- Tribus Eretmodini
consists of four species. Geographically, its species live in all parts of
the lake, but only in upper shallow water levels of rock litoral and the
transitional zone 3 – 4 meters deep. The fish are mainly algofagous in the
wild, nevertheless, together with seaweed they consume meat in the form of
various kinds of benthos - fauna living on the lake bed. These fish are
omnivorous in aquarium conditions. Mind you, they are always hungry. Be
careful about overfeeding them. All members of the
family are non strict pair mouthbrooders, which hand over the lay 10-12 days
after spawning. Nevertheless, it does not come to the handover of hatched
embryos every time. If, for example, there are too many fish in the tank and
the female does not consider the condition safe to hand the lay over, it is
only the female that carries the larvae full period.
Concerning inner species relationship, these fish are really aggressive. A
weaker fish in their hierarchy is very often killed if the fish live in
limited space. It is ideal to breed them together with other species of
Tanganyican cichlids or in large tanks.All the members of the tribus grow up
to 8 cm of length so they are rather little. Because of their size, it is
possible to breed them with, in fact, all representatives of that biotope.
From the ethological point of view, they are one of the most interesting
inmates among Tanganyican cichlids. Although they are really numerous in the
lake, their breeding is not so easy.
