Copadichromis Trewavasae

[undercoverbrother]

Another....

Are these still around post, sorry ?.

Thanks

[LithoMan]

yes

i heard a few going around

but have never seen them full coloured up

very nice fish

[undercoverbrother]

Thanks Brett

[firthy13]

i have been searching for years and have never seen any evidence of them still being here. They are forever getting confused with Copadichromis Chrysonotus and i have seen people selling Chrysonotus as Trewavasae. im affraid they have suffered the same fate as Copadichromis Virginalis 'firecrest' who have also disappeared.

[LithoMan]

no

johns had them and was breeding them

and some even went through auction

i think malawi sand diver won them in the raffle.

Copadichromis mloto Ivory look them up

[undercoverbrother]

I should have repharsed my post, I know they are here, was curious as to where they are hiding haha.

p.s brett any luck with those bluelips yet haha.

[LithoMan]

i am edwin not brett lol

and no bluelips playing hard to get

or maybe all boys party

[undercoverbrother]

hahahahaha, ops I honestly thought that was coming but you didn't say anything after the first time. Wonder who is brett haha. sorry edwin hahaa .

might just take a while to get ready.

[rosco]

Hi Edwin,

I did get some "trewavasae"from a guy down here who got them from John and Connie but when the gong guys came past my place they were pretty convinced they were chrysonotus. I only sold one lot of fry to jason and fed that info to him so I believe that is what he had them as.

Cheers

Rosco

[firthy13]

Spot on rosco. I have seen a adult colony that came from John and they were chrysonotus. Still beautiful fish and quite interesting because they actually spawn in the middle of the water column rather then the substrate. Hopefully true trewavasae do miraculously turn up one day.

[LithoMan]

Don't make it a mission

Ill get some now lol

I never saw adults so no idea if they right or wrong fish

[undercoverbrother]

[z18turbo]

Hi All,

Got a young trio last week down here that were labelled as trewavasae but looking at the above I now think they are chrysonotus. Please see pick below, they came from Keysborough Aquarium.

Cheers,

Jarrod

[Buccal]

I once had a Perth breeder that asked me to bag up and box fish to prep for his shipment to Sydney.

This was about two years ago.

He said they were trewavasae but they were chrysonotus Definetely.

There were so many to the colony that it filled two large foam boxes.

I told him they were chrysonotus,,,, but I think he still stuck to his original tag.

If you put males side by side of each species,,, they really don't look that alike,,,,, just very slightly similar but not alike.

Different ranking in the dominance of males in both species will give a great variance in color shades.(which possibly induces the confusion).

I have chrysonotus myself,,,, I also went out to check a trewavasae colony for sale almost a few years ago,,,, they were true trewavasae.

But I didnt buy them as they all had the very beginnings of bloat,,,,, apparently a week later they were all dead,,,,

I noticed a squarer broader body slightly, crest come down a little deeper, vertical faint baring, and much greener around gill areas.

Nose also a little more pointed and a more laterally compressed jaw.

I think if both species were around in oz in abundant numbers,,, the differences would be known a lot easier Without confusion.

If one hasn't seen trewavasae in the flesh then it's hard to know what to look for.

Google can give pretty scrambled info at times.

[Andrew]

Hi Everyone,

UCB told me about the thread and I thought I'd jump in and see if I could help...

The picture of the fish from KA is C. chrysonotus. The clear giveaway is the configuration of the spots on the side of the fish. In C. trewavasae, there are three dark spots concentrated in a line close to the middle of the flanks. In C. chrysonotus, the configuration is one dark - one feint - one dark, and they are situated higher up the flank than on C. trewavasae.

It is no one's particular fault in Australia, but we do not have C. trewavasae here, to my knowledge, and we possibly never will. There have been three historic offerings of fish labeled as C. trewavasae, and each time, the fish have been diagnosed as C. chrysonotus. It would thus seem that the overseas exporters these fish came from had sent us the wrong fish - and that's not the only example of that happening.

I had a large colony at the shop, which were purportedly C. trewavasae, however, I was prompted to look further into it when I saw them spawning in the open water column. It is a widely documented fact that C. chrysonotus is the only fish in Lake Malawi to breed this way. All other mouthbrooders from the lake, including all the other "true Utaka" will spawn on a surface before the female collects the eggs.

Hope this helps,

Andrew.

[LithoMan]

OK NOW I AM ON A MISSION

[Buccal]

I'm sure the ones I boxed up for this fellow was the ones that went to Andrew.

But when I saw the true Trewavasae,,, they were Definetely true,, but I won't say into detail of their showing.

I do know for a fact, they Definetely have been here and no more than two years ago.

My personal belief is that they are a little touchy when in the hands of a not so thorough aquarist.

[firthy13]

Well that's good to hear, lets hope Edwin finds them

[malawi sand diver]

Yeah best of luck Edwin. Those ones I got from the raffle were chrysonotus. I remember at the time I had them I was suspicious because the middle spot was faint and sometimes not even visible. Trewavasse have the 3 distinct spots as Andrew mentioned. The male chrysonotus is still a pretty cool fish when breeding, they go really dark when displaying.

[z18turbo]

Thanks Andrew for the info I.D. on mine, the male does look good when he displays for the females.

[aqc]

trewavasae

chrysonotus

Other mislabels include Eastern Three Spot which are not as colorful.

[kanned_guru]

chrysonotus are a beatiful fish in their own right, but still got nothing on trewavasae IMHO.

Is that trewavasae pic one that you took yourself Ian? If so, where?

[Buccal]

Don't forget trewavasae are locational as well as having color shade differences.

But notice the differences between the two,,,, from top of eyes along to mouth,,, quite a difference.

Something the pics don't show most of the time on the trewavasae is the undercarriage showing as darkish black,,, but is actually midnight royal blue or depending on location (the ones I saw), midnight green around gills and mouth.

Locational will show variances in the crest to.

The more these two fish are looked at, the more further differences are noticed.

Two front on view pics of each should show the chrysonatus has a wider skull and jaw.

But aqc's pics reveal a fair bit I think.

Locational differences makes great talk and I like it a lot.

But these two are a fair bit more different to each other in appearance and behaviour to be subtle locational matters.

C.chrysonotus are severely underrated in my belief.

They fill the water column from top to bottom in the tank,,, and the male differences in the dominance levels of the colony makes a interesting appearance with how different they can look to each other.

The males lock lips at the surface fully colored and fins spread,,, they pause in lock mode and both jump out of the water and detatch.

With bigger specimens,,, good to have heavy lids.

A truly great single specie display tank fish.

[aqc]

Yes KG, pics I took. I still have the chrysos and did have some trewavas from my mate that still has them as far as I know...

The yellow finned girls in the chryso pic are borleyi, Nkhungu Reef. Female chrysos are silver grey in colour.

[malawi sand diver]

Hi, good the hear your mate still has the trewavasse, I thought they were gone. they are probably the only ones left in oz, here's hoping his colony breeds.