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Notes:
These fish belong to Staf Peeters,
a very devoted Malawi cichlid enthusiast who lives in Kalmthout,
Belgium. I met him at a meeting of our local club Daphnia that he joined
this year and soon we started talking about our experiences with Malawi
cichlids. Both of us seemed to like the Haps the most, and Staf was
ecstatic about his wild caught Copadichromis jacksoni. Indeed I had read
much about these extremely nice cichlids, and of course I got very
curious, so I wanted to see them! After he first
came to my house to look at my aquarium collection, we agreed that Hilde
and I would come to Kalmthout to take a closer look at his tanks and
fish. Well I have to admit that the moment that I entered the fish room,
I was very impressed to see the almost "mythical" Copadichromis
jacksoni. They were still a bit shy with me in the neighbourhood, but
after 30 minutes they "accepted" me and continued their activities. Staf
told me that his Copadichromis Jacksoni only breed once a year, like
they still would be in the lake. After all they're wild caught fish!
Apparently NOW was the "breeding season", and I saw 2 large males
defending a territory at each side of the tank. When one of them came
closer to the middle, the other one was already there to stop
him! Anyway, I stood there for an hour to get all the pictures that I
wanted, and I really started sweating in this exciting but hot fish
room. Later on I heard that these fish managed to spawn, and Staf was
only able to recover 7 juveniles, what indicates the difficulty to
reproduce them... Hmmm I like these magnificent Malawi cichlids a lot,
and the mere thought of having them too just made me want to reorganize
all my own tanks!!!
Same background colour as below, so exactly the same
light: picture taken at 4.30pm...
Photo taken at 4.50pm... Look at the difference in
colour intensity with the picture above!
A dominant male in the left section of the tank. The
other one is defending a territory in the right part of the tank. You
can see a part of the nest in this picture.
Click for a larger view!
Photo of the Month - November
2004
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