experience with c. furcifer?

[Mikael Berglund]

I wonder if anyone on the net has kept Cyathopharynx furcifer. I'm interested
in all the facts surrounding this beautiful cichlid. With this I mean first
hand experience not the facts that can be found in the books. Personally I have
kept a total of six wild C. furcifer of the Burundi-variety. In short it ended
in disaster. Two of the males never recovered from the transport from the store
(the water in the bags was polluted from the fishes). I lost one male to the
bloat after a water change (lousy water?) and two of the females never accepted
the food and starved to death. One of the females lasted for six month until she
stopped eating (after the same water change that killed the male) and soon
perished. Now I only keep two small (3 1/2") tankbred males of the Kigoma variety
and they seem to do okay. They are housed in a 660 litre (approx. 170 am. gallon)
tank, with a dozen halfgrown N. "Daffodil". I've kept shelter to a minimum to
stop the "Daffodils" from breeding thus terrorizing the C. furcifer. Filtration:
Eheim 2217 (approx. 1000 l/h) and Eheim 2252 (approx. 1200 l/h)). Food: "Shrimp-
mix" (minced shrimps, green peas, spinach and spirulina), frozen cyclops and newly
hatched brine shrimp. Back to the questions: Which color variety do you have or
have had, tank set-up, tank companions, food, problems?

Thanks in advance

Christer
Harnosand
Sweden

[Stephen Wolstenholme]

On 05 Aug 96 20:04:12 +0500, mikael....@amiga.pp.se (Mikael
Berglund) wrote:

I had three C.furcifer about 12 - 13 years ago. The two males were
silvery blue most of time but became deep blue when trying to attract
the female. The female was unimpressed and they never spawned. My
brother has kept quite a few C.furcifers over the last few years and
has more luck than me with them but he has not produced the vast
quantity of fry that he normally does. We both kept the furcifer in
big tanks (at least 100g) with very few rocks but plenty of coral sand
for them to make breeding sites. They ate any food offered. I always
tried to get a near normal diet into my fish but I didn't know what
C.furcifers natural diet was. I depended on frequent water changes
(10% a day) with no power filter but my brother was, and still is, a
believer in high power filters with once weekly 20% water change. I
didn't keep any other fish with C.furcifer but my brother has kept
quite a few different non-agressive Tanganikas with his C.furcifers. I
sold mine when I had to move house. I think my brother still has some.