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Species donated by Lawrence Kent

DiscusnAfricans

Past President
Lawrence Kent donated several bags of fish in April, most of them still undescribed species. All of them were from lakes other than Malawi, Tanganyika and Victoria, which was the subject of his talk.

The 4 main lakes he talked about were Albert, Edward, Kivu, and Magadi, which was one of the Soda lakes.

I think he donated 5 or 6 bags of different species, I was hoping that the people who got these bags could post what they got, and a short description of the fish (Source, etc.)

Pictures would be awesome, but I know most fish were fry, so it could be a while before they're large enough to take a decent picture worth posting. Would be cool to track the progress and growth of the fish, and see how they develop. Almost an unofficial version of the growout contests we used to have.
 

DiscusnAfricans

Past President
I bought a bag of (7) Danikilia sp. 'Shukoray' fry. These fish come from lakes in the 'Danikil Depression' in the deserts of Ethiopia and Eritrea. I'm going to contact Mr. Kent to ask for some more specific information, as I couldn't remember everything that he said about them.

They're a neat looking fish, they have the overall body shape of a Midas cichlid (males developing the nuchal hump) but they grow to less than half of the size. They have a dark green lower body, with a yellowish gold upper body, and red trimmed dorsal fin. They come from highly alkaline and hard water, similar to Lake Tanganyika.

Below is a link to the Cichlid Room Companion site, though there is very little information for the fish, but does have a nice photo. I'm hoping more information will become available, but as these fish are still fairly rare, and undescribed we as hobbyists may have to help contribute some of this information based on our experience with them. There was a second bag of these fish, I think they may have been bought by Mark K.

I'm looking forward to raising them, and will try to update progress in the future. They're probably half inch at the moment, so it could be a while before they get decent size, though I'm unsure of the growth rate.

Thanks again to Lawrence for bringing the fish, hoping others can post what they bought.
 

F8LBITE

Members
Michael I almost bid on the ones you got but I was afraid they were so small that I would kill them bringing them home. Definitely put me down for some of your fry!
 

FishEggs

Well-Known Member
I bought a bag of (7) Danikilia sp. 'Shukoray' fry. These fish come from lakes in the 'Danikil Depression' in the deserts of Ethiopia and Eritrea. I'm going to contact Mr. Kent to ask for some more specific information, as I couldn't remember everything that he said about them.

They're a neat looking fish, they have the overall body shape of a Midas cichlid (males developing the nuchal hump) but they grow to less than half of the size. They have a dark green lower body, with a yellowish gold upper body, and red trimmed dorsal fin. They come from highly alkaline and hard water, similar to Lake Tanganyika.

Below is a link to the Cichlid Room Companion site, though there is very little information for the fish, but does have a nice photo. I'm hoping more information will become available, but as these fish are still fairly rare, and undescribed we as hobbyists may have to help contribute some of this information based on our experience with them. There was a second bag of these fish, I think they may have been bought by Mark K.

I'm looking forward to raising them, and will try to update progress in the future. They're probably half inch at the moment, so it could be a while before they get decent size, though I'm unsure of the growth rate.

Thanks again to Lawrence for bringing the fish, hoping others can post what they bought.

Well if you and maybe Mark got the same fish we could find out who the better fish keeper is. Post pics in November and see who's is healthier. :)
 

FishEggs

Well-Known Member
I picked up the group of 11? Steatocranus irvinei (Blue-lipped Buffalo Head Cichlid) that Lawrence Kent brought. They are endemic to the Volta River system in Ghana. Mr. Kent also wrote an article about his experience with this fish and is published in the current (at the time of writing this) Cichlid News vol. 27 (2) April 2018.

20180416_193449.jpg 20180416_193757.jpg 20180416_193431.jpg 20180416_193756.jpg 20180416_193750.jpg 20180416_193328.jpg 20180416_193605.jpg

It is really hard to get good pics of fry.
 
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DiscusnAfricans

Past President
Michael I almost bid on the ones you got but I was afraid they were so small that I would kill them bringing them home. Definitely put me down for some of your fry!
I was a little worried too, but they made it home fine and are doing well so far. You'll be first to know if/when I get some fry, have to get them to breeding size first.
 

DiscusnAfricans

Past President
Well if you and maybe Mark got the same fish we could find out who the better fish keeper is. Post pics in November and see who's is healthier. :)
I'm generally a competitive person, but I doubt I'm any competition for Mark in this sense. He won the t-shirt for having the most cichlids in his fish room, and he has multiple groups of prolific spawners, so I'm guessing his fish are well take care of. I'm happy just to keep them alive at this point. Of course nobody else had a duplicate bag to be compared to.
 

zendog

Active Member
By the way Matt, you can see the S. Irvinei in Lawrence's fish room at about 9:15 in on this tour of his fish room.
 

Pattie

CCA Members
We brought home 11 Haplochromis. SP. KK Beach. Collection point from the Uganda side of Lake Victoria. These had been an unidentifed fish that Kent striped the fry from the mothers mouth and got to name them. My fish are small fry and doing well so far. The females stay a drab color and the males will color up with "blue/grey flanks, black and red ventral fins with red margins-different from any species being kept by American Hobbists at the time" Kent collected these about 3 years ago and grew them out and has since shared with aquarium groups around the country.
 

jram68

CCA Members
My wife and I were there for our first meeting. We didn't know what to expect and were warmly welcomed by a few people we met at BFD6. Lawrence had gone fishing with Ali Kissule and retrieved fry from a holding female. Lawrence grey the fry and shared photos on Facebook to try to seek help in identifying the species. This fish was unindentifiable. However, a professor of biology pointed out the near match with the formal description of Haplochromis cinctus- which is a species unavailable in the hobby. So, Lawrence gave the species a name. The trade name is Haplochromis Kisuule, named after Ali Kisuule, who netted the holding female. We got a bag of 10 fry and they are doing very well. Pictures to follow soon!
 
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