# Sarotherodon linnelli shots



## dstuer (Mar 27, 2013)




----------



## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Nice looking fish but I'm not familiar with them at all. Are the males dark or is it the females?


----------



## dstuer (Mar 27, 2013)

The color of one in the first pic (above post) seems permanent, the others vary tremendously from day to day, or with mood, or sunlight.
One day totally back, another day yellow, another day in between, although the darker black is recent and has become darker with age.
Many seem to have carried eggs so far(?), but I have not seen fry as of yet, so my experience is limited;
They are considered a C.A.R.E.S species as the lake, Barombi mbo is threatened with environmental degradation, and has been know to burp volcanic toxic gas which can produce fish kills.
Other cichlids endemic to the lake are Stomatepia pindu

Stomatepia mariae

Konia eisentrauti

and others I have yet to keep, a sponge eater Pungu maclereni, Myaka myaka, more species of Sarotherodon, and Stomatepia mongo
below more color variation in linnelli


----------



## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Thanks for the info.

I do have a 40B tank (36"L x 18"W x 13"H) of six Stomatepia pindu that are gorgeous when I get a look at them when they don't see me coming! I picked them up as fry from a local fish club member and was intrigued both by their color and loss of habitat. Hopefully I can get them to spawn one day and share them with other hobbyists.


----------



## dstuer (Mar 27, 2013)

My current pair of pindu are also very wary, and hide at any remotely sudden approach. 
I also had a spawning group of 6-8 pindu around 10 years ago, and found the only way to get more than 1 or 2 fry, was to strip the female 14 days after noticing a spawn in her mouth. 
Catching her in a large, yet fine mesh net was enough to get her to spit new born molly size fry, and after putting her back in the main tank, transfer the fry into a growout. The first time I used the above technique, I ended up with 15.


----------



## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Cool, thanks for the tip. Did you experience any aggression among the group?

Sorry for hijacking your thread.


----------



## dstuer (Mar 27, 2013)

At about 7" the alpha male started becoming dangerous to other males and non-receptive females, slowly whittling the group down, in a 150gal.
Before that size, aggression was present but non-lethal.


----------

