Lethrinops lethrinus

Syn.: Tilapia lethrinus, Chromis lethrinus

Common Sand-Eater

Found by Gunther in 1893

Lake Malawi

(©1997 by Kaycy Ruffer)

Another version of this article was published, on July, 2000 in the "Tropical Fish Hobbyist" magazine!

This is one very beautiful fish! The first time I saw this georgeous male Lethrinops lethrinus was in Capitol Aquarium in Sacramento, CA in 1995. I was entranced so much by this four and a half inches cichlid beauty that I wanted to buy him but he was NOT for sale. I stood in front of the tank and just watched him. He was in a tank with several others of his species and they were all only approximately 1½" and had only a black horizontal line on their side. I could tell that the tank held many young of his species and there were many females. I could also tell there were a few non - dominate males. I didn't have the money at the time to purchase a female or two that were noticeably holding eggs or fry. I told a friend of mine who was also at the store at the time to look at this male fish. We walked over and she thought the male was gorgeous too and asked if I could tell which were females and which females were holding. I told her, yes. With one of the clerks, whom I knew quite well, I picked out a female for my friend and she purchased her. Before bagging this female I asked the clerk if it would be ok for me to 'strip' the female and put the eggs or fry in a separate bag. She said I could. The female released 25 eggs. I did see that gorgeous male still in the store for a couple more weeks and then they were gone.

In June of 1997 we purchased three bags, containing six fry each, of young Lethrinops lethrinus at the PCCA (Pacific Coast Cichlid Association) auction. These bags were turned into the club's BAP (Breeder Award Program) by another member. I wanted them because I never forgot that male I saw in the pet store two years ago.

I brought the bags of fish home, the fry were all about one inch, and placed all three bags into a 30 gallon tank. Even though I did water changes and siphoned the bottom of the tank it was always cloudy. I decided to move them to a 30 gallon tall tank on September 22, 1997, to watch them and to also check for any diseases that might have attacked the fish because of their water condition being so poor for the past 2 months. To my surprise there were still eighteen young fish. The other thing that caught my eye was one of the one and a half inch females was holding! Not only did they all survive, they were spawning in that tank! Strong willed fish. From this one female I stripped seven fry. If you look at the lower part of her jaw you will see a distinct bulging. Later I found that this was three days after spawning. The fry had almost absorbed their yolk sacs so I knew from previous experience with other mouth brooding species that the fry were about to be free swimming. The next day another female was 'holding' and I decided to take the eggs or fry since I knew by watching the tank of fish there were no other fish 'holding' the day before. I 'stripped' the female and found eggs. I have been keeping an eye on the eggs and the eggs never hatched. On the 26th I knew they weren't going to hatch. I also found two more females 'holding'. There is one definite male and one possible male and the rest seem to be females. With these females I decided to wait a day before 'stripping' because I think what happened with the other eggs is that I 'stripped' the female too soon after spawning and the eggs and milt were not able to mix properly. (This is only a guess on my part.)

The male is approximately two inches and is very pretty even though he is not full grown yet. He is not quite as colored as the adult male I saw in the pet store but is still very beautiful.

While I was watching a pair spawn in the 30 tall one morning, I noticed the anal and ventral fins of the male get dark burnt-orange. The anal and ventral fins on the female get a dark to light black edging. The female will also get several vertical bars. The female of this spawning did not attempt to 'pick' at the eggs spots on the anal fin of the male that I understood to be a normal activity of mouth brooding cichlids. They kept going around in circles. After laying an egg or two she would turn and quickly pick them up not once touching the males anal fin.

It is now November 1997 and I have placed several females in a 20 gallon long tank after I have stripped them to make sure I knew what sexes I had left in the 30 tall and who was the dominate male. In this tank I also placed the other lethrinus I suspected to be a male. It was. Getting ever as beautiful as the dominate male in the 30 tall.

On November 4 I was looking at the 20 long and noticed a female was holding. Great. Now this male and female can be sold as a proven breeding pair. I will remove the pair and bag them for the trip to San Jose for the PCCA club auction. I will place another male into this tank and repeat the process all over again. There appears to be at least two more non-dominate males in the 30 tall.

