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STARTING PARATILLAPY


Madagascar cichlids, like the entire wildlife of this amazing African island, are under the strictest export-import control of the state. However, despite the customs barriers, since the beginning of the 1990s, a new, very attractive "Madagascar" appeared - in the aquariums of amateurs of the United States, and later of Western Europe - the paratilapia polleni Bleeker (1868). Today, two main color forms are known: spotted and mottled: in some, the brown-black trunk and head are covered with large shiny spots, while others have rare silver dots. The mottled variety is less effective.
The first spotted paratyapia appeared in Moscow at the end of 1992 in the well-known cichlidophile Alexander Arefyev, but there was a hitching with the offspring at that time. A year later I was lucky enough to get these fish and we, however, only one young couple. Unfortunately, the female, inadvertently, ate over the moth, swelled like a ball, and a week later, never recovering, died. Finally, after six months, another couple was bought by chance at the Bird Market, and three months later we already got an offspring.
Strangely enough, there were no special problems with breeding. As a spawner we used a standard aquarium for 200 liters (100x50x40 cm) with three variants of the substrate. The fish were offered a voluminous flower pot, a polished granite slab and a heavy smooth cobblestone. After a short hesitation, the producers chose the plate and the hoists to prepare intensively for spawning.
The maximum size of paratyapias in nature is 30 centimeters. Our male had a length of 14 centimeters, the female - 10. "Cavalier" was more massive and tall, with a large fat pad on his forehead.
During the wedding season, the fish were noticeably transformed. Anthracite body glowed with golden spots, flashing at the "reverence" sapphire fire. The stimulus to spawning was a fresh brackish (2 vialle) distillate with a simultaneous increase in the water temperature to 28 degrees C (usual temperature range 22-24 degrees C). Producers at first did not get along well with each other, but soon calmed down and in less than an hour, assiduously taking turns crawling, filled with caviar "patch" with a diameter of about 8 centimeters. True, individual eggs were knocked out of the general heap, but in general the masonry looked very compact. According to the literary data, large paratyapia lays up to 5000 eggs. In our case, the number of eggs did not exceed four hundred.
As might be expected at the first attempt, 25 percent of the calf whitened immediately, and later, due to the scoliosis of the tail, about 15 percent of the larvae had to be rejected. Thus, there remained 240 fry, which eagerly absorbed artemia. By the end of the month, the most persistent ones have reached one and a half centimeters.
When growing paratylagia, the first six months is desirable to arrange monthly sorting. In the future, the need for this disappears, since the young grows evenly.
Maturation occurs after two years. Adult fish are omnivorous and very fond of eating a scalded salad and a black bread crumb.
Unfortunately, the market sees a clear tendency to paratyapia and other cichlids treatment with steroid hormones, which results in improbably bright coloration, dwarfism and complete sterility of fish. I advise you not to be tempted by buying overly colored fry, otherwise you may encounter unpleasant "surprises" later.


A. Kochetov Aquarium No. 3, 1996