Re: NANFA-- C. diabolis and C.n. moinectes

Scott Davis (unclescott_at_prodigy.net)
Wed, 6 Jun 2001 19:43:59 -0500

: Re: NANFA-- C. diabolis and C.n. moinectes

> >Who has reproduce C. diabolis fry, other than one fry once?
>
> No one, that I know of. When I said "captive diabolis offspring" I was
referring
> to refugia population. Sorry for the confusion.

Is this from Al Castro's account of caring for diabolis when he was at
Steinhart Aquarium. His account, as is sort of remembered from an AKA
convention about 20 years ago, noted that they usually left infertile eggs.
When the pair he was working with was moved to a larger tank - 20 gallons,
they left one fertile egg at a time.

Maybe because I wanted to hear "one egg at a time" rather than "one egg" I
got the impression from his talk that breeding them was possible but that
there was a space factor. He hypothesized that their population (or
overpopulation) was limited more by the parent's infertility if crowded than
by fry predation.

Back when it was ok to have them, I found nevadensis and macularius
accommodating enough if they were kept above 80 degrees F. in very hard
water (we either added salt or Rift Lake cichlid salts to our well water), a
fair variety of food - including veggies - and enough space and shelter that
the females were not too pummeled. Sort of like hard water Apistos.

Pupfish eggs in the fishroom were a sign that summer was here.

According to Castro, the diabolis seemed unique in terms of what he
perceived as their population limiting mechanism. (Of course this could be
just another senior moment ...)

All the best,

Scott

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