Neolamprologus leleupi
Supposedly called the “lemon cichlid” but most people just call them leleupi
Substrate spawner, Actually spawns in some kind of cave
Parents are a pair, tank raised
Fry were discovered on January 19th inside the cave and were free swimming in their new home on the 22.
At 30 days there were approximately 20-30 fry and at 40 days the same number remain
Conditions: parents spawned in a 50 Gallon (36”X18”X20”) tank, pH 8.6, hardness and Nitrate not measured, temperature about 79F, tap water conditioned with Seachem Cichlid Lake Salts to the bottle instructions for Lake Tanganyika (1 tablespoon to 20/gallons) and Seachem Tanganyika buffer (2 Tablespoons/20 gallons) the salts and buffer are added during water changes to replacement water. Water changes every week or every other week, about 50%. Filtration is an aquaclear 110 HOB filter plus a Matten filter on one tank end.
Decor consists of various plastic and ceramic cave like structures and also some tuffa rocks. Bare bottom, i.e. no substrate. Tank has some Anubias plants attached to rocks. LED lighting, on 7 hours per day, plus low natural light for part of the day. Tank also contains MTS and other tiny trumpet type snails.
In this case parents spawned in a medium sized “Cichlid Stone” cave, in a grow out tank containing about 20 other Lelupi of various sizes and about 10 Chalinochromis brichardi juveniles (about 1” size). I wanted to pull some fish to sell and pulled out all the rocks and decorations and I looked inside this cave with a small flashlight and saw a parent with about 20-30 tiny fry, so I moved them to an alternate tank which I had just set up for another species (having first removed those fish to another tank.). Although only one parent was in the cave, I was able to identify the other likely parent and moved that to the alternate tank separately. It appears that I selected the correct second parent, as it did not eat the fry and the pair have since spawned a second time (second spawning fry were free swimming on February 17 so I would estimate they spawned about 3 weeks after the first set of fry were free swimming).
Fry receive golden pearls starting at 50-100 and then 100-200 micron and larger as they grow. Since there is a second spawn in the tank, the majority of food is 50-100 micron golden pearls. Also feed Cobalt "smartemia" and frozen baby brine shrimp. Parents receive NLS TheraA+ 1mm pellet food. Fry sometimes receive frozen Repashy "Spawn and Grow" or "Grub Pie". Fry are fed twice per day and adults once per day. Image shows parents in current tank and video shows fry on February 6, at about two weeks.
