Fish id?
- Thread starter Cide10
- Start date
Agree with know4te, looks like one of the line bred Oreochromis mossambicus.
Way back in the 60s when Tilapines were first thought of as something for dinner, they started line breeding these for what was thought to be a more palatable color. (I had the normal color ones back then)
The wild version has lots of red and black highlights, so it wasn't a stretch to selectively breed the ones with more red together, and by the 70s this version became common fare in restaurant tanks, where you selected a fish from the tank for your meal (mostly in my area, Mexican and Asian restaurants).
Mature males can be very insistent when ready to spawn, they are mouthbrooders where the female carries eggs and spawn that can easily be noticed rolling around in her mouth, and the eggs are quite large.
If they spawn, it is best to remove the males to another tank, he will constantly badger a female, causing her to eat the eggs. Under less stressful circumstances she doesn't egg while crying and can get weak.
They were the first cichlids to spawn for me, way back then.
If I had them today, I'd get her to spit the eggs in a net and raise them in an egg tumbler, to save her the ordeal.
Way back in the 60s when Tilapines were first thought of as something for dinner, they started line breeding these for what was thought to be a more palatable color. (I had the normal color ones back then)
The wild version has lots of red and black highlights, so it wasn't a stretch to selectively breed the ones with more red together, and by the 70s this version became common fare in restaurant tanks, where you selected a fish from the tank for your meal (mostly in my area, Mexican and Asian restaurants).
Mature males can be very insistent when ready to spawn, they are mouthbrooders where the female carries eggs and spawn that can easily be noticed rolling around in her mouth, and the eggs are quite large.
If they spawn, it is best to remove the males to another tank, he will constantly badger a female, causing her to eat the eggs. Under less stressful circumstances she doesn't egg while crying and can get weak.
They were the first cichlids to spawn for me, way back then.
If I had them today, I'd get her to spit the eggs in a net and raise them in an egg tumbler, to save her the ordeal.
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