February - Hill Country Cichlid Club

Volume 2, Issue 30 February 2008 

Inside This Issue 

History of Cynotilapia afra Cobwe Albino 

Thysochromis ansorgii 

Kenyan School Project

The Lateral Line Page 2 

BAP Report 

February 19, 2008 

INSIDE THIS 

ISSUE: 

Cynotilapia afra 3 

Thysochromis ansorgii 7 

Kenyan School Project 9 

Though the beginning of the 2008 BAP year is on par with our 2007 

entries we should have a "bumper crop" this year. This is not hard to 

predict, if you look at the interest generated by new members and 

also the 3 "fish rooms" that are being constructed. As soon as Nick, 

Dan S and JB get their rooms situated, they should be cranking out 

the fry. 

The first entry this month comes from Greg (GAS) with his report 

on Astatotilapia calliptera. These are a first of species and he is holding 

on to the fry till they get large enough to travel. Congrats Greg. 

Dan (Dwschacht) jumped into January with two entries. They consisted 

of the Pseudotropheus acei "Yellow tail" and the Iodotropheus 

sprengerae. Congrats Dan. Also the "Yellow tails" gave me 5 extra 

points for 2nd generation fish, thanks Dan and keep them fry moving. 

Two more reports for January came from Pat (Nascar2). One entry 

was the Labidochromis flavigulis which is a first of species entry. 

The 2nd entry was the Ptyochromis sp. "salmon". Congrats Pat on 

both of your entries. 

■ Jim Beck 

2008 BAP Standings 

2008 BAP Standings cont. 

Name 

YTD 

Name 

YTD 

Cover Photo: 

Thoracochromis 

brauschi 

By Dave Hansen 

Nick 115 

Dan 105 

Pat 50 

Greg 45 

Evan 20 

Robert 20 

Lisa 15 

Jim 5


Species Profile: 

History of Cynotilapia afra Cobwe Albino 

I am not usually a fan of albino forms of any 

species. Besides a few albino BN's kept for 

utilitarian purposes, these are the first, and still 

the only, albinos in any of my tanks. There are 

several reasons why this particular variation has 

Photo by Jennifer Prince 

caught my attention. One part of the allure this 

anomaly has for me is in its newness and in its 

'discovery' within the tight proximity of my 

circle of friends. Another part is that these guys 

are just flat-out stunning! You cannot walk past 

a tank housing a mature group of these fish 

without stopping to take a better, longer look. 

The fact that this is a naturally occurring deviation 

versus something like the cross used to 

achieve the OB Peacock has a huge impact on 

my desire to maintain, propagate and disperse 

their offspring. Because I think this beautiful 

fish is bound to become a sought after staple in 

the hobby and while they're still of relative recent 

development and of limited availability, I 

figure it's worthwhile to put together a bit of a 

history for them. Unfortunately, I have been 

unable to contact "Sharkie", as he is known on 

many forum boards, to go over and refresh my 

information on the early portion of this history. 

I'll have to go with Doc's, David Dockwiller's, 

and my best recollections and update 

if any discrepancies occur. 

Sometime in 2003, "Sharkie" purchased two 

pairs of WC C. afra Cobwe from Armkes. He 

housed them in a 110 or 125 with groups of 

Ps. polit, Ps. flavus, Met. msobo and other 

species. Each of the males set up a territory on 

opposite ends of the tank and each had a successful 

spawn that "Sharkie" was able to collect 

the fry from. "Sharkie" gave a trio of 

these F1s to Doc's mother for her Malawi 

tank. Sometime shortly after that, one of the 

males killed the other male and claimed the 

females for himself. The now trio of afras 

produced many spawns. "Sharkie" was transitioning 

into Lake Tanganyikan cichlids during 

the summer of 2004 and sold the remaining 

male and two females to me. He also included 

a very nice F1 female from the spawn of the 

deceased male in the deal. He'd added her to 

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the trio because she had such fantastic coloration 

for a female. 

Doc's F1 trio and my 'new' original group were 

quite productive in their new homes. Doc's trio 

produced a batch of fry that included three unusual 

looking individuals. As they got some 

to move away from Mbuna and into more 

Lake Tanganyikan and West African cichlids, 

so he ended up putting his entire breeding 

group up for sale. Evidently, someone in the 

central Texas area purchased the group. I have 

yet to see more batches of the F3 albino fry/ 

juvies available through local channels however. 

I know of several individuals across the 

country who purchased males with the hope of 

crossing the albino males with normal females 

and starting their own lines. I've tried to stay 

in touch with a few of these folks and am attempting 

to contact some others---more about 

this later in the story. 

