Nosferatu Labridens Blue "Taninul"

[Gourami Swami]

Saw this guy at my LFS and had to get him, have never seen this fish in person before. Same locale as Aquamojo's gorgeous Blue Lab, and I'm hoping he will look similar. He's a little people shy still, but has a big appetite and is eating like a champ.

size comparison with my 7"ish lyonsi. The lab is around 5-6". Anybody else keeping this species, or have nice pics of adults?

 

[jonclark96]

I tried keeping them years ago. I found them to be really nasty to one another, even in a big tank. Good luck with this one. It is a species you don't see around the hobby very often.

 

[cichlidfish]

Really nice, you don't see them often. Sorry, can't help w/ pics.

 

[duanes]

I kept them when called Herichthys labridens "Blue".
I found them to be a very interesting species to keep, but just as you say about yours, a bit shy, tet extremely aggressive with each other, and any other cichlid. I could to keep mine with any other cichlid species. Females only stayed alive if they had a place to hide, that tamales could not enter.


the females get a dark area in the dorsal fin when mature, and ready to spawn

 

[duanes]

Spell check got me again, looking back I have no idea about the word tet, other than its a Vietnamese holiday.
And "tamales" should be "that males" could not enter.

 

[Gourami Swami]

Thanks for the info and the nice pictures duane. Really a beautiful species of fish. I can tell he is aggressive, he flares at the lyonsi on the other side of the divider all the time. I am going to give him a chance at being a community fish with other aggressive CA's, if it doesn't work out he can have a 4ft tank to himself. How big did yours get, I have heard they are slow growers as well?

 

[duanes]

The ones in the pics above, hit about 8" for the males.
I had some a few years before (that may have been a different species, or simply location variant) where an alpha males hit around 10".
He is below.

a female below


in spawning dress


The spawning colors illustrate to me, the close evolutionary ties to bartoni.

 

[Gourami Swami]

awesome, those spawning colors are really beautiful. If he doesn't want to play nice in the community I will probably try to find him a female and make sure she has plenty of flowerpots with female-sized holes