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(The Chameleon Dwarf) |
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It seems that the Rio Negro, in the Northern part of South America, will never stop giving us some really great fish. The Rio Negro, the blackwater river where pH is sometimes less than 5, has now given us a species that is still rather new and is only occasionally seen in the aquarium hobby. Nannacara adoketa (Kullander 1993) is one of the newest aquarium fish to come out of the forests of the Northern part of S. America. I was really happy when I received my fish from Peter Liptrot of the Bolton Museum , Lancs in England. I had heard of this fish but had not been able to find any to buy. What a bargain and what a great addition these fish were to my growing collection of dwarf cichlids. Tank provision.. I started with a trio of one male and two females. They were in a 24" x 15" x 12" tank (about 20 galls) which contained 2 large standing pots with holes in the centre and 2 medium pots lying on their side with holes at the rear. I like a lot of hiding places in my tanks and I had oak leaves scattered around the bare bottom of the tank. There was a small filter with peat, put in to help lower the hardness and also a small power filter to ensure the tank would be really clean. The temperature I set at 80F, with pH 5 and dH 1.  A couple of days after introducing the trio, I observed the females sparring with each other and on close contact would lock jaws;- a quite frightening performance to watch! I had to eventually intervene a couple of times but then decided to remove one, so as not to lose a very "nifty" fish.  Courtship and ritual.. I chose to remove the less dominant female and two days later the remaining pair were showing off to each other in typical cichlid fashion. As they passed each other, the dorsal fin would ripple in a quivering sort of way. The female would then go from pot to pot with the male following, seemingly to choose their new home! It was now noticeable that their spawning tubes were protruding and all seemed just fine. Eventually she chose a pot that was lying down and the spawning then proceeded. The actual spawning was very slow and deliberate. The female would lay a few eggs and then go out at the back of the pot, as though to indicate to the male that it was his turn. He then entered the pot and duly fertilized the eggs. He also went out through the hole at the back and she came back in at the front;- it was almost like watching a game of "Here we go round the Mulberry bush"!  This procedure went on until she had exhausted all her eggs. I decided to leave the eggs with the protective mother at least until the next day. I then decided to remove the pot with the eggs as this was the first spawn. I put the pot into a 16" x 8" x 8" tank (4-5 galls) which was filled with water from the spawning tank. I put in a sponge filter so that the flow of water was blowing across the eggs.  I observed the eggs closely, right up to hatching, which was in 4 days. It was another 4 days before they were free swimming and I had about 70 fry reach this stage. Baby Brine Shrimp was taken right away by the fry and raising the young "chameleons" was pretty easy at that point.   I would like to thank Peter Liptrot of Bolton Museum for supplying me with these fish. If anyone has the chance to obtain these beautiful fish, I think it is well worth the effort. Go for it and you will be enchanted by their mood changes and wonderful colour changes of these aptly named "chameleon" fish.  I would like to finish my article with the above photo, showing just why I really enjoyed breeding these beautiful fish. Copyright; Text and photos; Ray Blackburn.("Scouse Ray") My thanks to Ray Blackburn for his detailed article. The photos are a real pleasure to look at. Thanks also for the help of Stephanie Dillon and Bill Jones who first produced this article in the N.W.C.G Newsletter.(North West Cichlid Group) |
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