Personal notes:
These beautiful wildcaught Aulonocara were bought as a company for the Copadichromis jacksoni and Lethrinops furcifer. As they're wildcaught fish they are much more sensitive to stress and diseases that most tank-bred species and contact with most tank-bred cichlids should be strictly avoided in order not to infect these precious wild fish. F1 cichlids from a trustable origin are not a problem when you take strict measures though. To avoid territorial stress all the cichlids we like to keep together in a tank should be added at the exact same moment. Additions afterwards are always a risk as the newcomers always need to establish their own territory what drives stress in the tank to a peak. I also treated all these fish with FMC and an antibiotic to be sure that most parasites were removed. This way of working gave me the fantastic result of losing not a single fish. In the meantime the 2 females have had 4 spawns in total of which 2 are still carried by the mother now (April 2005). The first batch went to my friend Staf who will raise them. The second batch I will keep for myself and these will be raised to increase the amount of Aulonocara cobue in the 1500L tank.

Some brutal displaying: I removed the right part of the photo as the subdominant fish already suffered more than enough! Click on the image to see the high resolution picture.

The eggs visible in the mouth of the Aulonocara female.

A juvenile visible in the mouth of the female.

The cobue fry.

A close-up from the head of the dominant male. Even the 3008X2000 pixel original is tack sharp what reveals the true capabilities of the Nikon D70 we use! Click on the image to see the high resolution picture.
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