|  Here's a wonderful
little mouth brooding cichlid which is rarely seen in the hobby, perhaps
because the genus falls outside the more well known groups of African
cichlids of the Rift Lakes. This dwarf hails from West Africa - the
upper reaches of the Zaire River in what was until about ten years ago
the country of Zaire but which is now known as the Republic of Congo.
Males are spectacular in or out of breeding dress; the blues and reds
of the body can rival some tetras for brilliance, while the head varies
from mustard to bright yellow depending on mood. Off-setting the yellow
head is a pair of bright blue lips while the unpaired fins are predominantly
red. The pelvic fin is jet black. Sound impressive? You bet! Females
on the other hand, contrast strongly with males, displaying a rather
drab (sorry girls) pale yellow to dull brown or grey.
Despite their small size, this fish is very pugnacious, especially
to members of the same species. If maintained as a group, ample cover
needs to be provided for females and sub-dominant males. Defense of
the area they've staked out in the aquarium can be extreme, making them
a potentially difficult species for a community cichlid situation. That
said however, if matched with appropriate tankmates they will represent
themselves well and happily coexist with a wide variety of community
species including non-cichlids such as small tetras and livebearers.
I've found that Pseudocrenilabrus nicholsi is best maintained in the
aquarium as a 'trio' of one male with at least two females. This avoids
intraspecific aggression and makes for a more peaceful coexistance.
Do not keep this fish with other members of the Pseudocrenilabrus species
or similar-looking fish. A particularly successful arrangement is keeping
this fish with larger Malawian cichlids; they match well with aggressive
Mbuna.
Photos courtesy of Alan Bliven from cichlidlovers.com
Feeding nicholsi is easy ... it will eat anything you give it, though
its diet should comprise about 40 percent vegetable matter.
Water chemistry is not critical to this cichlid. It will happily live
in hard or soft water at neutral or opposite ends of the pH spectrum
as long as it's not extreme. The one proviso is nitrate level, which
must be kept no higher than 10 ppm.
Want to breed this fish? nichols mouth brooder is VERY easy to get
to spawn in the home aquarium. The trick is getting the eggs to hatch
and the fry to adulthood. I've found that unless you remove the female
to a separate tank, any commotion in the confines of the aquarium will
prompt her to eat the eggs. Even then, she may eat them anyway and in
my experience it's best to either have her spit the eggs (not easy since
females are reticent to do so) or if you're lucky enough to have the
eggs hatch, remove the fry immediately to a separate grow out tank or
she'll chase them down and eat them as well. My experience suggests
that this cichlid may be more successfully spawned in a heavily planted
tank but since I don't keep plants in any of my tanks, I can only presume
here. Mating typically occurs in a very shallow depression in the gravel
which is excavated by the male. The female takes the eggs into her mouth
and incubates them for about three weeks, depending on water temperature.
She is a cave brooder so several such structures in the aquarium will
help things to proceed normally.
If you're up for a challenge and can find this cichlid, I can recommend
it to the committed cichlidophile.
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