Mazarunia mazarunii,

Small Mazarunia mazarunii in the phototank.

Mazarunia mazarunii was described by Dr. Kullander in January 1990 and it's a new genus and species from Guyana,South America. The fish was already collected by a friend of mine, Dr. Patrick de Rham in 1976, but the description was postponed since there was only two specimens collected. The description was done in Ichthyological Explartion of Freshwaters.

I decided to go to Guyana in October 1999 and one of the goal with the trip was to see if I could manage to find and collect Mazarunia mazarunii. I will not here tell you about the whole trip in Guyana, which was a very nice trip, but consentrate on Mazarunia. We had to charter a small plane, 5 seats to get up to Kamarang and Mazaruni River, and it cost us US$ 613,-. Kamarang is an Amroindian Camp and to go there you need a permission from the Internal Office, we did not have that and had problems with the local police keep asking us for the document, but I will not bore you with that and only tell you that we manage to get one day out and I manage to collect Aequidens potaroensis, Cichlasoma bimaculata, Mazarunia mazarunii and maybe a new Mazaruni sp. I'm not sure if it's a new Mazarunia or a new Genus, I have to wait to see what Dr. Kullander means.

We went down the Mazaruni River for about an hour and made camp at a place called "Pepper Camp", the next morning we crossed the river to a small river/creek called Kanawee Creek.

The biotop in Kanawee Creek where I collect my Mazarunia.

The water there was rather cold, but clear. I manage to collect 10 Mazarunia mazarunii, A.potaroensis and some Cichlasoma bimaculatum. The parameter on the water was; Water temperature 21,7 celsius degrees, air temperature was 27 celsius degrees, pH was 6,5, dH was 2 and the time was 0900 in the morning. The position was 06*00'04" N and 60*37'47" W. I was in the water for an hour then I start freezing and had to get up and sit in the sun to get warm.

One of the small Mazarunia brought back home.

Back home I placed the fish in a 100 liter tank. And feed the fish with live Artemia, Cyclops, frozen Red mosquito larves and a good quality of flake food. The fish was slowly growing up to adult size that was between 5-6 cm.

An adult male of Mazarunia mazarunii in good mood.

The males was a little bigger than the females. You can't say that the fish is very colorful, but in the grey color and special black markings when they are in the breeding color they are very nice fish.

Feeding a lot with Artemia.

Female guarding eggs layed on the root.

When I was coming with my camerae, the fish was standing in the background watching what I was doing.

Fresh hatched fry with the yolk sack, hanging on the root.

In my tank with several spawns the choose a vertical side on a piece of log. Eggs was rather small an the amount of fry was not many. The biggest amount of fry I've had so far is 12. I don't know the reason for this, the small fry or eggs could have been eaten by some Ancistrus in the tank or other adult Mazarunia could have eaten some. But anyhow, I do manage to bread them and have also been able to spread them to some friends.

The pair guarding the eggs.

For more sientific information, I will suggest you to read Dr. Kullanders description: Mazarunia mazarunii (Teleostei: Cichlidae), a new genus and species from Guyana, South America. Ichthyological Explor. of Freshwater. Vol.1, pp3-14, Jan.1990. I also manage to collect a fish that might be a new Mazarunia, but I don't think they look much alike, but you can look at the photo and see what you mean.

The Indians in Kamarang called the fish "Red Patwa".

It has already been bred, but it's so far not scientific described.

This page was not so big, but there is only one fish described in this genus and the Red Patwa is not described and I think this will be out in a new Genus.

DISCLAIMER: Statements made on this page are not herewith made available for purpose of zoological nomenclature under the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature.

Copyright Alf Stalsberg Cichlid Power

You can reach me by e-mail at: alf.stalsberg@c2i.net

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