Chindongo saulosi CORAL RED - 7-9cm

Here you buy the coral red variant of the Saulos' cichlid or Saulosi mouthbrooder Chindongo saulosi "coral red". In former times this cichlid was sold as Pseudotropheus saulosi. This beautiful cichlid is endemic to Lake Malawi in the East African Rift Valley. As an mbuna, Chindongo saulosi is an inhabitant of the rocky littoral and feeds primarily on algal growth and the small animals that sit in it and are eaten along with it. Saulos' cichlid inhabits the sedimentless rocky zone in water depths between 5 and 15 meters in Taiwan Reef northeast of Chizumulu Island. In the wild form, males are mostly blue and females are yellow.

The pure red Coral Red variety of this great aquarium fish was captive bred.

The males of the Saulosi Mouthbrooder are often a bit more strongly colored and a bit more slender in body than the females. They have egg spots on their anal fin that animate the mouthbrooding female to snap at the "eggs" during mating. In this way, it picks up the sperm and the eggs in its mouth can be fertilized. Less dominant males are paler in color. In the aquarium, male Coral Red cichlids grow up to 9 cm long, while females remain slightly smaller at about 7 cm.

The Red Coral cichlid feeds omnivorously. It belongs to the aufwuchs feeding Mbuna. The wild form Chindongo saulosi eats in Lake Malawi predominantly growth and of course also the small animals living in it. In the aquarium you can feed your Red Coral Cichlids with cichlid food, fiber-rich live food and frozen food such as daphnia, krill or artemia as well as with food for all omnivorous aquarium fish - granules or flakes - and also with plant-based food tabs such as NatureHolic Spirulina Tabs. It's the healthy mix that does it.

Chidongo saulosi is a wonderfully reddish colored gregarious, but still partly aggressive and very territorial cichlid from Lake Malawi. In the aquarium these Mbuna need sufficiently large caves as hiding places and high rock constructions, which serve them as demarcation of the territories. By adding sand to the foreground of your Malawi aquarium you can imitate the transition zone from the rocky littoral to the sandy zone.

Keeping a small group of one male with a harem of 3-4 females has proven to be successful. In the aquarium the males in a larger group often show to be very aggressive. The males only tolerate females in their territory that are ready to mate. The aquarium for these not so large East African cichlids should have a volume from 250 liters upwards.

The demands on the water values of these beautiful reddish endemic mbuna from Lake Malawi are typical for Malawi: They need rather soft to medium hard water with a pH value of 7.5 to 8.5, the aquarium temperature should be between 22 and 28 °C.

Chindongo saulosi "Coral Red" can be well socialized with other rather peaceful and especially differently colored Malawi cichlids with similar requirements. Then the aquarium must be adapted of course from the size.

After mating the female of the Red Coral cichlid as a maternal mouthbrooder takes up the fertilized spawn with its mouth and incubates the approx. 30 eggs there until the hatching of the young fish. The larvae of the Saulosi mouthbrooder hatch after about 2.5 to 3 weeks depending on the temperature.

Breeding of Chidongo saulosi "Red Coral" in the aquarium is possible. Feed the young Red Coral Saulosi mouthbrooders with freshly hatched Artemia nauplii in the first time and later with flake food and larger live food.

Our food recommendation: NatureHolic Spirulina Tabs are a good supplementary food for all growth eating cichlids in the aquarium. As main feed we recommend the tasty NatureHolic Mainfeed Granules for omnivorous aquarium fish, which perfectly meets their requirements for food composition. Thanks to their soft texture, the food pearls are gentle on the mouth and can be eaten very well by the fish.

Expert Tip: When keeping fish we recommend the NatureHolic 3 Phase Liquid. The care set offers the best all-round protection for your animals. It ensures optimal conditions for successful breeding and keeping.