Xanthic male Ilangi

[Glass Onion]

Hello All,
New to this forum. I've heard great things about it from people from all over the country.
My situation is this: I have a subadult xanthic male Ilangi who I am, naturally, interested in breeding in order to produce more xanthic Ilangi.
He's currently in a small colony comprised of 14 other WC Ilangi all of which are normal coloration.
After months of the colony not doing anything other than being beautiful, they started spawning and now I have 5 or 6 females with their buccal cavities scraping the substrate.
I also have recently purchased 21 juvie (1.5-2 inchers) Ilangi to grow out in order to provide my xanthic dude with as many girlfriends as possibe.
I have a few questions with regard to how I proceed.
1-If I remove the normal phase males, will the WC females have any interest in him?
2-Will his color affect his temperament?
3-When should I take the WC normal males out?
4-Should I introduce the 21 juvies to colony before or after females spit? (They're almost thru QT'ing)
5-Is the gene that carries the xanthic trait carried by the X Y or both?
6-Can you breed xanthic to xanthic without any congenital defects to offspring?
Here are some pix of my handsome lil feller:
Here he is with two of the holding females






Thanks for looking and thanks for any thoughts and advice. I am stoked to have this guy!! I realise this is a years long process, and am ready to begin it.

All the best,
Jenney.

[fshfrk]

All I know is if you make them happy they will breed. LOL

[gotticgs]

where did he come from

[Glass Onion]

From Aquarium Maint in Athens. He said the fish was WC. I bought him along with what was a colony of 26 but they bloated and lost 11. He didn't tell me where he got it from, nor did I think to ask, but said he was told by whomever sold it to him that it was WC..

[Zulaab]

Its doubtful that the fish being from the southern part of the lake is TR, as there are simply to many out there who are still catching southern fish to keep them TR. Southern part of the lake is not in the war-zone or hard to get to for many. Simply easier to go get the fish out of the Lake than growing them out.

Unlike the north end where there is war, and over fishing has occurred where a trip out to the lake several times and you will not find what you are looking for, this is why they are PR (pond raised) up north for many of the species.. Geoff_tropheus and several others can jump in here and give you the whole scoop... they have been around Trophs for a long time.

[TaTeR ToT]

dude!
that ilangi is sick!!!!!

[myjohnson]

Its doubtful that the fish being from the southern part of the lake is TR, as there are simply to many out there who are still catching southern fish to keep them TR. Southern part of the lake is not in the war-zone or hard to get to for many. Simply easier to go get the fish out of the Lake than growing them out.

Unlike the north end where there is war, and over fishing has occurred where a trip out to the lake several times and you will not find what you are looking for, this is why they are PR (pond raised) up north for many of the species.. Geoff_tropheus and several others can jump in here and give you the whole scoop... they have been around Trophs for a long time.

I have read about ilangi being breed in vats over there. The reason why ilangi commands a high price is unknown collection point (but this has changed), cost of collection, rareness of the fish, among others factors.

Near the ilangi collection point are reported sightings of alligators and hippos. The cost in collecting the fish reflects that risk. But this also gives incentives to breed them in ponds and vats.

[Glass Onion]

I was cruising around this site and see there's a nice Troph forum. This is a cool site.

[Zulaab]

I forgot.. welcome to HFB.. you will find a ton of good info.. again welcome to the board :)

[Darbex]

Nice fish and welcome

[geoff_tropheus]

Welcome Jenney,

We are some serious Troph people here. We greatly welcome anyone to post pictures or questions about Tropheus, Petrochromis, and other Tibe Tropheini in the clbu section. We welcome it...

Welcome to this site, it really is a cool place...lots of varied interests here.

[geoff_tropheus]

The northern part of the lake is not overfished it is largely unexplored because of the dangers and costs. There is lots of places to find fishes there, if you get armed escort.

Besides almost all of your northern fishes, are pondraised in Burundi by the Brichard Family, so there is like Thai said, no reason to go and spend the resources to collect wild, when they got them sitting in the ponds breeding for nothing.

[geoff_tropheus]

Jenney sorry for some of the off topic stuff, but just had to address some things...

Now to your questions...

1. It would probably be the only case where it would work. Given the choices of regular males, your females will take them as priority. Female Tropheus are selective given the right numbers and some species of Tropheus are VERY selective. Female Tropheus desire males that can dominate a territory, court them, and successful spawn and do all these things at once. Many males can do function 1 or 2 but not always all of them.

2. I have not seen where color has been a issue with aggression. Some of my most aggressive fish were the butt uglies of the group.

3. I don’t think you will reproduce this fish untill about 500 fry with the given information. One lone male with as many females you can provide him is going to be a lot, not to mention this fish looks young. If you got females bigger than him, he may have some trouble getting situated. If you got some females with the xanthic trait, you could have some real success.

4. Always QT all fish before introducing them to established colonies. What size of tank and what filtration do you have on this tank? With 14 Adults and 21 Juveniles, I would be seriously looking at a 125 gallon, but till the juvi's get some size on them a 90 gallon will suffice.

5. The Xanthic traits is carried by both male and female fishes so your going to have a lot of probability matchups. Many of the xanthic fish if even 100% still only produce less than 10% xanthic fry and in some cases even much less. There are several good reports by Veal and Konnings on Golden Kalambo breeding just do a Google search and you will find it. There is also a German colony of 100% Golden Kalambo's and their results are listed in many European forums, where they are not able to reproduce the fry. They are creating almost all regular Kalambo's

6. Anytime you are breeding recessive to recessive, you’re going to have to do a lot of culls. There will be fish where size, color, and shape will not be correct. Some people have a faint heart and let culls, live, so be prepared for that. Some may even argue biological function may not exist in some. The Xanthic trait is natural, but its not how Mother Nature had intended when your breeding them to each other 100%, and even then as experience shows...mother nature still wins...

This fish by eye size looks to be a young 9 month to a year old fish. Are you certain it’s male?

[myjohnson]

The northern part of the lake is not overfished it is largely unexplored because of the dangers and costs. There is lots of places to find fishes there, if you get armed escort.

Besides almost all of your northern fishes, are pondraised in Burundi by the Brichard Family, so there is like Thai said, no reason to go and spend the resources to collect wild, when they got them sitting in the ponds breeding for nothing.

I agree with mostly what Geoff's writes. I wrote this on another post and felt the need to repeat it here.

"I hypothiese that both polictical and ecolocial reasons effect the lower amounts of different color morphs founds in the northern part of the lake.

The Aqualog states, lineage 1 "formerly inhabited the northernmost part of the lake, which today is covered with sediment from the Ruzizi River. In the past the lake is thought to have extended north almost to where Lake Kivu (which did not exist) lies today."

"The rocky biotopes that existed then have subsequently been buried beneath deposits of sediments carried by the Ruzizi River and the populations that lived there have disappeared. These ancient lineages have today been forced south by the Ruzizi sediment. Many of their biotopes are becoming increasingly silted up, and some of the numbers have already significantly deceased." p. 36

The tropheus have to basically follow where their food is and if the sediments are covering the rocks on which their food grows they are force to move or die."

[geoff_tropheus]

Thai this is true, but there are lots of fishes to be had in the Northern Half fo the Lake and sorry for not completly covering my basis.

Do you know where the Rusizi dumps? It comes from Lake Kivu and pretty much effects the northern tip.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/r163724394xm0ml3/

But when we are talking the Northern Half of the lake, especially the Congo side, that's a lot of territory there left undiscovered. There is still plenty of fishes to be found, and its not from over fishing.