I decided not to "strip" one of the other females. Instead I placed her in a 10 gallon tank of her own with a Hydro- Sponge filter and a large piece of Anubius nana plant. She did quite well to start but since this was her first time spawning, she released the fry past their free swimming state. I thought all the fry had died. I found quite a few white fungused bodies on the bottom of the tank. To my surprise, the next day as I was getting ready to remove the female and place her into the 20 gallon long tank with the other females, I found movement on the bottom of the tank near the roots of the plant. She had some actually survive! I did notice that her vertical bars are still quite distinct and she is also keeping her black coloring in her anal and ventral fins. This must be a brood care coloring which is most often seen in Apistogramma species while taking care of their eggs and young. While the females are holding they do not have any special colorations. Apparently the color intensity is only noticeable during spawning and care of their free swimming fry.

In December I had four females and the one male left. He was getting so beautiful. All the colors of the rainbow. I am now building the collection back up because I have found there to be less 'arguing' with many more females. I also noticed when I had the extra non-dominant males in the tank there was also less aggression.

In January of 1998 we moved the lethrinus to a 55 gallon plant tank. The lethrinus are sand sifters and we thought these fish would keep the top half inch layer of sand clean. There was only a Hydro-Sponge® #5 sitting on top of the sand for filtration besides the plants. The other tank mates were approximately 50 Ottocinclus cats, two male Melanotaenia praecox (I raised from eggs), a male Apistogramma bitaeniata, and a female Apistogramma agassizii and one male Microgeophagus altispinosa. (The altispinosa used to be called Papiliochromis altispinosa.) I did not really know the temperament of the lethrinus because ever since I have had them they have been in a species tank. I was soon to find out. The leths did not bother the larger fish. Did not even bother the female agassizii. I did start having problems with the lethrinus trying to eat the ottos. A week after being in the plant tank I noticed a female lethrinus with an otto in her mouth. Luckily she had a small enough mouth to prevent the fish from going in past its' head. I was able to hold the tail of the otto and the female lethrinus and she twisted till her hold on the trapped otto was free. They both survived. I now wish I had taken photos.

In the middle February I had to move the lethrinus back into the 30 tall tank after finding the dominate male with an otto in his mouth up to the tail! I netted the fish out of the tank and took a closer look. The ottos' right pectoral spine was just starting to stick through the left gill plate of the lethrinus. I knew he was in trouble. There was no way he was going to be able to swallow the otto or be able to spit the fish out. I also knew the otto was already dead and I really didn't want to lose the male lethrinus. I had been raising and watching his development since he was a fry and wasn't willing to just let him die yet. I placed him in a ten gallon 'hospital' tank and waited. A couple days went by and he was still not rid of the dead prey. His mouth was starting to bruise from being kept at its' widest for so long. I knew I had to do something. I was determined to help him even if it meant losing him as well. I netted him out of the 10 gallon tank and put him in my photo tank. It is small enough to watch him closely and I was going to get photos of him. I knew it was time to help him because he was beginning to get lethargic. I scooped him up gently in my left hand and used my light, that I use for taking photos, to look into his mouth to see if there was any thing I could get hold of on the otto to be able to pull it free. I could tell the otto was disintegrating and I tried to get hold of his tail and see if 'Mr. Leth' would be able to pull free. No, he was still stuck. I was hoping the ottos' pectoral spines would just collapse when it had dissolved so much. 'Mr. Leth' wasn't that lucky. I again looked into his mouth and used the long tweezers (approximately six inches long) and was able to get a hold of the head of the otto and held it. The lethrinus was able to twist itself free and I could see he would never have been able to get rid of the otto on his own. After letting 'Mr. Leth.' rest in the photo tank I looked over the otto, or what was left of it. I could now tell why there was no way the pectoral spines would collapse on their own. The pectoral spines of the Ottocinclus are connected to the head bone. The head bone was not going to collapse, so the pectorals could not either. I put 'Mr. Leth.' back in the hospital tank to recover because of his severe bruising from his ordeal. Under the left gill was a bruise the length of 1" and about 1/4" wide. I wanted to make sure he was completely healed before placing him back with his mates. I will be glad when he can go back to his tank because there are a couple females getting quite huge with eggs. His health comes first though.

Today is Feb. 17^th, 1999 and the male is basically healed. He looks great. I put him in the 30 gallon tall and watched them all intermix. The females that were starting to swell with their roe were following the male around and every now and then changing to an almost solid bronze coloration with the anal, ventral and tail fins turning black. When he would turn around towards them they would take off. There is a plastic plant that forms an overhang on the bottom of the tank. This is where they like to spawn. The female will go into this overhang trying to entice the male to follow and would then begin spawning. No spawning would take place while I am watching them though. I am sure tomorrow morning there will be two females holding.

Next morning, yes indeed, there were two females holding! I also have two 55 gallon tanks containing a few hundred of these beauties.