Paretroplus damii
Written by Friday, 26 November 2004 00:00
Actually, we started with 16 of them (I got 10 and Francesco the remaining 6) sized about 4 cm (1.5 "). After their long travel to Greece and Italy, all of them adapted well (and fairly quickly) to their new homes. Francesco added all of them in his 750 liter ex-Malawi tank (which also housed some Paratilapia polleni small spot) while I added 6 of them in my 1300 liter ex-Malawi tank which also housed 9 Paratilapia polleni. The remaining 5 were kept in two 100 liter tanks along with some Paretroplus petiti sp. dambabe and Paretroplus maculatus. Those in the raising tanks immediately accepted food (small sized cichlid pellets and fine chopped mussels) while the ones in the 1300 liter tank seemed to refrain from eating. After close inspection, it was shown that they actually feeding normally, only they waited for the sinking pellets (or mussels) to reach the bottom and then shift the sand to take it. The fish is omnivorous and a large variety in the foods offered is needed - sinking food should be preferred for obvious reasons. In the large tank they usually form a school (all 6 of them) and they swim together although from time to time some aggression is evident between them. The important thing is that although housed with the much larger P. polleni (sized 8 - 15 cm), both species behave as if they were alone in the tank displaying and chasing their conspecifics. However, it is evident that P. damii are far less aggressive - at least for the time being (especially when compared to P. polleni of the same size). P. damii - even as a juvenile - has a cute face with a tint of red on the head and is generally one of the most impressive Paretroplus species when in breeding coloration. The first half of the fish becomes a vivid red while the rear half is black in a bicolor pattern. Adults may reach a size of 35-40 cm TL which makes it the largest native cichlid of Madagascar.
Update (December 2005) > Once home from our last meeting in France, Sonia and Dave reported that there was an Ich outbreak in the tank housing the larger Paretroplus damii fry, while the smaller ones had not problem. Despite the immediate addition of Octozin only one out of 12 fish survived. Forty days later, it was our turn to experience the - practically not existing - resistance of Paretroplus damii to this disease. In one of our tanks, housing 14 of them, we saw two fish with the classic Ich spots. We raised the salinity to 1 and then to 2 ppt (within 12 hours) and the temperature to 30 C while increasing aeration to its maximum (1050 l/h). Unlike both the Paratilapia polleni and the Paratilapia sp. "Andapa" (Francesco, Sonia and Dave; personal communications), which made it without any serious problems, the P. damii confirmed that their resistance to this disease is absolutely minimal. Within 24 hours, all 14 of them were gone. It was surprising (and really frustrating) to see the fish we had been raising for 9 months pass away without any fight at all. Even fish which seemed very well at one moment, had passed away 4 hours later. As a precaution measure, we increased the salinity to the other tank with P. damii which hold another 8 juveniles meant to be our own stock. It is obvious that Sonia and Dave noticed the presence of Ich at an earlier stage and this may well be the reason why they had one survivor. The only thing that makes this incident look a bit better is that this happened after most of our fry had been donated to other hobbyists, so those beauties are present in our country in a large number.
Those fishes were donated by Jean-Claude Nourissat - to whom special thanks - during our visit to the 2003 AFC Meeting in Vichy. Many thanks are also due to Patrick de Rham for his precious help.
Photos by George J. Reclos except where otherwise indicated.
Read article on Spawning Paretroplus damii.
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