Check out the difference between pictures taken 16 hours apart........
Amphilophus Citrinellus Creamcicle midas. Overnight nuchal hump development.....
- Thread starter cich78
- Start date
I could only estimate.his age ... he was picked up for me at the American cichlid association convention the end of July which he was about 3" at that time........ Right now hes 7" so it's safe to say that hes approximately 7 months old...... Here's a picture of him early August.....
Definitely Me Too! One reason why they are among my favorite and its not only the growth but their colors and body proportions transformation as well..... Here's another pic midway between.the first of him and before the most current pictures....
The nuchal hump, is not a permanent feature for many species cichlids, it is a liquid and lipid filled sac that ebbs and expands with dominance.
I have had cichlids grow humps over night when a dominant individual in the tank dies, or shrink once spawning season is over.
Of course there are always exceptions, for some like Gymnogeophagus balzani, as soon a male matures, it expands.
Immature male left.
But its not always just male dominance (male above)
If there is only a female, she can exert dominance traits too
I have had cichlids grow humps over night when a dominant individual in the tank dies, or shrink once spawning season is over.
Of course there are always exceptions, for some like Gymnogeophagus balzani, as soon a male matures, it expands.
Immature male left.
But its not always just male dominance (male above)
If there is only a female, she can exert dominance traits too
Nice.... I don't know if I've ever seen this particular paper though I've seen others that I've browsed about the enlargement of the nuchal hump( in both males and females) prior to spawning and how it dissipates after spawning also seen it said that if the male keeps spawning with the same female the hump does not continue expanding to the same amount of enlargement.... I have always found it amazing when viewing those with large enough tanks that have multiple males that all get large humps apparently in competition with each other to look the most impressive for a potential mate .( . This guy has just been recently put into the tank that he is now in and next door to him there is a male Xiloansis that has a little bit of a hump ). I have read that the humps on fish in nature never get to the size of the ones in captivity( probably why Barlow thought they were grotesque)and if anything it's detrimental to their swimming and efficient use of energy to have such an enlargement in the wild.......we hobbyist know that certain specimens are more genetically predisposed to grow the larger humps . I have a lake Nicaragua F2 Male that does not have much of a hump .This guy is(per Ken Davis)lake Nicaragua from a wild caught male and F1 female and i am glad he has good hump genetics 
..... Here's another one from the same source that my daughter has .....
..... Here's another one from the same source that my daughter has .....
