NEWS 110
8
to red jewel cichlids. It shouldn't be too
brightly illuminated and include some
hiding-places.A standard off-the-shelf 60-cm
aquarium is perfectly adequate for breeding,
though in that case there should be no other
fishes in the aquarium. Plants aren't usually
vandalized by these fishes.
The solution to the puzzle
Both of the pairs I took home did justice to
Wild-caught male
H. guttatus
from the Benue River in Nigeria in brood-care dress.
This wild-caught female, seen here in normal coloration (above, small photo) and brood-care dress
(below, large photo) also originates from the Benue River. Both photos show the same individual.
their kind, spawning in short order and
almost simultaneously (at an interval of
only two days) so that I had a good
opportunity for comparison. Except for the
missing lateral spot the "Fire Lips"
resembled the wild-caught
Hemichromis
guttatus
in every detail. Both females
assumed a breathtakingly beautiful brood-
care dress, in which they became bright
yellow from the back to somewhat below
the center of the body, while the belly was
brilliant red in color. By contrast both males
assumed a rather modest coloration in
which the area from the back to well below
the center of the body was warm yellow
and the breast a delicate red.The eyes were
bright yellow in the females, but only brass-
colored in the males.
The moment of truth came when the "Fire
Lips" young lost their infant stripes. Almost
all of them developed a perfectly normal
Hemichromis guttatus spot! Only eight out
of the 134 juveniles that I raised exhibited a
greatly reduced lateral spot or none at all.
So it can be stated with a high degree of
certainty that
Hemichromis
sp."Fire Lips" is a
selectively cultivated form of
Hemichromis
guttatus
. The question remains as to
whether the lateral spot will disappear in all
individuals later on (at the time of writing
the young are just eight weeks old).We will
wait with bated breath…....
Lexicon
Hemichromis
Hemichromis
means ”half Chromis”;
Chromis is another fish genus.
guttatus
means ”spotted”
fasciatus
means ”banded”
elongatus
means ”elongate”
bimaculatus
means ”with two spots”.
