# Altolamprologus Factory



## Razzo (Oct 17, 2007)

Just an update on my first batches of calvus fry (I have learned much)...

Groups A, B & C are in this 55 (150+)



























Group D is in the 10 (I took some heavy losses but think I figured out what went wrong)









Here is the dad (he is a booger and is very hard to photograph)









These two have been the latest to spawn (she's been getting some fn damage)









My Muzi gold head comps have been hawking the spawning shell. Mom hides out in the shell and dad will get "kinda" in the face of the comps and when the comps get too close he will get in the mouth of the shell to block the eggs/fry & mom from the comps


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## Razzo (Oct 17, 2007)

BTW: these are wild caught A. calvus (black congo white pearl).


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## BioG (Oct 12, 2008)

Those look like inks razzo? there are so many trade names though I bet it's all the same. Either way it looks like the fry are coming along and growing pretty fast.

I have always found that a big footprint, and very frequent water changes grow altolamp fry faster than power feeding by itself and your "factory" looks CLEAN.

WHat have you been feeding those guys? Whatever it is, looks like it's working!


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## Razzo (Oct 17, 2007)

In March my family moved into a temp apartment waiting for our new house to be built. I sold off my frontosa and my sister took my orange fin comps and is baby sitting them for me. The day she picked them up I discovered they had their first spawn and in the past couple months they have spawned several times for her. LOL, she is being over run with fry. She has been doing a great job and has not been losing many fry at all. Here's a few pics from my sister:

One of the two male orange fin comps









First batch of fry we discovered on moving day (they are getting big) - they are 3+ months old


















Latest batch of fry


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## Razzo (Oct 17, 2007)

Couple of my favorite photos of my orange fins while they we in the tank in the house we sold:

The two males









Dad of the first batch of fry









The other male and I think, the dad of the latest batch of fry


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## Razzo (Oct 17, 2007)

BioG said:


> Those look like inks razzo? there are so many trade names though I bet it's all the same. Either way it looks like the fry are coming along and growing pretty fast.
> 
> I have always found that a big footprint, and very frequent water changes grow altolamp fry faster than power feeding by itself and your "factory" looks CLEAN.
> 
> WHat have you been feeding those guys? Whatever it is, looks like it's working!


Hey BioG, Thanks 

They are a recent import of blacks (very dark just not inkfin dark - not too far away but they are blacks). True Inkfins were collected by Thorsten Rueters and when he sold out he never dislcosed where he collected them. In my opinion, we have not had Inkfin imported since then; however, it is a popular marketing name and many have jumped on the band wagon.

In the 55, I do 27% water changes 2x per week. I vacumm 2x per week and clean intake sponges 2x too. I clean the sponge in the filter once per week. They are at the point were they can tollerate tap water for the water changes. I feed them a staple mix of NLS grow and Ocean Nutrition omni & veggie flake. I pulverize the food almost into a powder. They get the staple once to twice per day and I try to feed cyclopese once per day.

The new fry in the 10 get 2 wc per week. I had heavy losses with tap water and have gone back to using water from the 55 adult tank. The adult tank has extremely low nitrite levels and new fry seem to respond well to it for wc's. The older groups of fry had their wc from the adult tank and I did not have as much losses with them. So, I have gone back to the tempered water from the adult tank. I also was out of town a couple weeks on travel and that had an impact on the high mortality rate with this latest batch. I had close to 150 fry to start with and am down to about 30. new fry need a lot of TLC and my travel schedule didn't alow that.

Should be good to go with the next couple batches of fry which are being guarding by moms in shells at this moment.


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## Longstocking (Aug 26, 2003)

I'm sorry to say but I believe they recently have been imported. And I believe you have inks.

Divers know where they collect fish.. not business owners alone. Just because owners aren't in business doesn't mean the divers went "poof".

Just my opinion opcorn: Better to have inks anyways. I think I've only seen three pics since keeping tangs... including yours.


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## Razzo (Oct 17, 2007)

Longstocking said:


> I'm sorry to say but I believe they recently have been imported. And I believe you have inks.... Better to have inks anyways. I think I've only seen three pics since keeping tangs... including yours.


Agreed, better to have Inks 

Thanks for the kudos


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## dmiller328 (Nov 17, 2008)

Most European breeders and exporters have what we call Inkfins split into 2 kinds called Black Pearl and Black Pectoral.The Black Pectorals pec fins are so black that you can not see through them while the pearls can.If the are different locales or just natural variation, I don't know and there is not much info on where they are collected.I just received a group of Wild calvus Livua and almost half of the group looks like Razzo's and the others are lighter in color.I was told by a respected importer where I bought the fish that there is much variation in the black fin Congos.


