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A
very beautiful fish although it needs close inspection in order to
fully realize the complexity and beauty of its colors. Not very
common in the hobby the male has a beautiful metallic blue color
which extends in the dorsal fin. There are red lines in almost all
fins which when displaying are clearly visible. The female has two
horizontal bars which distinguishes it from most species (not
Protomelas, but protomelas doesn't have the protruding mouth). The
male grows to 16 cm (a bit bigger in captivity) and the female
smaller 13 cm maximum. A very territorial species which needs some
attention when placed with larger tankmates till it acclimatizes and
is accepted by the rest.
Feed
any food you like. Once this is done, the male will pick a spawning
site and spend the whole day (even when not spawning) defending it
against all other tankmates, no matter the size of the intruder. A
careful selection of tankmates is required to protect this species
from itself. The said attitude may sometimes result in serious
wounds for the Nyassachromis. The male has repeatedly attacked the
full grown Nimbochromis venustus in a fight that it could never win.
As a result the Nyassachromis came back with serious wounds which
didn't teach him any lessons. As with all Africans do not overfeed
because it readily loses its shape and becomes more rounded.
Minimum
tank size : 150 cm / 500 liters. Due to its relatively small
size it will be harassed and chased by other bue colored fish. Lots
of hiding places required.
Close-up
shot: 100 ASA film, 300 mm lens, f/11, 1/60 sec, auto-bellows,
Sunpack flash unit (GN:36 at 1/8th setting) taped over the lens,
shot from a distance of 80 cm. Flash head tilted slightly to avoid
reflections from the glass. Hand-held camera.
Update >
In September 2005, I received the following message by French expert
Philippe Bournel whose opinion I trust as the
correct one:
The fishes shown in your
site as well as on Fishbase.org are not in fact
C. boadzulu. The true boadzulu is this one :
http://burnel.club.fr/Mal/boadzulu.jpg
and
http://burnel.club.fr/Mal/Cboadzuluf.jpg
which are quite different. The fishes you
show are Protomelas taeniolatus from Namalenje
(probably), which are often sold as "haplochormis boadzulu" but the
true boadzulu is not a Protomelas but a Copadichromis (or
Nyassachromis for some). If you have one of the first (the first one
???) Cichlid year book, there is an article about it. The fishes in
the yearbook are the parents of the ones of my pictures and are the
true Copadichromis boadzulu. There are no geogarphic variant of this
species.
Photos
shot in January 2000.
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