It was described as Pelmatochromis pulcher by Boulenger in 1901, and the type locality was "mouth of Ethiops River in the Niger delta". After that many has described the fish later, so let me just mention a few of them. First of all, Boulenger described the fish himself several times. After the first time he described the fish in 1904 a, 1905c, 1915c, 1916a, and last in 1919a, after that Pellegrin in 1922-1923, Arnold & Ahl 1936 and Sterba in1959. There were several others, but I don't think you would be interesting to hear about all. But, you can say the fish have been interesting for several years. I will take with one more and that is the person who described it in 1954 namely Ladiges who gave it the name Pelmatochromis kribensis, and it was under this name I first "met" the fish. Actually, this was the fish that made me start with cichlids again. Because as a kid in the mid-fifties I had a Thorichthys meeki, and he turned my tank up-side-down, and I promised myself, never cichlids again. But, I'm sure you understand why I broke my promise when I saw a really nice pair of Pelvicachromis pulcher in 1970. You can understand that?? When I saw the pair in a tank of an importer in Sweden, I really had problems. I still remember what the T. meeki had done with my tank, but you can all guess how this went. When I left the importer the pair was in a plastic bag on his way to Norway. If you have had the Pelvicachromis pulcher you also know how this went, after a week the fish spawn and I was hooked on cichlids. So here is the result.

Female Pelvicachromis pulcher with fry.

There is no problem to raise the fry from the P. pulcher, so suddenly I had enough. But, I still keep the P. pulcher today. There is maybe one thing more I shall mention, and that is the sex on the fry can vary, too alkaline water will gives you lots of male,or was it opposite?? And acid water gives you mostly females. But, if you keep it neutral or slightly acid it's a better composition, and the differences in sex will be rather equally.

So, let us go back to the name. I guess you have seen that I use Pelvicachromis pulcher, but you might wonder when did this change in name happen? Well, I have to go a little back in time to fill you out. Steindachner did in 1895 make the name for the genus Pelmatochromis as a subgenus of Paratilapia buettikoferi, Steindachner, 1895. It was elevated to full generic rank by Boulenger in 1898. Then Thys van den Audenaerde, the Belgian icthyologist in 1968 made the name Pelvicachromis as a subgenus of Pelmatochromis. Type species: Pelmatochromis pulcher, Boulenger, 1901. And the genus was elevated to full generic rank by Meinken 1971b, and Paul Loiselle & Welcomme, 1972. So this is where we are today. If you want to study this further, you must dig youself into books, I've just skim the top of it. But, if I take with more many of you might find it boring. You might find some of the upcomming materials, to be boring too, but it's up to you if you will read it or not.

Pelvicachromis pulcher "Red"

So let me show an other colormorph of Pelvicachromis pulcher, I call this the red P. pulcher and you might agree when you see the photo of the male. No other males of P. pulcher I have had, have shown surch a red belly. Well what do you think? The male is really nice??

A pair of Pelvicachromis pulcher "Red". Male of P. pulcher "Red"

The male does not have the ocellus in the caudal fin, but still.................! To keep this fish is no different from the first, I keep all my west african cichlids in the same type of water. If this does not work, I try to make the water more acid. Never alkaline, so far has this have been working well for me. But, I have good water, so this make everything much easier. I know that some of you have water you must treat with all kinds of stuff before you can use it to your fish. I use my water straight from the tap.

Pelvicachromis sacrimontis, J. Paulo, 1977

This fish was in the begining sold as Pelvicachromis pulcher sp. aff., but was later described by J.Paulo 1977. The fish is not so easy to spawn as P. pulcher. but if you give the fish good care and water it will spawne. As for many of the Pelvichromis it's the female who is colorful, when she is in good mood she gets a very dark bodycolor with nearly a silvery stripes along the body and blue cheeks. There is with this fish several colormorphs and this one is the red one. There is also a green and yellow morph.