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## Razzo (Oct 17, 2007)

dmiller328 said:


> ...I just received a group of Wild calvus Livua and almost half of the group looks like Razzo's and the others are lighter in color. I was told by a respected importer where I bought the fish that there is much variation in the black fin Congos.


Could the color difference be a result of gender???? My females are much lighter than my males. My females do show a range of color variations. I will try to photograph each.


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## BioG (Oct 12, 2008)

judging from your pics yours look a bit like mine in that the pectoral fin is solid black no matter wht stage of over all color the fish is in. My inks stay dark most of the time because I keep them over black sand and they too have that "ink" fin.

It stands to reason that any Calvus collected in Northern Congo, is probably an ink fin, else why would they collect so far north and face the risks of collecting there? Minus the black pectoral, southern congos are pretty dark when compared to Zambians so if you're not collecting Black pectorl calvus than what kind of crazy would dodge machine gun fire and mountain gorillas to bag a fish they can bag 400 miles down the shore! :lol:


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## Razzo (Oct 17, 2007)

Beautiful alto BioG!!!

Here are a few more pics of my Calvus. Do you guys think I could honestly call them Inkfin? I like them a lot (whatever they are called). If they are Inkfin, I certainly would like to call them that; however, I want to be as honest as possible. Looking for your opinions 

With these guys being as dark as they are (especially on their face) I have wondered if they were Inkfin (that thought had crossed my mind).



















Dominant male on the right and mega mom on the left









Mega mom guarding eggs









Subdominant male


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## Razzo (Oct 17, 2007)

Got a nice pic of the dom male this afternoon. I had a problem of the glass cleaner streaking and causing problems with my pictures and my wife told me to use a coffee filter and it worked GREAT!


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## Number6 (Mar 13, 2003)

amazing pictures and congrats on the prolific parents! 
I know who to contact once my pond is ready for these guys! :thumb:


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## mel_cp6 (Feb 3, 2009)

nice. how long are they at 3months old?


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## dmiller328 (Nov 17, 2008)

Hey Russ,

Here is a pic of the Wild Livua calvus group that I received going on 2 weeks.The pectoral fins are not nearly as black as your,so I think the blackfin varieties start at Livua and go North to Kiku and Lunangwa.In these Livua, majority of the females are lighter in color,but the largest male is light as well.It sounds like it is very difficult to collect the black pectorals b/c of the distance from Zambia or across the lake to Tanzania.


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## dmiller328 (Nov 17, 2008)

Another pic


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## Razzo (Oct 17, 2007)

mel_cp6 said:


> nice. how long are they at 3months old?


Hey mel, that's a tough question. They are still tiny. Maybe 1/2 inch??? Not sure. I'll take a closer look tomorrow.

Thanks 

Russ


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## Razzo (Oct 17, 2007)

dmiller328 said:


> Another pic


Very nice altos dmiller! I just love to seeing other's alto pics - thanks for posting them.

What all do you have in your tank? I see a frontosa (possibly a Zaire), your calvus and a julie (possibly a Kipili). Whajagot in there


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## BioG (Oct 12, 2008)

if that pectoral fin stays black, solid all the time than I don't think there is much doubt that they're inks razzo... Better to have inks anyway+ it's not like they were originally mislabeled, they're still "Congo".

Don't worry when the fry don't have black pecs, they don't get that until they mature.


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## BioG (Oct 12, 2008)

at second look. i'm gonna say that they're not. i don't have a better pic of mine right now but ou literally cannot see through the pec fin of my pair no matter how colored down they are (Which they never seem to be.), didn't mean to get you all pumped up! :lol:

Doesn't matter anywhere that dominant pair is gorgeous and to tell the truth I miss the contrast in head color to black body in the regular congos


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## Razzo (Oct 17, 2007)

Oppps


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## dmiller328 (Nov 17, 2008)

Apparently the Europeans know more about the varieties of Congo calvus with black in the pectoral fins.Here is a link to a Czech breeder http://www.tanganika.cz/english/fish-ex ... mprologus/

*Razzo wrote*



> Very nice altos dmiller! I just love to seeing other's alto pics - thanks for posting them.
> 
> What all do you have in your tank? I see a frontosa (possibly a Zaire), your calvus and a julie (possibly a Kipili). Whajagot in there Wink


Thanks Russ,I have 8 F1 Kitumba fronts that are 4 to 7 inches and a Wild female Juli.regani Kipili.Her male partner died mysteriously several months ago and I just got another male for her,but I am letting him bulk up some b/c he is less than 3 inches.


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