Photo by Nick Andreola 

size, Doc was able to see that they were albinos. 

While he had no luck getting these 2 males 

and single female to spawn, he was able to collect 

a complete new batch that had approximately 

25% albino fry. Assuming roughly 25 

fry from a normal spit, that would be 6 or 7 

albino fry per spit. Over the next 2 years, he 

was able to grow these and subsequent fry 

batches out and eventually get F2 albino 

X F2 albino spawns that produced 100% 

F3 albino fry. He established a solid 

breeding colony which produced quite a 

few fry. The albino C. afra Cobwe that 

began showing up on Aquabid, at Dave's 

Rare Aquarium Fish and at River City 

Aquatics during the mid-part of 2006 

were all from Doc's group. Towards the 

mid part of 2007, Doc also felt the urge 

Back to the original group I got from 

"Sharkie". I kept that group for several years 

and had many, many spawns from all three of 

the females. I've been able to trade, sell and 

just share fry/juvies from this group throughout 

those years. Towards the mid part of 2006, 

breeding had slowed significantly and the trio 

was beginning to show signs of aging. I kept 

about ½ of the last batches of fry from each of 

the females before putting them and the old 

male out to pasture in various friends tanks. I 

grew the combined group of fry out in a 40BR 

until the males began to color up. Unfortu- 

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nately, about this time a number of things were 

going on in my non-fish world that didn't allow 

me to spend as much time as I would have liked 

on this group and they began spawning in that 

tank -before I was able to thin down the heavily 

male population or to have a chance to 

collect any of the batches of fry. As normal 

in reasonably rocked tanks, there were a 

few survivors from each spit. I happened to 

note that one or two of these survivors had 

a very distinct look to them and on further 

scrutiny seemed to be albinos. I was unable 

traded off the rest; knowing that I had Doc's 

nice trio of albinos already. I moved the group 

to their new 75 and breeding began in earnest. 

As luck would have it, every spit from one of 

the four females produces albino fry! I have 

Photos by Nick Andreola 

to rescue them at that time and they evidently 

didn't make it out of the food chain. Meanwhile, 

Doc was kind enough to share a male 

and two female juvies from his line with me 

before he closed out his colony. I had no idea 

which of the pairings occurring in the 40BR 

had produced the albino fry and just flat didn't 

have the time or space to try a long-drawn-out 

process of elimination. So I thinned the F1 

group down to one male/four females and 

several of her batches growing out now. 

None of the other three female's spits 

have produced anything but normal fry. I 

haven't separated the young albinos from 

their normal brothers and sisters. All 

behavior within the group seems to be 

identical to any other batch of afra fry. 

There is a similar range in size and 

growth within the albinos; some are larger/quicker 

growers, some the opposite and 

most are in the middle. 

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This chart shows what we’ve been able to deduce 

of the probable sequence of spawns. It 

appears that the loss of Male #2 was of more 

significance than any of us suspected at first. It 

is likely that he was the carrier of this trait and 

that his early demise really narrowed the window 

for someone like Doc to note and then 

save this anomaly. 

It was also very fortunate for "Sharkie" to have 

noted the uniqueness of that one F1 female 

because through her I now have a 50% different 

bloodline of albinos. I intend to follow 

Doc's lead and mate the F2 albinos and create 

100% broods and will hopefully have the opportunity 

to cross the two lines and create the 

'combo' line. I've called the unrelated WC x 

F1 offspring F2-some would call them F1-but 

it's not an argument necessary in the scheme 

of this article. As stated above, I'll continue to 

stay in contact with and try to reach out to a 

few other folks who are attempting to create 

their own 50% different bloodlines in the 

hopes of trading fry from each line and doing 

the best we can to keep the long term diversity 

and robustness of this truly beautiful variation 

of C. afra Cobwe alive, healthy and available 

in the hobby for years to come. 

■ Nick Andreola


Species Profile: 

Thysochromis ansorgii 

The Thysochromis ansorgii fish I have are 

about 3 1/2" in length, but the species has been 

known to grow to 5" for the males and 4" for 

the females. They are an omnivorous species 

spawn and then subsequently eat the eggs. 

After about 2 months, I needed the 55 for 

other fish so I relocated the ansorgii into a 30 

gallon X-tall tank. This was to be the home of 

the ansorgii until they spawned, died or 

were sold due to frustration. 

I decorated the 30 gallon tank with a pot, 

an elevated platform that I made to increase 

the floor space. I also planted 

some Val grass and some Anubis plants 

to help the fish feel more relaxed and at 

home. Within 2 weeks again they 

spawned. I thought that the female ate 

Photo by Dave Hansen 

that lives in the slow moving waters of rivers 

and lakes. They have a wide spread distribution 

in the wild and are not endangered. 