Pelvicachromis subocellatus,(Guenther, 1871)

This fish was as you can see, described very early and have been in the hobby for awhile too. When I got hold on the fish in the beginning of 70's it was sold as P. klugii,and also as P. taeniatus, but in the end I found out that it was Pelvicachromis subocellatus. Some years ago, a "new" P. subocellatus pop up on the aquarium sceene and that was P. subocellatus "Matadi" and "Moanda". The first time I had the fish a took a long time before I got some fry. They was spawning and spawning and if I remember rigth, it was 13 or 14 time before they came out with fry. I thought I should pick the eggs, but something came alway in the way and they had eaten up the eggs. The pH is important when it comes to the distribution ratio, when the pH came down to 5 most of the fry was females. Between 6 - 7 seem to give the better percentage distribution.

Male of Pelvicachromis subocellatus A pair of P.subocellatus in front of the coconut shell. The male checking is this is good enough.

Pelvicachromis subocellatus "Matadi"

Two females impress each other. If you enlarge the photo you see the male better, he does not show much color and they did not like this coconut shell. The opening was to big so I had to change it out with a coconut shell with a smaller hole.

Pelvicachromis rubrolabiatus, Lamboj,2004

The fish I will tell you about now was new to me, I bought it as a Pelvicachromis sp. humilis "Guinea", so I keep refering to it as a humilis. It was only pure luck that I got hold on these fishes. A fish friend sent me a mail and ask me if I had visit this shop. They was selling a fish as Pelvicachromis roloffi and another as Pelvicachromis taeniatus. But, he was not sure if it was the right fish. So I got curious and drove to this shop after work. Looking into the tanks I found out rather quickly that this was certainly not Pelvicachromis roloffi,I had never seen it before and beeing more than interesting in West African cichlids, I bought what I thought was three pair.

A female Pelvicachromis rubrolabiatus,Guinea.

I was lucky, it was three pair, but how long was Adam in Paradise?? I had not kept the fish for long before I saw that some of the fish was developing "hole in the head" disease, and I thought "hell" the fun is over, and they died, one after one. Then there was a nice pair left, and the female was willing, but the male was holding back.

The female is trying to get the male into the cave. I use a very little hole in the coconut shell, the fish prefere that.

Then I saw that he was developing hole too, and I thought this was it. Fishes that I might not see again for many years! Then a shortly after I found the male dead. One female left, what was that! So I lost the interest for the tank, feeding the female but nothing more. Then suddenly I saw fry in the tank, I thought "Holly sh.." (Sorry), I was quick, getting the fry out of the tank, trying to save them from the "hole in head" disease. I found 16 fry putting them into a small tank.

Then the day after, one fry was dead, the next day two more was dead, and another and another. I was getting rather fed up, so then it was only four left and nothing more happen. I had probably been to quick putting the fry into a new tank and fresh water.

Then some days later I saw more fry in the tank with the female, and I found four more. I was more careful when I put these fry together with the others and everything went well. The fry is growing and I have only lost one fry since that.The fishes have been moved to a bigger tank and everything looks good, no-one have so far start to develope the "Hole in head". And from eight fry I could see that it would be four pair, now since I lost one, there is three pair and one female left.
Here is a young male, but you can already see that this will be a nice fish.

I can't give you any details about the biotop, the River or water chemistry, but I keep the fish like I do with the other Pelvicachromis this, because the fish have been thru several importers/exporters before they end up in this shop where I bought them, so I use the name Pelvicachromis sp. humilis,"Guinea" until I know more.

NEW-NEW Here is some additional info about the fish, it's not a humilis. It was described by Dr. Anton Lamboj in 2004 as Pelvicachromis rubrolabiatus from the Kolente region in Guinea in Bandi River. It belongsto the P. humilis group, so we was not that far away. Aquarist has also called the fish Bandi 2. So, I hope I will be able to establish the fish in the hooby, be able to breed more of the fish so friends can be able to keep the fish too. If, you by pure luck find the fish in you local shop, then don't hesitate to buy them, because I will not promise I will be able to get more than I need for myself

Pelvicachromis taeniatus, (Boulenger 1901)

Pelvicachromis taeniatus "Muyuka"

There is many color morphs among the Pelvicachromis taeniatus, and I will try to fill in photos and information about the fish as soon as I can take photo of the fish. Some of the fish is small, so I have to wait until they get bigger. This taeniatus type is beautiful, and so are the rest of them, so I can't understand that these fish is not so popular or it's better to say that people have not open their eyes for these beautiful fishes. They are rather small, does not harm the plants, dig very little and they are also easy to keep. So what more can you demand of this fishfamily. At least I can start with photos of the female and the male. The fish is a cave spawner and I use half coconuts shell. I like them better than orange plastic flowerpots, the coocnutshell looks more natural among bogwood and rocks.

