A few new additions to the family.
A pair of
Pelvicachromis subocellatus ‘Matadi’, who have taken up residence in a knot of branches on the right hand side of the tank and hunkered down. They take an occassional explore around a 1 foot radius but won’t go much further yet and won’t go into the main tree trunk area which is the right hand edge of the patch the
Enigmatochromis spend most
time in.
Two shots of the male:
The pair together
And the female. I believe the silvery scales around the belly are characteristic of
subocellatus.
Other new addition is a trio of
Plataplochilus lamp eyes. They have taken up residence swimming in the top half of the water in the right hand section, filling an area that the tetras don’t spend much time in. They were sold as
P sp ’Dolisie’, which I can’t find any mention of online. I’m hoping this is the same as
P sp ‘Les Bandas’ or ‘Tres Bandas’, which is from near Dolisie in the Republic of Congo and is currently listed by a few retailers in Europe. 3 is nowhere near enough - I’d like to build the group to more like 20. It may take some time to build the group as Congo lampeyes are not common - most of the commonly seen species are from further west. They swim fast and so I only managed rubbish photos...
I got some decent photos of a pair of the
Aphyosemion louessense RPC78/33 who were courting in front of the tree trunk. The Male louessense are probably my favourite fish in the tank now. They are beautiful fish and always active and out on display at the front of the tank.
The
Enigmatochromis seem to have settled as a pair. They spend a lot of time out sifting he sand under the lily pads together.
They have had occassional bouts of digging under various stones, twigs and more substantial chunks of wood and the female has had periods of proper plum coloured fat belly, but I’ve not seen any spawning yet. Below is a picture of the two feeding together and the female our cruising on her own.
They are generally very chilled out but make an exception for the
Microctenopoma, which they attack on sight with real ferocity. I can only imagine they recognise them as a threat to their potential future babies. As a result the bushfish don’t stay out for long. I managed to get a quick picture of one during feeding today before it was bundled away by the male cichlid. The small piece of bogwood he is above is probably the cichlids favourite spot for excavations, so he/she didn’t stand much chance. The two that I have left at growing up to be beautiful fish. This one is probably about 1.5” and the other much bigger at 2.5”.
The
Floscopa and
Ammania on the right hand side are growing emersed pretty well. There is much more that is gradually reaching the surface and I also want to add some marsh plants in a shower caddy to build an area with dense greenery above the water to balance the left hand side.
Finally, I’m probably happiest with the submerged growth in the central part of the tank. It is need of a trim, but I think is now looking good. The
Anubias still needs to thicken out a bit and then I will stop fiddling for a while, at least with this bit! The
Bolbitis are starting to grow above the water line and I’ll add some emersed growth attached to the trunk and in a shower caddy behind when I get around to it.
