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[anchar]

Trick or Tret!

Neolamprologus tretocephalus as observed by Darren Leagas


Around Christmas 1998, George and I wandered into the Pet Warehouse in Maddington to say hello to Billy and the boys. That’s where I noticed five very striking fish. They had five large black bands around their bodies starting from the caudal peduncle and running up to just behind the head. There is also a black stripe through the eye. Between the bands is greyish white with the fins being blue.

Immediately I asked Bill the ins and outs of this fish. The $36.00 each price tag was a little out of my reach at that time, so I thought I would just place them on my forever growing fish wish list.

That evening at home while discussing the days events with my wife, I mentioned to Rosie about these fish. Her suggestion was, instead of getting pressies for Christmas from the family, ask for a few bucks instead. What a great idea!

So on the 31st December, armed with a fist full of cash, it was back to Maddington. Unfortunately two of the five fish had been sold, but I was still happy enough to unload the remaining three.

At first I housed them in my six foot Tanganyikan tank for about three months until the larger of the three (which I suspected was the male) started to pound the living daylights out of one of the other Trets, so I had to rescue this poor little fish. What once was a striking looking fish now looked like north end of a south bound camel. Never the less he made a full recovery.

I watched the male claim a territory and make advances towards the female; he did this by very fast swim bys and hovering in front of her. But she didn't seem to be too impressed by these actions. My next thoughts were that maybe the Trets needed more privacy, as there were about twenty other Tanganyikans in with them.

So I set up a three foot standard tank with a shell grit bottom and limestone caves. By adding salts and buffers, the water conditions are pH around high 8's, carbonate hardness 180-200ppm, general hardness 330-350ppm and temp of 26ºC.

When the pair were added, they were fed on a diet of snails (out of the pond), frozen blood worms, brine shrimp and micro-vit.

For the next 6-8 weeks nothing much happened. He bit her every chance he had and she spent most of her time hiding behind the filter, so it was back into the six footer again, this time with the Malawis (my thoughts being that this would settle him down a bit and it did...no longer boss
cocky).

In the three foot tank I placed a piece of perspex to divide it into two. On the small side I placed the second male. After the dominant male's three week vacation with the Malawis, he rejoined the female. The two males spent a lot of time trying to kill each other through the perspex. I was able to feed live daphnia daily. After about a week she cleaned out a cave and I noticed her flanks had become darker and her temperament change (she started biting him instead). There was plenty of flaring of the gills and showing off from both sides. Absolutely spectacular to watch. At this point I stopped my voyeuristic activities and left them alone. They did spawn. For the next 6-7 days the male cruised around the front of the cave and I hardly saw the female.

She only came out to eat. On the eighth day as I was doing my routine check of the tank, disaster! The male was back to his best. He had pounded her half to death, so back in with the Malawis with him. Unfortunately the eggs went furry.

After this attack, I decided the female needed more protection. In the tank went more rock and about a dozen pieces of PVC pipe of various diameters and a nice thick piece of black plastic vallis that Andrew Highfield showed me how to make.

I then returned the male. This seems to have worked. They have been like this for about 8 weeks and she hasn't been pounded. They have also spawned again, but no luck. Maybe third time lucky.

The Neolamprologus tretocephalus was described by Boulenger in 1899. It was based on a specimen of about 5.5 inches brought back from Kogoma by Dr. W. A. Cunnington.

They inhabit the northwestern part of Lake Tanganyika. They can reach a size of about 15cm and in the wild, their diet consist of snails and insect larvae. The sexual differences are that the female lays the eggs (just kidding) the male tends to be larger, all in all they are a very challenging fish to keep and breed. If you are like myself and enjoy a challenge then this is the fish for you. If anyone out there in Cichlid-land has any comments or has had any luck breeding this fish I would love to read about it.

Best fishes

Darren Leagas

References:
Dr H R Axelrod "Lexicon"