Eretmodus cyanostictus

Eretmodus cyanostictus

Eretmodus cyanostictus is a small goby cichlid that does not grow larger than about 8 centimeters. The females even remain somewhat smaller and reach a maximum length of about 6 centimeters. Together with 2 other species, they are called Goby Cichlids They owe their name to their similarity to the seawater version of the goby cichlid, as they not only move by swimming, but also by jumping or hopping.

The name Eretmodus is a reference to the shape of the teeth: Eretmos means oars (of a boat) and odous means teeth. The species name cyanostictus is a reference to the blue dots: cyano means blue and stictus means dots.

Biotope

They are found throughout Tanganyika in different color variants. They live above rocks in water with a lot of current and therefore love oxygen-rich water. You will find them in water up to a depth of about 3 meters.

Diet

With their submissive mouth they scrape the algae off the rocks in the current. Due to their preference for algae and currents, they are usually found in shallow water up to about 3 meters. The Eretmodus cyanostictus can be combined well with the Tropheus species, both live on a diet of algae. You can feed them spirulina flakes in the aquarium. Frozen and live food is eaten but will probably kill them. Because their diet consists of algae, their gastrointestinal tract is much longer than that of other fish. Live/frozen food then begins to rot inside before it can leave the fish, resulting in death.

The Aquarium

Eretmodus cyanostictus can be kept in an aquarium from 80 centimeters. Provide some rocks for them to graze on. The water may be aerated considerably so that sufficient oxygen can be absorbed into the water. In an 80 centimeter aquarium I would not keep more than a pair of Eretmodus cyanostictus. In a larger aquarium you can possibly keep them in a group, but keep them in numbers of more than 6 to spread any aggression.

Breeding Eretmodus cyanostictus

In Eretmodus cyanostictus, both parents participate in raising the young. During mating, the female takes the eggs into her mouth. The nests are not very large and the number of eggs is usually around 15. After about 2 weeks, the male takes over the hatched larvae from the female and protects them in his own mouth for about 10 days after which they are released. The young fish are then about 1 centimeter and of course only have a small mouth. They can be fed with crushed spirulina flakes and other crushed vegetable food.

The Eretmodus cyanostictus has quite a few local variants, some of which are shown below:

Video

Author

John de Lange

Copyright images

John de Lange
Sue – Suephoto.com (original website no longer available)