Male of P. taeniatus "Muyuka"

Female of P. taeniatus "Muyuka"

Thysochromis ansorgii, (Boulenger, 1901)

Thysochromis ansorgii male. Already when they are small, you can pick out female from the silver spot she has at the analopening (look at the photo). The fish is not difficult to keep, pH around neutral, dH does not seem to matter anything. Eat what you give them and they are not aggressive. Nice fish. But, with my experience this is one of the few fish that does not like fresh water. Maybe I did not change that much water when I had the fish many years ago, because after a good water change the fish was laying at the bottom and did not seem to feel well. If I did not do anything, it took about two day before the fish was up and swimming. If I add salt to the water, then they seem to come around much quicker. I can't seem to to have this problem today. The fish seem to do well with regular waterchange and do in every way okay.

Thysochromis ansorgii male guarding egg

Pelmatochromis nigrofasciatus, ( Pellegrin, 1900)

Pelmatochromis nigrofasciatus female P. nigrofasciatus male.

This fish is rather new to me, it was my good friend in Germany, Uwe Werner who asked me if I was interested in this fish. I asked him what name the fish had been known as? He said that Pelmatochromis nigrofasciatus was only known under this name. I had to start digging for more information about the fish. The fish was originally described as Paratilapia nigrofasciata by Pellgrini (1900). There has been several synonyms too, but I use the todays correct name. Who knows what it will be if the scientist get new information and dates about this fish, but at least this name is correct today. The fish is a substrate spawner and the clean a flat piece of rock or maybe at a bogwood. The eggs is in the end a perfect circle. Hatch after about two days, but with a lower temperature it might take a little longer. When the egg hatch the wigglers will be moved to a pit in the sand . You can feed the fry with newley hatched Artemia nauplier. The fish grows for the male to around 13 to 15 cm., and my female is around 10 cm. But, there is no problem against other fish.

Nanochromis parilus, Roberts & Stewart, 1976

Let me jump over to another genus, namely Nanochromis  (I'll be back with more about colormorph of P. pulcher). Some of you have probably tried fish from this genus and the one you usually come over in the shop is Nanochromis parilus, or some still call the fish Nanochromis nudiceps.

Female of Nanochromis parilus. Female and male impress each other.

So here we start with the boring? stuff again. The fish was described by Boulenger in 1899 as Pseudoplesiops nudiceps, then came Pellegrin in 1904 with the name Nanochromis, as a substitute for the name Pseudoplesiops because the name was already occupied by Bleeker, 1858. I leave it here so it will not be too boring for you.We have thought that the fish was Nanochromis nudiceps, this fish comes from the lower part of Zaire river. But in 1976 Roberts & Stewart described the fish as Nanochromis parilus. Not Nannochromis with dobbel n, nor N.parilius with an extra i. The type locality was Zaire river at Inga.

You have to make caves for this fish too, in the same manner as for the Pelvicachromis pulcher.The photo I have put out is of a female and she has a very round belly, but this is typical for the females in good condition ready for some fun! The fish is also found near Wombe in Kongo, and in the small tributaries to the big river. The female is like the female Pelvicachromis pulcher starting up, and she try to lead the male to the choosen cave, often by showing her swollen belly by bending her body nearly dobbel. Sometimes it looks like the male feel the female is nagging him and he tries to chase her off, but she is comming back time after time. Finally he follow her to the cave and she lay her egg in the roof of the cave, the eggs is yellow and dull in the color, so you can't look into the eggs. The temperature is best kept between 26-28*C., then the female will come out with the fry on their first swimming trip around the block. Then you can feed them with newly hatched Artemia salina, don't forget to do waterchanges.

Nanochromis transvestitus, Roberts & Stewart, 1984

The next one is also a Nanochromis and that is Nanochromis transvestitus, Stewart & Roberts, 1984. The type locality was Mai-ndombe lake, near Ipeke, formerly this was Lake Leopold II in the Zaire system.
A pair with Nanochromis transvestitus, with the female in the front

Male of Nanochromis transvestitus

The female outside the cave between the rocks. Two females is trying to

impress the male, they bend the body, swimming on the side, they do everything to impress the male.

