The growouts.

When i decided to add this wonderful species to my collection i decided that, like i usually do with fish in my collection, to keep a male and female pair. Since i wasn't quite ready to purchase 5 or 6 juveniles at $11 a piece, I went with the only other option, try my hand at sexing them to bring home a male and a female. In the long run i ended up choosing 2 males. Luckily enough, another member of the OKAA had recently bred these and was willing to trade an adult male for a few juveniles. So on the trade went. I received 3 one inch fish for a single three and a half inch male.


This is the male that I trade for the 3 juveniles.

At this point in time, i have had these juveniles for about 2 and a half weeks. They have gained quite some size to them and are approximately ~1.5 inches. I have been keeping them on a high protein diet of mysis shrimp, bloodworms, and growth pellets.

They are currently housed in a 40 gallon tank, along with 1 Female Altolamprologus calvus, 1 male Telmatochromis sp., and 2 Ancistrus sp. The water is kept very hard and there is lot of current. Kept at 80 degrees.


Male Steatocranus casuarius, still in my collection.

The ultimate goal of this project is to growout these juveniles, and get an established pair, then to successfully breed these beauties.