Neolamprologus marunguensis, size and breeding habits?

[Hybridfish7]

I plan on getting a couple very soon and starting up a colony. Something about the blue outline of the fry and iridescent tipped fins of adults is alluring to me, and preventing the maintenance of my patience in regards to waiting for the day I can get a hold of gold head n.cygnus. In the meantime however, I have seen a very wide variety of maximum sizes thrown out for the species, mainly everything inbetween or equal to 2-3 inches. 2.5 inches being the typical max size I have seen on the species. Which amazes me for a rock dwelling neolamp, and only adds to the appeal. However I have seen 3 inches thrown around, which is still manageable, and seems more reasonable to me. Anyone have any clarification on the subject?
I have also heard they are not the most prolific breeders by brichardi type standards, but to me that just sounds like calling an F-18 slow because an SR-71 can go 2000 MPH and the F-18 can only go 900. (think on that one)
Point is, if I were to try and breed them, how prolific should I expect them to be, how can I maximize this, and how fast will the fry grow off of hiding in rocks and snacking on leftovers from the adults?

 

[Milingu]

I have seen old specimen with 10 cm. 3 inch are possible and will normally be reached after some time.


Given you have a fertile male and female and they don't kill each other in the first days they will breed. Don't expect more than 20 fry in one go. 10-15 is normal. In the beginning it might be even only a hand full. But survival rate is normally quite high and once they started they don't stop breeding.

With other species from the brichardi group I never noticed any improvements in growth when sepperated. It sometimes even felt like the fry grew faster in the parents tank. Feeding freshly hatched artemia in the beginning seems to be the best way to optimize growth. They start eating flakes quite early. You can simply feed the whole colony with flakes when they are some weeks old And yes, they grow really slow but compared to some other Lamprologini they are not slow growing.