I obtained my pair in the FOTAS Auction 

that was hosted by the Hill Country Cichlid 

Club in September 2007. When I got home, I 

was limited in space so I was forced to 

quickly set up a 55 gallon as a temp home 

for the lone pair. I placed them in this tank 

and added one flower pot. The pair spawned 

within a day of the flowerpot addition, but the 

female didn't seem to know what to do with the 

eggs as she ate them within 2 days. 

I left them in this tank by themselves for a 

while, and every 2 weeks or so they would 

Photo by Daniel Schacht 

the fry again, but about 2 weeks later, I noticed 

free swimming fry. I counted about 50 of 

them. This was the point when I should have 

pulled the canister filter I had on the tank and 

set the tank up with a sponge, but instead, I 

just wrapped the intake of the canister with


filter floss. Within 2 weeks I was down to 10 

fry. All had been sucked up into the filter even 

through the floss. 

Ansorgii are very bad parents. They do no protecting 

of the off spring so if you want the fry 

to survive the tank must be a species only tank. 

Most fish would also try to herd or corral the 

fry, but this species gives no regard to where 

the fry may wander. 

This is a very peaceful fish and should not be 

housed with the more aggressive fish that we 

often see in the hobby. I would think that suitable 

tank mates for this fish would be any 

number of tetras, plecos, and even some of the 

smaller barbs. However, if you plan on harvesting 

the fry, they must be alone in the tank. 

■ Daniel Schacht 

After a month, the parents started to 

exhibit strange behavior and coloration. 

The cause of this is unknown to 

me, but in response, I removed the 10 

fry to a 10 gallon tank with some 

Rusties that were half the size. 

I tried everything I could to get the 

parents to return to normal. The behavior 

was very shy in nature and 

they coloration was wrong. The fish 

were a dark gray color as if they were 

heavy stressed all the time. As time 

passed, the 30 gallon tank they were 

in did not fit into my fish room plan 

so I moved them into a 15 gallon tank that has 

the same foot print, but is half the height. 

The adults immediately returned to normal 

coloration, started to eat again, and behaved 

as they did when I obtained them. They 

have not started to breed again, but I have 

no doubt that they will soon enough. 

As far as sexing goes, the females are considerably 

smaller than the males and have a 

region of shiny silver scales right in abdomen. 

When the female is ready to spawn, 

the abdomen gets to be a very dark red. 

Photo by Dave Hansen 

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Cichlid Conservation: 

Kenyan School Project 

Most of us have a similar story of our introduction 

into the aquarium hobby. It usually begins 

with a stroll through a pet store or interest in a 

display tank at an office or friends home. Before 

long, we have our first tank and are seeking 

out information on all things aquatic. This 

information comes via books, the internet or, 

the best of all, joining an association. The 

wonderful thing about an association is that 

you are in the company of others who share 

your interests. Collectively, a group of people 

are usually able to accomplish more than an 

individual. I ask you to keep this in mind as 

you read further. 

I am very proud of my home aquarium society 

the Hill Country Cichlid Club. This is a little 

more than a group of friends who simply enjoy 

the hobby. We are in a good part of the country 

with a strong brotherhood of other aquarium 

clubs including the Texas Cichlid Association, 

Houston Aquarium Society, and Oklahoma 

Aquarium Association. We all operate under 

an umbrella organization called the Federation 

of Texas Aquarium Societies (F.O.T.A.S). 

Other areas of the country have similar organized 

structure. Our little area contains a high 

concentration of people who enjoy the cichlids 

from in and around Lake Victoria. Most cichlid 

aquarists are aware to some degree of the 

problems associated with Lake Victoria and the 

endemic cichlids there. In a nutshell, there are 

a number of man made problems that have 

been occurring in the area for decades. The 

end result is that many of the 600+ species 

(estimates at 200) that inhabit the great lake 

have gone extinct and many more are in peril 

of suffering a similar fate. There has to be 

something that we as hobbyists can do collectively 

to protect the fish we are captivated by 

from this region. 

In January of 2008, The HCCC members were 

treated to a talk by the premier scientist concentrating 

on the cichlids from Lake Victoria, 

Dr. Les Kaufman. In his talk, Dr. Kaufman 

expressed his frustration in that many of the 

perils in the region could be rectified if only 

people would take serious notice in the situation. 

He explained how a little money in the 

right hands could create a huge difference. Dr. 

Kaufman introduced us to a former graduate 

student of his, Dr. William Ojwang. Dr. 

