By Clay Neighbors

In the past few years I have become very interested in the sand sifting Cichlids from Lake Tanganyika. These beautiful fish have me more excited about the hobby than I have been in years. I had wanted to try one of the Xenotilapia papilio geographical variants for some time and had the opportunity in August of last year to buy a group of eight wild caught Xenotilapia papilio "Tembwe II". These fish had not been imported into this country in a very long time so I jumped at the chance to acquire these rare and beautiful fish.

I cycled a 55-gallon tank using the fishless cycling method. The tank has a substrate of fine sand about 1-1/2" deep and some vertical rock work on each end to provide some shelter. As far as filtration I have (1) Penguin 330, (1) Aquaclear 500 and a Rainbow FB300 fluidized bed powered by a power head with a sponge pre-filter. I also have a power head with the venture intake to increase oxygen and provide current in the tank. In the wild these fish occupy the deep rocky areas with sand nearby so I do not have a light on the tank. They get indirect light from the overhead lighting in the fish room. My idea was that I could get two pairs out of the group of eight and that they would peacefully cohabit the 55-gallon tank. I planned on having no other fish in the tank. I thought that the two pairs would serve as adequate dither to hold the pairs bonds strong. After paying for the fish and arranging shipment I anxiously awaited their arrival.

The fish arrived in pretty bad condition. Four of the eight fish died upon arrival or shortly afterward. I acclimated the remaining fish over a period of four hours and cautiously moved them into their new home. I had read that Xenotilapia as a general rule don't ship very well. I don't think it was the source that I bought the fish from but simply the fact that these fish don't like to travel. At this point I was very nervous about losing the entire group. I covered the tank for the remainder of the day in hopes that they would settle in a bit. The next day I removed the blanket and my new fish seemed to be recovering nicely from their trip.

Over the next few months I fed them a diet of New Life Spectrum Cichlid Formula pellets, Ocean Nutrition Prime Reef flake, O.S.I. Spirulina flake, Hikari Frozen Mysis Shrimp, Cyclop-eeze and frozen San Francisco Bay Brand White Mosquito Larvae. I make it a point to never feed the same food twice in a row. If you are wondering why I feed a Carnivorous fish Spirulina it is because in the wild these fish forage on the rocks and inadvertently get some vegetable matter in their diet. I do weekly water changes of fifty percent to keep the nitrates below 20 ppm. I believe that doing these large water changes to maintain excellent water quality is crucial in keeping these fish. Make no mistake that the environment for these fish must be kept constant or they will succumb to stress. Once I forgot to add Prime to my water and even though it had sat for three days the fish showed severe signs of stress. I used the same water for water changes in all of my other tanks that included fry tanks with no ill effects. Suitable tank mates would include Cyprichromis Leptosoma and maternal mouth brooding Xenotilapia species. I would definitely stay away from aggressive species that occupy the lower level of the tank. Because of their delicate nature the Xenotilapia need to be the main inhabitant with any other tank inhabitants complimenting them. In the late fall of last year I noticed two of the papilios were occupying the center of the tank and aggressively chasing the other fish away into the rocks on one end of the tank. I believe that this lead to the death of one of the remaining fish. Don't be fooled by the delicate appearance of these fish, as they can be really aggressive to their own kind. I thought of removing the odd fish but the other fish seemed content to keep the odd fish in the rock work on the left side of the tank. I was hopeful that a pair had formed.

Some time during the month of February of this year I noticed that the female had stopped eating. This worried me so I watched her for the next few days. I watched her closely and finally noticed that she was adjusting her mouth. It took over a week of watching to confirm that she was holding eggs. After approximately two weeks she started eating again and the male stopped eating. It was impossible to tell he was holding the small fry because his buccal cavity is so much larger than the females. I had completely missed catching them while they were spawning. After the male had held the fry for about two weeks he would release them to forage on the sand floor. He would quickly take them back into his mouth at the first sign of danger which consisted mainly of me watching them too close to the tank. When the fry were out in the open foraging the female helped guard the fry. The pair would stay on opposite sides of the fry always keeping them between them. The Biparental care given by the papilio's was fascinating to watch. The male held the fry until they were almost six weeks old. I think that the only reason that he didn't continue to offer them a safe haven in his mouth is because they became too large. To this day the fry try to swim into his mouth. Once the male first released the fry I made it a point to feed Cyclop-eeze three times a day to insure the fry had food during the crucial first few weeks. While the male was still holding the fry I noticed that the female had stopped eating again. Upon further inspection it was clear this time that she had a buccal cavity full of eggs. I was very surprised that the spawns were that close together. After the male finally released the first batch of fry he only had a few days to eat and build his strength back up before taking in the new fry. I have been putting off trying to remove the fry because I don't want to do anything to jeopardize the pairs bond. I have decided to make a fish trap and see if I can catch the fry to move to a grow out tank instead of moving the rocks out and chasing the fish with a net. I am hopeful that this will work.

I would not recommend Xenotilapia papilio "Tembwe II" to someone as their first Tanganyikans but would highly recommend them to the more experienced Tanganyikan enthusiast. These fish are both beautiful and challenging and also a very rewarding species because watching the biparental fry care is simply fascinating.