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Exochochromis Anagenys


malawi sand diver

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These guys seem to be fairly common in the hobby overseas, but I haven't seen them anywhere in Australia.

Is the reason for this that we can no longer get them into the country and a population never established? Seems strange and a bit of a shame that a lot of the other large haps have established populations but these guys aren't around.

Regards, Rob

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They're not common, by any means, but they are here and being bred. Some shops might be able to order them in via a certain wholesaler...

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  • 3 years later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Thanks mate, I'm over the moon to finally be keeping a couple, I thought it was a myth that they were here but yes they are real.

The male is 12cm and the female is 10cm. They still have a really wild streak about them, its awesome to watch them hunting the small mbuna in my tank. I've kept a lot of malawi predators before, and these are the most predatorial of all the predators, like streamlined little sharks.

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Here is a link to a short youtube clip of them in my tank I just uploaded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYXlvsZDN70&feature=youtu.be

Yes, they do eat the smaller mbuna if they catch them. They hunt them around the rocks and pounce on them with lightening speed.

I've had these fish for 2 weeks now and have been trying to get them onto pellets without much luck yet as they only eat live food. The closest I got was floating an NLS pellet past the powerhead for movement. Also tried New Era without much luck.

But they have eaten one serve of live brine shrimp and some 2cm cichlid fry I have been breeding until I can get them eating pellets. Being a piscavore in the wild it won't hurt them eating fry that I have bred myself occasionally. But I want to get them eating pellets

I will try holding off feeding for a couple of days and see if I can get them onto pellets. The male sometimes bites at the pellets but spits them out and the female won't touch the pellets.

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Its been interesting observing their hunting tecnique aswell. They spend most of the time around the rocks looking for prey. When they spot it, they move very slowly towards the target, similar to how a dimidiochromis compressiceps slowly descend towards its target. It hovers over the prey, gradually moving in. Then when it is within range, swoops on its prey with great speed and with a sideways movement of the body snaps it up in its mouth. The beak on its mouth may be similar to a bird of prey's beak for retaining the victim in the mouth.

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That's interesting because I thought it was an adaptation similar to Aristochromis Christyi (but not as pronouced), where the beak helps to retain the fish in the mouth when they are caught. Having said that, I have seen a lot of photos of them and I think the subtle beak is more obvious when they are smaller and as they get bigger the beak becomes less obvious.

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