Jump to content

Copadichromis lost the plot


boban_nz

Recommended Posts

Here is some very odd behaviour of Copadichromis that I have never witnessed before. The male holding eggs in his mouth???? Originally I thought that the male was holding food in his mouth but after sometime I found that it wasn't the case. I opened his mouth and got the eggs out.

The bigest suprise for me was that it was actually hold two batches of eggs. First ones are well developed and the second ones are very young.

I had a quick search over the internet but didn't find any other report about that matter

IMG_2654.jpg

IMG_2656.jpg

IMG_2676.jpg

IMG_2683.jpg

IMG_2697.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

thats awesome i brought a tep top mice blue that i was sure was male had really bold egg spots nice colourful and the biggest in the tank at the lfs 4 months later its skinny and i think its sick till i notice its holding and is actually a female so stripped it and gave it away

Link to comment
Share on other sites

After removing the eggs the male has started to do what it is supposed to do, showing off to the other female.

As I mentioned before I didn't see the spawning. In fact there were two spawnings according to the eggs developement. It doesen't matter how many males are out there, did it fertilize eggs or not the fact is that it has eggs in his mouth. For sure there are other people who witnessed that unusual matter.

It is a male by any definitions of copadichromis and there is no well coloured female. Female of C. azureus has silver and blue highlight on cheek and lateral portion of body grey blue. Moreover the female has three distinct black spots on the body.

Have a look at pelvic fins on the picture. Male has much longer pelvic fin than a female.

I had Sciaenochromis fryeri on a few occasions in my hands and never saw a coloured female. I am talking about true Sciaenochromis fryeri not ones that are on the market under that name. Last time I saw them was about 3-4 years ago or so. An Electric Blue Hap that most people are talking about are not Sciaenochromis fryeri at all. That "Electric blue Hap" has coloured female to some point. Unfortunatly I could not make any further steps to identify that fish, it simply didn't fit in any specimens descriptions. Might be some hybridizations, who knows.

Female

IMG_2708_1.jpg

Male

IMG_2715.jpg

Female adpressed pelvic fin

IMG_2708.jpg

Male adpressed pelvic fin

IMG_2714.jpg

IMG_2721.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awesome well you have a special male there then :) It would be interesting to see if his young when grown up carry the same traits?

I have pure Sc. Fryeri too and haven't seen a coloured female out of my lot. There are plenty of dodgy fish sold as fryeri around the place though, quite a few with utaka spots too :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i got fryeri from johannes that have the utuka spots

It is my opinion from the research that I have done and talking to experienced people that Fryeri shouldn't have utaka spots. Again don't want to ruffle any feathers I haven't researched it that heavily as mine don't have them so it didn't really bother me that others do.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is my opinion from the research that I have done and talking to experienced people that Fryeri shouldn't have utaka spots. Again don't want to ruffle any feathers I haven't researched it that heavily as mine don't have them so it didn't really bother me that others do.

im not worried at all as i fed them to the cat as i thought the same thing. it's not the first time they have had mutts as you well know.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...