Multi-colored mouthbrooder

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Multi-colored mouthbrooder
female

female

Systematics
Order : Cichliformes
Family : Cichlids (Cichlidae)
Subfamily : Pseudocrenilabrinae
Tribe : Haplochromini
Genre : Pseudocrenilabrus
Type : Multi-colored mouthbrooder
Scientific name
Pseudocrenilabrus multicolor
( Schöller , 1903)

The Polychrome or Small mouthbrooders ( Pseudocrenilabrus multicolor , Syn. : Haplochromis multicolor ; Lat . "Multus" = much; "color" = color) is an African cichlid , the widespread in the northeastern and eastern Africa from Egypt to Ethiopia and the Lake Victoria found .

features

Male small mouthbrooders are 8 cm long, females stay a little smaller. The body is elongated and strongly flattened at the rear. The terminal mouth is wide, the lips are blue. The caudal fin is clearly rounded. The basic color is clay to rust-colored. Depending on the incidence of light, the various body regions shimmer green, lemon yellow, golden or bluish, especially on the back. The fins are also colored. The unpaired fins often show greenish spots on a strong rust-red background, the pelvic fins are yellowish. Females are more plainly colored with a more yellowish base color and dark cross bars or spots on the sides of the body.

Way of life

The species inhabits swamp areas, small streams, and densely overgrown oxbow lakes of larger rivers and coastal sections of lakes. It feeds on worms, small crustaceans, insects, small fish, algae and various plant material. At spawning time, the males form territory and create a shallow pit in the bottom of the water, in which the partners spawn. The 30 to 80 eggs are then taken into the mouth by the female . The fry are released from the mouth after about ten days, but can still seek refuge there for about a week in dangerous situations.

Subspecies

There are two subspecies:

  • Pseudocrenilabrus multicolor multicolor (Schöller, 1903); Its distribution area extends from the Marioutsee near Alexandria in northern Egypt to Ethiopia. The limit of its southernmost occurrence in the river basin of the Nile is unknown. What is certain is that it does not reach as far as the Albert Nile , where the distribution area of Pseudocrenilabrus m. Victoriae begins.
  • Pseudocrenilabrus multicolor victoriae Seegers, 1990; You can observe this from the Albert Nile in Uganda over the Kioga- and Lake Albert to the Semliki and the catchment area of Lake Victoria in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda. It was introduced by humans into the Kenyan rivers Sabaki and Tana . The limit of its northernmost occurrence is unknown.

Both subspecies are not found in Lake Turkana .

literature

  • Horst Linke, Wolfgang Staeck: African Cichlids, Vol. 2: Cichlids from East Africa; a handbook for identification, care and breeding . 5th edition Tetra Verlag, Münster 1981, page 54, ISBN 3-8974-5103-4 .
  • Günther Sterba : The world's freshwater fish. 2nd Edition. Urania, Leipzig / Jena / Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-332-00109-4 .
  • Anton Lamboj : Pseudocrenilabrus multicolor. In: Claus Schaefer, Torsten Schröer (Hrsg.): The large lexicon of aquaristics. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-8001-7497-9 , p. 819 f.

Web links

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