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Lately, my Kenyi's have been breeding. I'm hoping to get some pictures. They must be happy. This is the third time in 2 months! In case you're wondering what kind of fish Kenyi's are, their taxonomy is as follows:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Perciformes
Family: Cichlidae
Genus: Pseudothropheus
Species: lombardoi
The Kenyis are neat for several reasons.
They're some of the more beautifully colored freshwater fish in the world. They come from Lake Malawi in Africa. It's a rift lake, meaning it's formed when two tectonic plates split apart, and water fills in the gap. The lake has steep walls and a deep center.
These fish live in the grassy areas, and are camouflaged by their vertical bars that run the length of the bodies. Their coloration is almost purple, shifting from a light lavendar to a dark purple bar. Their coloration changes as they age. The females remain purplish with dark vertical stripes, whereas the males turn yellow. The "alpha" male turns completely gold, and has an egg spot on his anal fin.
Kenyis are mouth brooders, meaning that the females keep the eggs (and fry) in their mouths until they are ready to go free.
Kenyis love to eat vegetable matter, but they also seem to like flake food as well. I feed them spirulina tablets too. They eat the algae off the tank and decorations in my tank, which helps keep the tank "low maintenance." I put a live plant in there too, and they take care of it. They've moved it several times, to get it where they want it. They have cleared out several areas under the rocks too, to give the babies places to hide.
They swim very quickly, and seem to be highly aggressive. I don't mix them with other fish, except for a Synodontis (African catfish, to clean the bottom) and a Plecostomus [sp?] (algae eater). The Pleco is armored, and doesn't seem to mind anything. The Synodontis has some long spines on his dorsal fin that carry venom, so most fish leave them alone.
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