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Exochochromis Anagenys


malawi sand diver

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A progress report - the male is gaining size rapidly and is gobbling up a lot of live food. The female has started eating New Era rift lake red pellets but isn't in as good condition as the male although is doing OK. The male is a dominant fish and displays quite a bit to her. Lucky she can retreat to the safety of the rock modules whenever she wants. I am hoping the male will start getting his blue head soon, not sure at what age they acquire the blue head, but he seems to be getting better with age - showing a brighter yellow.

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Hi, thanks, your Lethrinops should be starting to show colour in another month or so, I have found they are slow growing to start with, but once they reach about 2cm bigger than your size, they grow a lot quicker. The larger ones contrary to what you will read, hold their own against similar sized malawi haps. I have 2 large males and 3 females at the moment and they spawn all the time. For some reason though, the females only hold a few days, I think they squabble with the other females a lot and for some reason they lose their eggs. Next time, I will be tumbling them.

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  • 1 month later...

The exo pair is doing well in my 10 foot tank. They are not an assertive fish so far, mostly interested in trying to hunt smaller fish but don't seem interested in bossing around fish their own size or on territories. The female has really imjporved her health and both fish now eating pellets with supplemented live food.

Update pic

exo1.JPG

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  • 6 months later...

Thanks Ged.

An update on the pair. I started out with one large dominant one and one smaller one. I just assumed the bigger one was male since it was so dominant over the other one. It turns out the big one is female and the egg tube is just about to come down.

The smaller one I am assuming is male - the one pictured in the most recent update pic. But as I have found with a lot of haps, the female seems to mature earlier than the male, she is trying to spawn with the male but maybe he is still too young - time will tell.

The good news is that both are in great condition. They are being fed on a diet of NLS, rosy barbs and the occasional cherry shrimp.

I know now that I definitely have a female and am assuming the smaller one is male, I will vent to be sure after this possible spawning activity and post some update pics as they have grown heaps.

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Hi Chuckmeister

I remember reading your posts about them a while back, they were a rare fish back then aswell. My aim is to get them breeding and make them available in the hobby again - they should be in the same league as champs, buccos, fuscos etc in terms of availability since they are such a cool fish. I could only afford a pair and haven't seen any around since. I feel if I don't breed this pair there will be a slim chance that they will be available.

So I've made it my mission to focus on them - I have a pair in my 10x2x2 and its interesting to see the male chase the female all over the tank. Its lucky they are in a 10 footer because just having the pair I think the less dominant one would get smashed in something less unless there was a larger colony. Did yours ever breed and if so, what was their spawning activity like?

Regards, Rob

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G'day Link, yeah I've been well mate. Been out of the hobby for quite some time now and only have my 8by3 left. Am looking at replacing my 6by2 sump with a couple of eheim 2260's and thought I'd pop by and see whats happening.

Hey Rob, I did get one small spawn of about 20 but the fry contracted whatever the adult had. They seemed to get a small sore on the right side of the body and then just stopped eating until death. treatments didn't work so it was a slow process of watching my colony die. With the first spawn I gave a few people some fry in the hope that they would survive but they didn't unfortunately. They seemed to breed like any malawi and the male was not overly agressive.

Bad pictures I'm sorry but its all I have of them..

Anagenys001.jpg

Anagenys002.jpg

IMG_2063-1.jpg

this one is of mum holding

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Chuckmeister/media/Anagenysgirl.jpg.html?sort=3&o=114

Chuck

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Wow, thanks for the photos - great fish you had there. They looked to be in great condition back then aswell. How big did they get?

For some reason I think the exos seem sensitive to disease, I have read that elsewhere. When I first got mine, they both had internal parasites and I had to treat them both in a separate 4x2x2 tank with dosed food and powder. And for some reason they didn't eat pellets in those early days, I had to raise them on live food so it was a challenge initially. But one day they took a liking to NLS and have since blossomed.

Interesting in that last shot that the female has a blue coloured head - I never knew the females got a blue head.

They are hard to sex by appearance alone. Mine are still only about 15cm (half the size of what they will become).

One is taller than the other and bigger and one is more slender and smaller with less egg spots. I am pretty sure they are a pair but I will vent them before the major auction to be 100%.

True that the heterospecific agression is low for such a big malawi predator. But the conspecific agression seems pretty high. For that reason, since I only have the pair, tankmate selection is important.

I am planning the ideal tankmate selection for them and have so far come up with a mix of fish that the exos are dominant over. Mylochromis Lateristriga Makanjila is an ideal choice IMO, I have a pair of them in with them. I also currently have a small trio of 7 bar frontosa that they are dominant over. Then there is a trio of placidochromis phenochilus white lip mdoka that don't bother them. But I am thinking I need a boss that will diffuse his agression slightly towards the single female, so I will kepp a red empress pair in with them. Then observe the tank dynamics.

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always welcome here Chuck :thumb

great series of pics

the disease sounds like one that went through Electric Yellows

where it started as a red spot and just grows till that and them

stopping eating finished them

I think they end up using an strong antibiotic the clear it up

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always welcome here Chuck :thumb

great series of pics

the disease sounds like one that went through Electric Yellows

where it started as a red spot and just grows till that and them

stopping eating finished them

I think they end up using an strong antibiotic the clear it up

Wholehearted agree with everything L2H said.

I think there were some photos of the Yellows here somewhere.

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  • 3 months later...

Hi guys

Sorry its been a while since I updated the thread. I have some great news to share - we have some fry! The first time they spawned, the female spat or swallowed 3 days in.

The second time they spawned, I stripped the female 4 hours after the event and tumbled the eggs carefully. This is the first time I have stripped this early and I don't normally do that, but this was an exception.

Anyway, I now have 16 fry in a grow out tank. I am going to put all fry back into the 10 foot tank and grow a colony to go forth and multiply.

My tank will have those and mdoka white lips in it. Should be an interesting tank when they approach adulthood. They are such an awesome fish, the pair is getting huge now and it will be great to have gold females instead of the usual silver malawi hap females for a change. I will post some update pics soon, I have been flat out with a new job doing ridiculous hours of writing code but I will update as soon as things settle.

Regarding the price I got the 10cm pair for 300 bucks from interstate originally, I tried to get more shortly afterwards but they were not available. There were issues other people had raising the fry from that generation so these could be the only ones in Oz.

But rest assured they are in good hands, as I write this, the male is shaking his stuff in the corner of my tank and I think they will be ready to spawn again in another couple of weeks.

Reagrds, Rob

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