Placidichromis phenochilus “Mdoka white lips”

[danotaylor]

I purchased a group of mdokas for my 500gal yesterday.
15 adults, looks to be about 6-7M the rest females. All fish are either direct AquaHaus German line or 1st gen offspring from the original German fish.
Here’s a couple preliminary pics. Video to come once they’re settled in.
The right hand end of the tank hasn’t been scaped yet as I am planning to divide the tank, 2/3 for the mdokas, other 1/3 for some of my tropheus…
Tank is a little hazy from a 400gal water change yesterday morning before I went to pick them up.
Tank boss

 

[danotaylor]

Tank boss pic in post #1 was with w blue/white LED on. Here’s one with just white, no blue light…

 

[jjohnwm]

Absolutely spectacular fish! I'm not into African cichlids at all, would probably see those in a store and think they were what we used to call Blue Dolphins, Haplochromis moorii, and then later Cyrtocara moorii, and now...who knows? Not me, that's for sure.

I'm not about to dive into that end of the hobby at this point in my life, but I do recognize beauty...and those are beautiful!

 

[Milingu]

Very nice fish!
Typical for Nikolaj, all fish are a little bit too fat. He is not a miser when it comes to feeding.

 

[danotaylor]

jjohnwm thanks for your kind words. The good ole blue dolphin is a favorite in our household. Have kept them many times over the years. Here’s my last male. I bred and raised him to a solid 8” before he was lost in a power outage while I was home in Australia for 10 days


Milingu So the group was actually imported into the US about 3 years ago. They have been in the care of a close friend of mine here in Cinci, hence the adult 1st gen offspring.
They are definitely thick healthy fish. Cheers mate!

 

[danotaylor]

 

[Milingu]

Milingu So the group was actually imported into the US about 3 years ago. They have been in the care of a close friend of mine here in Cinci, hence the adult 1st gen offspring.
They are definitely thick healthy fish. Cheers mate!

Ok, that's another good explanation . Still really good looking specimens.

As for the comparison with C. moorii, I just found some photos I took a few years ago at Gaus.

 

[danotaylor]

Milingu they're beautiful c. moorii! If I found some locally of that quality I would probably add them to the Mdoka tank. I can hear my wife now..."too much blue" LOL though she really loves c. moorii

 

[danotaylor]

I received my divider from Amazon this afternoon. It was 12 square pieces each 11.5”x11.5” that lock together to interconnect. Plenty of suction fittings to get it secured properly. This was the only budget friendly option to divide my internal width/height of 34”x28” other than cutting and connecting white egg crate, which actually would have been more expensive and much more of an eye sore. This cost $45 shipped.
I’d say the outcome is acceptable. It’s not beautiful but not as ugly as a hat full of bum holes either
Ima see how it sits with me over the next few days b4 I had the trophs to the smaller side.
The trapezoid overflow position determined the place the divider was fitted.
74x34x28” for the Mdoka.
44x34x28” for the trophs.

 

[danotaylor]

This is a terrible pic, but I have a female mdoka holding today. She is hanging by herself in the darker end of the tank, so it's tough to get a good clear pic...


Time to pull the egg tumbler out I guess