other male Kribensis since
they got no rest from the breeding male. The other fish were not pursued as vigorously and
were left in the tank. The fry seemed to find plenty of microscopic food items in the
dense growth of algae on the tank furnishings when they first emerged. This was
supplemented with frozen brine shrimp nauplii, powdered fry food, and what they ate of
their parents fare. As with the adults, it was not difficult keeping their bellies full,
and they grew quickly because of that.
While I said the fish bred successfully twice, the fish keeper was only successful the
second time. With the first spawning, I removed the parents only a couple of days after
the fry emerged from the cave. Big mistake! While the fry could feed themselves and move
around the tank readily, they apparently still needed their mother’s signals to know
when to move out of the way of danger. The “danger” in this case came from a few
bronze corys that ate the whole spawn the first night the parents were gone. The babies
just hung on the bottom, not knowing when to get out of the way! The second time, the
parents were not removed until the babies started to venture away on their own after a
couple of weeks. I don’t have any idea how many fry were produced in the first
spawning, but the second time a total of 60-65 were accounted for by the time all were
sold or otherwise dispersed.
Although some will say breeding “Kribensis” is a matter of simply adding fish
and water, but for one whose experience with dwarf cichlids is limited, these
yellow-cheeked kribs demonstrated all of the typical cichlid spawning behavior on a
smaller scale and provide an attractive variation of a common genus. I would definitely
recommend them for anyone interested in dwarf African cichlids.
|