Tilapia ruweti

[AlishanAS]

Picked up a group of 8 from our sponsor Mark Denaro of Anubias Design several months ago. They were imported from Germany.

Unlike several of the Lake Bermin tilapia that I have kept, these appear to be very tolerant of each other upon maturity and pairing off. In fact a pair spawned in a 20g long tank some time ago that held the six other fish.

I moved two other pair to a 55g tank last week and yesterday noticed a female hovering/protecting a group of eggs. Hope to get this dwarf tilapia into the hobby.

Check out the Lamboj West African cichlid book for a brief desciption of this fish.

[fischfan13]

WTG Tom.

Does the fish look anything like this?
http://www.vestafrika.dk/vestafrika/tilapia_sl%C3%A6gten/tilapia_ruweti/tilapia_ruweti.jpg

[AlishanAS]

More like these:


http://pds.exblog.jp/pds/1/200908/02/64/f0083964_17223841.jpg


http://i14.servimg.com/u/f14/13/84/71/40/tilapi14.jpg


http://i14.servimg.com/u/f14/13/84/71/40/tilapi12.jpg

[dogofwar]

Very nice - I'd love some fry.

Does anyone have a spare t. Bythobates? Lost the male of my
pair out of the blue...

Matt

[fischfan13]

Very nice - I'd love some fry.

Does anyone have a spare t. Bythobates? Lost the male of my
pair out of the blue...

Matt

This is one of the threads where I can pick one of the people who will respond...thanks for not letting me down Matt.:becky:

I seem to remember Tom accidentally putting a Bythobates in one of my bags many moons ago...sorry Matt, I do not have him anymore.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y216/Fischfan13/IMG_1990.jpg

[kenpur]

I bought several from Mark also. I have them in a 29 and they are doing well.
I also have tholloni, guturossa, zilli, mariae, rendalli, brevamanus and I am always looking for more.

[AlishanAS]

The eggs on the rock are gone. I noticed quite a few fungused overnight.
Oh well.

I still have at least a dozen young from the original spawn in the 20g.

[Anubias Design]

I still have these available at $15 per fish. They're a great fish, and imo one of the more attractive of the true Tilapia.
Mark

[Anubias Design]

WTG Tom.

Does the fish look anything like this?
http://www.vestafrika.dk/vestafrika/tilapia_sl%C3%A6gten/tilapia_ruweti/tilapia_ruweti.jpg

That's definitely not T. ruweti.
Mark

[dogofwar]

Might be Tilapia brevimanus?

Matt

That's definitely not T. ruweti.
Mark

[AlishanAS]

The second pair laid eggs on the same rock. Hopefully these will be fertile and hatch.

[AlishanAS]

I bought several from Mark also. I have them in a 29 and they are doing well.
I also have tholloni, guturossa, zilli, mariae, rendalli, brevamanus and I am always looking for more.

I would love to get hold off a group of yellow Tilapia flava.

[Seven_Springs]

As some hobbyists seem to be learning, there are a good number of very attractive Tilapia species out there, many of which remain comparatively small. Unfortunately, this Genus has gotten a bad rap since many people (including hobbyists) equate Tilapia to fish that are raised on Farms to be used as table fish.

Tom, if you like T. ruweti, you'd love T. guinasana (from Lake Guinas -- in northern Southwest Africa). I had them back in the late '60's and while I did well with them at the time, I regret to this day of losing them. That's sometimes a problem when fish are readily available, and when we may not appreciate them for what they are at the time. There are a few real nice Malawi Cichlids which I used to import, which are no longer available in the hobby. I'd sure enjoy being able to get such lost fish from both of these sources again, but have never seen T. guinasana since those times. Perhaps Mark could get them (?). I had a long discussion with Peter about his possibly getting some of those "lost" Malawi species, and he was also keen on getting them, but apparently no one on the Lake is collecting them. I don't even see them on ANYBODY'S list anymore, neither does Laif have them.

The fish (T. guinasana) gets to about 6" -- about the size of some of the Crater Lake species. There are apparently two morphs of the species, as pointed out by Sterba ("Freshwater Fishes of the World"), the dark form which I had being considerably more attractive. The males get jet black during breeding (yes, they're a substrate spawner, in case you're wondering), with a lot of red in their fins, but that's really simplifying it too much as they're extremely nice looking. The dorsal and caudal also get some dark yellow. Even when not in breeding colors, they're still nice.

I've always enjoyed certain Tilapia's and always tried to find some room at least for a few of them. Those T. gutturosa that Adam has (had?) in his shop, of which you brought some in to the auction (and which Kenpur indicated wanting more of) may well have been mine as I brought him in a good batch a while back, along with T. snyderae -- although someone could have brought more in since. I guess object of this is to not let public opinion dissuade you from enjoying what YOU like. Ciao, Ray

[Anubias Design]

Ray raises a very good point. A lot of the problem in terms of the popularity, or lack thereof, for the genus Tilapia relates back to the time when this was a catch-all genus. Most of the fish that aren't desirable for maintenance in the aquarium are no longer members and the majority of the current Tilapia are medium-sized, attractive and interesting fish deserving of much more interest than they receive.

I have not seen guinasana on a list. That, like ruweti, would provoke a knee jerk reaction for me, and I'd have to order them.

Now, on to Ray's other point. There are so many mbuna that were in the hobby in the 70s but are no longer available. It's really a shame as some of these are still among the prettiest fish ever to come out of the lake. The original orange blossom zebra that Nevin and Tom Bailey had back in the day was just a stunning fish and no ob that I've seen since, of any species, holds a candle to it. I'd love to see most of the so-called BB zebras in the hobby disappear into hybrid oblivion to be replaced by the original BBs from Monkey Bay and a new importation of the Chilumba BBs which were probably the nicest fish to come out of the lake in the 1980s. And how about the original cobalt zebras, which had yellow egg spots? The ones around now have white egg spots and just aren't as attractive. Of course, they're also not as aggressive and that explains why a lot of the fish that are no longer with us aren't in the hobby now. I remember talking to one of the Bailey brothers back in the early 80s about some of the elongatus types and their telling me that they had to give up on them due to their aggression. They'd put 100 fish in a large pond and end up with a single male, and that would happen over and over again with that group of fish. As a hobbyist, I've kinda been there and done that with Malawi fish, having raised probably 20 species or so, and most of the fish in the hobby now don't really interest me but a chance to get some of the classics from the past that aren't in the hobby any more would get me to set up tanks for Malawi fish.
Mark

[dogofwar]

When I got back into the hobby a few years back, I resolved to only keep fish that I like.

When I was younger, I cycled through a lot of fish for BAP points and because they were the "cool" fish that minute.

Our hobby follows a predictable cycle of boom and bust...and what's cool one day...is too widely kept to be cool the next day....so no one keeps it...and then no one can find it so it's cool again.

Maybe I'm just rationalizing why I have like 10 kinds of chanchitos and convicts in my fishroom ;)

Matt