This is a beautiful fish, when the female is in the right mood, the color she has is very contrasting. Deep black, white vertical band in the caudalfin and a beautiful red belly. The male is not so colorful, I would say that he is more dull in the color, but still a nice fish.

When I got this fish, I was standing by the tank and watch the fish for hours, they was so beautiful. And after awhile the female start to show of in the front of the male. I had put som half coconut shell in the tank, but these nut shells were obviously not good enough for this "Lady". She start to dig between two small rocks, and when she swim down into the hole I used a flashlight to light down the hole to look. But, I could not see anything, because she had also made a small cave under one of the rocks, so I could not see her. I just had to wait and be patient. After about a week I suddenly saw a small fry outside the opening. I started to feed with Artemia nauplier down the "tunnel" and suddenly one day, there they was and I could count the fry. Do you guess how many it was?? It was 5 fry. Not much to brag about, but......... still I've got some fry. I got a better result when I lower the pH to about 6 and lower. But, it was fun though and later there have been more fry.

Nanochromis squamiceps, Boulenger, 1902

So, let me show you another small beautiful Nanochromis.

Male of Nanochromis squamiceps in normal coloration

. Male starting to get his breeding colors

In the beginning, I got this fish as N. sp. Kisangani and the British called it Silverbelly, But in Dr. Lambojs book "The Cichlids Fishes of Western Africa", Lamboj call the fish N. squamiceps. Germans have been calling the fish Nanochromis sp."Silberbauch".

Photos: Alf Stalsberg.© Female comming out ofd her cave

Male in the cave. Here you can see the eggs hanging in the roof.

Female of Nanochromis squamiceps

You can see it on the small photo too, but, if you click on the photo, you can easily see why the fish is called "Silverbelly". But, this does not tell you anything about the fish. The fish came first to Europe in 1986 just some few speciement collected by Heiko Bleher. I got mine from Holland, but I don't remember when.

I decorated the tank precisely like I've done with the other small westafricans. The only different thing I did this time was, I made the caves with pieces of plastic tubes. I pressed the tubes down in the sand so the fish had to dig, to make the opening big enough. This suit the fish very well. The reason for using plastictubes is that the fish are so small, male about 6-7 cm. and the female about 5 cm., so even half coconut shell were to big.

It did not go to long before the fish spawn in the tube. I had also placed the tube rather close to the frontglass so I could take photo of the fish. The fry was very small but could take newly hatched artemia nauplier, so feeding was not any problem, and with a good waterquality, everything went smooth. I have used the name Nanochromis sp. "Kisangani", because this was the name used when I bought the fish. Since the fish is still undescribed, I'll use this name, but I have seen the named used for some other Nanochromis sp., so I'm not certain about the name. Anyhow, no matter which one of the fish you will find, they are very nice fish. So if you find them in your local shop, don't hesitate to buy the fish, you won't be disappointed.

Tilapia, Smith, 1840

Tilapia joka. Thys van den Audenaerde, 1969

The next fish I would like to share with you is a small Tilapia. If you know the Tilapia's you will think, "What have a Tilapia to do among all these small fishes"?? Well the answer is very simple, the fish is small, and suit very well in a tank decorated with live plants and small fish. The fish is Tilapia joka, Thys,1969.A young Tilapi joka female. Male Tilapia joka.

The fish comes from the southern part of Sierra Leone and grow to about 10 cm. total lenght. As I said, you can keep the fish in a tank decorated with plants, and also together with small fish. It's appearance is nice, the rounded curved head remind me of my favorites the Aequidens The vertical bands might reminds you of a large Tilapia, namely Tilapia buttikoferi,but this fish will grow to the double of the size of Tilapia joka, and his behavior is different.

My Tilapia joka use to spawn under the pice of wood on the photo the egg was yellow/whitish. The pH was around 6 and water temperature about 26*C. The fry were fed with artemia, and later cyclops and Daphnier.

There is only a small minus with the fish! And that is, it's rarely seen in you local shop.

Tilapia snyderae Stiassny et al., 1992

Benitochromis nigrodorsalis, Lamboj 2001.

