Path: utzoo!hoptoad!amdcad!amdahl!ihnp4!ihlpg!dalka
From: dalka@ihlpg.ATT.COM (Ken Dalka)
Newsgroups: alt.aquaria
Subject: Re: kenyi
Message-ID: <4799@ihlpg.ATT.COM>
Date: 11 Feb 88 15:59:22 GMT
References: <1992@ukecc.engr.uky.edu>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois
Lines: 40

>  anyone have any suggestions as
> to what im doing wrong or should i give up on this pair and try some more?
> almost i heard recently that kenyi's are one of the few freshwater fish that
> are capable of changing sex.....does anyone know about this?
> 
I have not spawned the Kenyi specifically but did spawn some of the other
mouthbrooding african cichlids from lake Malawi. I believe that they all
spawn about the same way.  This are a few of the things I can remember off hand.

Males are VERY agressive. They can and will spawn with multiple females at
the same time (called polyamous rather than monogamous, excuse my terrible
spelling here). In fact, its recommeded to have multiple females so that
the male will not be picking on the same female all the time. At least
two is recommended but more would be better based on tank size.

Once they do spawn the female keeps the eggs in her mouth and sometimes
it is difficult to tell she has them. Its not real obvious. The best and
easiest way is to check how shes eating. She wont until the eggs hatch.
But there is a big problem that occurs here. Since the female has the 
eggs in her mouth, she can't bite to protect herself so the male gets
a big advantage here. This is where You can lose the female so you
have to keep watch for the eggs and either transfer her (yes, you can, eggs
and all) or move the male. but its trickier than you might think since
if you move one female the other gets beat up by the male. If you move
the male, one female gets the advantage over the other. You just have
to try what you can and watch carefully.

Some of these problems can be lessened by tank size. I was using a 
38 gallon tank (3 ft. long). The bigger the better.

Also, there is an excellent book put out by tetra about cichlids.
The name escapes me but I think its by "Lowe". Its definitely one
of the best books Ive read as far as getting useful information
about habits and spawning of specific fish. It describes all cichlids
including the ones from Malawi.
-- 

					Ken Dalka (Bell Labs)
					ihnp4!ihlpg!dalka
					IE 2F-518  (312) 416-7437