Aulonocranus dewindti is a mouthbrooding cichlid from Lake Tanganyika in Africa. This fish is part of a group of species of Lake Tanganyikan fish referred to as featherfins; species including Cunningtonia, Cyathopharynx, and Ophthalmotilapia. Aulonocranus dewindti, in the wild, is the most common featherfin in the intermediate habitat (sandy bottom and characterised by many rocks) and has a lake wide distribution. It feeds on insect larvae and crustaceans. The species is perfectly equipped for this type of feeding preference, with enlarged sensory pores on its head making it able to detect movement of its prey in the sand. This characteristic is shared with the Aulonocara (peacocks) species of Lake Malawi. Aulonocranus is also a nest builder, where territorial males form breeding colonies and attract females from groups gathered together and hovering above the substrate.
I was able to obtain a group of 15 wild Aulonocranus dewindti from Russ Utsler (www.russutslersfish.com) in California. My group is from Ikola and is referred to as the Honey Strain. Ikola is in Tanzania on the Western shore of Lake Tanganyika, in the upper third of the southern half of the lake. This variation of Aulonocranus dewindti is a gorgeous looking fish with the dominant male displaying a beautiful combination of blues and yellows. The females and subordinate males of the species are basically colored shiny silver but do display a spangling of iridescent purplish blue hues along their sides.
I placed this group of fish in a ninety-gallon tank with a group of four wild Chalinochromis brichardi. Best I could tell, I started with the 6 males and 9 females. Within the first few days it became clear that there were too many males for this size tank. I caught and removed 3 males to another ninety-gallon tank, which contains males of many other species of fish. So that left me with 12 Aulonocranus dewindti (3 males and 9 females) in the ninety-gallon tank. This tank contained about 2 – 3 inches of crushed coral as a substrate and had three small piles of rocks, one in each corner and one in the rear middle of the tank. At the center of each of these rock piles was actually a clay pot inverted and siliconed to its base. A hole was cut into each pot. The plan was for these three caves would be territories and spawning sites for the Chalinochromis brichardi (of which I had two pairs) while the Aulonocranus dewindti would roam the tank as a whole. This plan for the most part is working out well as both species are successfully spawning. However what I did not plan for was the extent to which the Aulonocranus are nest builders. Within the first week the dominant dewindti male had every piece of crushed coral in the tank on the right third of the tank. Every piece !! His nest took up the entire third of the tank, was about 7 – 8 inches deep, and had totally buried one of the three rock piles I described above. Pretty impressive display of nest building.
The tank is filtered by an external Aquaclear 500, as well as three sponge filters that are attached to an air pump that drives sponge filters in all my 40 tanks. The three sponge filters basically sit atop each rock pile, with one partially surrounded by the dewindti male’s nest. The pH of the tank is maintained at around 8.2, hardness is roughly 125 PPM KH and the temperature fluctuates between 76 – 80 degrees. These fish are varied diet of cichlid flakes, spirulina flakes, freeze dried Krill, cichlid sticks, frozen brine shrimp, and frozen blood worms. All of which are readily accepted. Roughly 25 – 30% water changes occur every 5 – 7 days, depending on how closely I stick to my routine.
Under these conditions the Aulonocranus dewindti are doing great. The two subdominant males take a balanced amount of aggression from the dominant male and this seems to give the females enough time to recover between attempted lures from the dominant male. At any given time I typically have 2 – 4 females holding young, 2 – 4 females recovering from the last spawn, and 2 – 4 females ready to spawn again. Tough to tell how often each female does spawn but I would guess it is every 8 – 10 weeks. After letting the females hold their clutches for 1 – 2 weeks I typically strip 20 – 25 young from each female. The young are transferred to a 20 – 30 gallon grow-out tank where they are fed a diet of baby brine shrimp, white worms, and crushed flake food. They easily attain a length of about ¾” in 3 to 4 weeks.
All-in-all a great fish to work with.
Editors footnote:
– the mentioned KH is actually too low, it is supposed to be between 16 and 18.
– Stripping the fry is isn’t necessary and is just adding extra stress to the female. She will release the fry on her own. You also break the imprint with the fry, later generations will not remember how to breed on their own.
Spawning Aulonocranus dewindti Video
Original publication: “The Underwater News”, Pioneer Valley Aquarium Society
Source: Aquarticles (no longer available)