Among the genus Benitochromis there is many beautiful fish, and I will start with one I think is very beautiful. Of course there is differences in taste, but I think you will agree with me, looking at the photos. The fish grow to about 12 cm., and I will put it as a rather small cichlid, not among the dwarfcichlids, but a fish you can keep together with other fish, not small ones that can be taken as food. The fish were formerly put in the Genus Chromidotilapia before Dr Lamboj made a new genus for these fish in2001, today put into the genus Benitochromis.

The fish is ovophile, but both parents will incubating the eggs, but first after a couple of days. I would like to have the pH between 6-7 , but my tapwater is 8,4 but will fall down to around 7,5 after awhile. Temperature around 26 degrees Celsius, but they can take higher pH and higher temperature, but temperature between 24-26 is good. In my experience the fish is not difficult to keep and with so nice colors all the time, it should be a winner.

Female of Benitochromis nigrodorsalis

Male of Benitochromis nigrodorsalis.

Steatocranus Boulenger, 1899

Steatocranus casuarius Poll, 1939.

I will say that this genus is not so well known, talking about Lionhead, most people is thinking about Steatocranus casuarius, but there is nine described species and at least one undescribed. When you keep these fishes, they look funny, but after awhile you will love the fish, in spite of it's funny appearance. They are very curious, and they follow you with their eyes watching what you are doing. They are resting at the bottom or some favorite places, they defend against the other. The fish has a reduced swim bladder and the other in the genus too. They spawn in a cave and the eggs are rather large.

Here is a portrait of a male Steatocranus casuarius.

Steatocranus tinanti (Poll, 1939).

Portrait of a male of Steatocranus tinanti.

Female of Steatocranus tinanti.

Steatocranus tinanti is also a "nice" fish, he found a favorite place in the aquarium to watch what is going on. He is a very slender fish, with a big head if you compare with the rest of the fish. So this is one of the reason he look so funny. Easy to keep and breed, so if you found the fish in your local shop, I will urge you to buy it. It will be a very nice experience.

Steatocranus irvinei Trewavas, 1943.

Here you can see how they choose a look out place. Female above and the lower is the male. You can also see his lower blue lip.

Steatocranus glaber Roberts & Stewart, 1976

Male of Steatocranus glaber. Nice fish?

Steatocranus glaber was described in 1976 and the distribution is Congo River near Inga in Democratic Republic of Congo. So far I've not been able to breed the fish, but since they now is fully adult, I'll cross my fingers that they will spawn. I gave a pair to my friend Anton Lamboj and hope he will be able to spawn the fish. At least the fish will be spred on more than me. You never know when something will happen, and you loose all your fish. I hope they will spawn, because I really like this fish. Look at its appearance! So I keep the fish at around 26 degrees and it will eat nearly anything you feed them with. So I'm sorry that I can't give you much more information for the moment.

Steatocranus gibbiceps Boulenger, 1899

I was not certain which one of the Steatocranus I got, when I bought S. gibbiceps, I thought it looks like S.tinanti. And it can remind you of the S. tinanti because of the slender bodyform. But as the fish grow I become more and more certain that this could not be S. tinanti. But you never know if there is differences between local forms of the fish. But then I came across a photo of the fish, which was not the best, so I was not certain before I sent a photo to Dr. Anton Lamboj and he confirm my suspicion. Dr. Lamboj was also very interested in this fish, so when we met I brought some with to him. When the fish grew up and start to be sexual adult, there was some fighting and I ended up with one pair. But this pair turned out to be a perfect pair, they start to lay eggs and watch the fry carefully. And they spawn again and I thought I would remove the fry from the first spawn. But time was running and suddenly the fish was out with the second brood, and I expect that the parents would chase the fry from the first brood. But no, the was watching the fry from the first brood to get too close, but after some days or a week, they was all swimming together. And they was not finished with that, then they came out with the third batch with fry, and the same happen here. They watch the last batch in the beginning, but again all was swimming together. So I think I have to remove some of the fish, beause the fry from the first spawn is getting adult and will soon be ready to spawn. A very nice and interesting fish and I will only give you a portrait of a young male, before I add some photo of the adult fish.

Well this was the beginning, more info will be added and I hoped you liked it so far.

Alf