26 replies to this topic

[humbug]

Should have done this to start with.  I’ll start a thread for photos of fish in the SMG fish house and keep adding to it as I work my way through photos of my Malawi trip. 

 

Photos taken 9^th – 22^nd September 2014 in the fish house of exporter Stuart M Grant Ltd, Kambiri Point, South Senga Bay, Malawi.

 

 

Placidochromis Phenochilus “Mdoka White Lips”

 

I didn’t use flash for these photos - this tank is in the outside row and gets good direct natural light.  Colour of the fish was breathtaking. 

 

 

 

 

 

Synodontis njassae

 

 

 

 

 

Tilapia rendalli

 

Edited by humbug, 04 October 2014 - 09:26 PM.

[Fox]

DROOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!
Amazing! The Color is sensational!
Are they Fulle's in with the Syno's?

[humbug]

Yes - I'll see if I can work out what collection point, and I might have better photos of them.  Was focussing on catfish when I pulled those shots out.  Geeesh that glass is frustrating!!!

[Mattymak]

OH

 

MY

 

GOD!

 

THE MDOKA'S!

[sandgroper]

Business opportunity over there for someone GLASS CLEANING.

[Fox]

Kathy,
Did you see what they were feeding them?
Also, I saw your pic on FB with the substrate in the lake. Any chance of that pic? It's a great pic to show people what's really natural.

[humbug]

EEEEEKKK - I've got so much to share!  Substrate varies from place to place.  I can share photos of some of the stuff we saw.  I'll put it on the list of things to do.  One comment was made by the guys on the trip, though.  People always ask what substrate we should use in tanks - it became very clear to us very quickly that we shouldn't be keeping most of our mbuna with sand at all.  These guys live in an environment of rock only!!!!   No substrate - rock, rock, rock!!!

 

I'm keen to put together some info on the collecting and handling of fish through the export operation.  I suspect that will be of interest to a few people.  I'll give that priority while its still fresh in memory.

..... and yes the Mdoka were awesome - but the Elect. ornatus and the Proto. steveni "Imperial" beat them hands down.  I haven't shared the photos of the Imperial yet, and not sure the shots do them any sort of justice, but they were positively breathtaking.  That's something coming from someone who isn't a huge Proto fan.

 

The fish in the fish house are fed fresh, tiny lake sardines, about 10 - 15mm in length.  I meant to get a photo of the fish house staff walking around with their buckets of food but looks like I missed it. 

Edited by humbug, 05 October 2014 - 09:20 AM.

[Michael the fish fanatic]

Never seen such pure beautiful mdokas

[humbug]

The state of those tanks was a massive frustration for me.  I’m standing in front of a tank containing beautiful wild caught Mylochromis lateristriga and Metriaclima zebra “Masinje”.  This is the quality of the photos.  Sooooo frustrating!!!

 

[humbug]

Did manage to sneak this shot of Mylochromis lateristriga through the gloom.  Only one I got from that tank

 

Edited by humbug, 05 October 2014 - 11:12 AM.

[humbug]

Nimbochromis livingstonii

 

 

 

 

 

Nimbochromis linni

 

 

 

 

Nimbochromis polystigma

 

 

 

Nimbochromis  venustus

 

 

[Mattymak]

I love that livingstoni in the second pic 😍

Keep them coming !

[humbug]

As you can imagine, I’m choosing the best looking fish to post photos of.  If you look closely at the shot of the tank of livingstonii you’ll see that there is quite a variation in type in the fish.  How’s this for an ugly blighter?  I reckon I’d be disappointed if this was shipped to me in my wild caught shipment

 

[humbug]

Fossorochromis rostratus

 

 

 

 

[Kleinz]

Very nice fish all.  I see your pics are a bit hap heavy, or at least light on mbuna. Does that reflect the stock there or is it just a coincidence?

 

Always wanted some linni...

 

I see you either found some cleanish tanks or are carrying a damp rag

[humbug]

Probably 90% of the fish in the fish house were haps, although I'm the first to admit that that is where my passion lies.  There will be a few mbuna and peacock shots to come through, but not many.  The outside vats are chockers with stunning mbuna, but you just can't photograph them.  I do have a 25 minute video where I filmed a couple of the UK guys "window shopping" for mbuna to have sent home.  In it, one of the fish house staff nets each vat and brings the fish out so they can be seen.  Video will be poor quality (sea sickness material) because it was me behind the camera, but I'll try to get it uploaded as soon as I can.

 

I can assure you if I could have cleaned those tanks I would have!  NOTHING is getting that stuff off!!  Some of the tanks are less than 12 months old.  They are the ones I was able to get better shots from, but even some of those are already difficult to see into.  It was very much luck of the draw which fish were in which tanks :-( 

[Kleinz]

They are all stunning stunning fish. We really don't mind the limescale. You could post a gig of photos of haps, mbuna,catties,rocks, gravel...on here and people would still be happy.

 

I don't think the rendalli are over here, but I could be wrong.

 

ps please post me some linni...

[humbug]

I've always loved the linni, but my love affair deepened this trip.  I had a few days in Sydney on the way over to Malawi, and spent much of that time at Labyrinth Aquarium.  Andrew has a beautiful colony of linni in the big Malawi display tank.  I positively drooled over those fish. 

 

Then when we started diving in Lake Malawi, linni kept popping up on most dives.  Along with polystigma, they were the most common Nimbochromis species we saw.  Some of the most vivid memories I have of those dives involve one linni or another. 

Apologies if I've posted this here before - I'm losing track of what I have posted where.  On one dive at Lion's Cove we watched and filmed a lovely N. livingstonii for some time. She did the flopping on her side and playing dead act, then swam on again for a bit and flopped down again. Fun to watch! But then a lovely N. linni came by and photo bombed the shot and scared the livingstonii away. I didn't mind too much - I ended up with this shot.  This is a screen dump from the video.  Will get the video up sometime - I promise!!

 

Edited by humbug, 06 October 2014 - 09:55 AM.

[humbug]

another screen dump from video - this one from our dive at Nakantenga Island

 

 

On this dive I was intently filming a mbuna of some sort, and happened to glance over to see this lovely guy sitting alongside my elbow.  Cute as

Edited by humbug, 06 October 2014 - 10:04 AM.

[humbug]

OK – some mbuna.  Melanochromis auratus . 

 

Colour of these and the ones we saw in the lake were STUNNING!  I gained a new respect for these fish.