Ojwang is a research scientist with the Kenya 

Marine and Fisheries Research Institute in 

Kisumu Kenya. Dr. Kaufman explained how 

Dr. Ojwang had begun purchasing aquariums 

to be used in the schools of the region. These 

aquariums hold native fish from Lake Victoria 

and are used as an educational tool showing 

the children what beautiful creatures live in 

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the massive lake. Educating the people populating 

the region is a major step forward to the 

eventual goal of saving the native fauna. Dr. 

Ojwang is making a huge impact with very 

little money. If he had more capital to work 

with, one could only speculate what could be 

done. The Hill Country Cichlid Club is taking 

Photo courtesy of Dr. W.O. Ojwang 

this opportunity to "change the world" very 

seriously. What makes this different from any 

other charity? Dr. Kaufman has set up a currency 

transfer to seamlessly send funds to Dr 

Ojwang. There is no administration fees, no 

hands involved in money distribution, just one 

man, who knows better than anyone, where 

funds could be best spent. We are presently 

involved in fund raising to support this fantastic 

cause. This is just the beginning and we 

hope to have a website up soon to keep the 

world abreast of our efforts. 

The support that has been relayed in such a 

short period of time has been outstanding. 

From the Association of Zoos and Aquariums 

(AZA), Moody Gardens are exploring ways to 

become involved as are other institutions. It's 

my hope that the aquarium hobby can lead the 

way with fund raising for this cause. We have 

a phenomenal role model to follow. The 

B.I.T.C.H.'s (Babes in the Cichlid Hobby) 

have been highly successful in their efforts 

involving cichlid conservation. If we could 

enjoy just a fraction what their efforts yield, a 

huge impact could be made. I would like to 

call on all organizations, local, regional and 

national, to generate efforts aimed at supporting 

this project. The first venture of the Hill 

Country Cichlid Club involved members donating 

items to our February auction. We 

were able to net over $400.00 to the cause 

with little effort. 

As many of you are aware, the C.A.R.E.S. 

(Conservation Awareness Recognition Encouragement 

Support) program is involved 

with cichlid conservation. Under the guidance 

of Claudia Dickinson, we hope to integrate the 

Kenyan institutions with schools in the United 

States that have already initiated a curriculum 

that includes the maintaining and breeding of 

endangered cichlid species, many from the 

Victorian Basin. The Aqua Havens project 

has been a huge success thus far and will be 

our first US school involved in exchanging 

dialogue with their Kenyan counterpart. 

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Aside from the good feeling of helping to make 

real progress with the situation in Lake Victoria, 

what's in this for the cichlid hobbyist? 

There are hundreds of beautiful cichlids Lake 

Victoria that have never made it into the hobby. 

This is a shame as these fish make ideal aquarium 

residents. They are relatively small, extremely 

colorful, and most take well to living in 

captive conditions. What a tragic loss it would 

be if more of these animals were to sink into 

oblivion without us ever having a chance to 

enjoy them. So long as they are being maintained 

by someone, and hopefully propagated, 

there is always a chance these fish will make it 

into the aquarium trade. These students are the 

next generation of caretakers for this region. If 

enough children are educated in the pitfalls of 

what destructive activities holds for their precious 

waters, they will be the ones to innate 

reforestation, sustained fisheries, industrial 

pollution accountability and a host of other 

problems the region sees today. This is our 

best chance. 

It is said to take one step at a time. That being 

the case, the first step is doing what is needed 

for Dr. Ojwang to continue his efforts. There 

are other associates in Tanzania and Uganda 

who share Dr. Ojwang's vision and are willing 

to do what they can to make a difference in 

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their countries as Dr. Ojwang has in his. The 

exchange of information between the African 

and Western schools will enhance the educational 

experience of students in both regions. 

This is a win-win situation for all parties involved. 

There exists a ready made infrastructure 

for the exchange of funds and information. 

We the hobbyists are the fuel that can 

really make this run. I urge you, the individual, 

the club, the regional and national organization, 

to make this happen. If any additional 

information is required, please contact any of 

the people listed below. 

Relevant websites: 

Hill Country Cichlid Club http:// 

www.hillcountrycichlidclub.com 

C.A.R.E.S. http://www.carespreservation.com 

Aqua Havens http:// 

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ 

article/2003/04/03/AR2005041902661.html 

Contacts: 

Greg Steeves gsteeves@gvtc.com 

JB Edmunston JOJBEDMUND@AOL.COM 

Claudia Dickinson ivyrose@optonline.net 

■ Greg Steeves 

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The Lateral Line 

Official Publication of the 

Hill Country Cichlid Club

February - Hill Country Cichlid Club

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