FishProfiles.com Message Forums

Can anyone give me information on Lombardis. We have been given some, 2 males and about 10 females. We know nothing at all about them and would love any information regarding breeding. Are they good parents, do you keep the fry in with them, how often do they breed etc. Whatever information you have would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry for the late response.

Pseudotropheus Lombardi is the fish you have.
It's an african cichlid from Lake Malawi.

I don't keep them just trying to help.
Punch 'Pseudotropheus Lombardi' into Google you will get lots of info.

Hope you're enjoying your new fish



The Amazon Nut...

Right ... lombardoi.

This is an interesting Rift Lake Cichlid, that was first described by Warren E. Burgess back in 1976. Whilst its water chemistry parameters and aquarium furnishing requirements are the same as other Mbuna (i.e., hard, alkaline water, lots of rock rubble with plenty of caves), it's interesting because it's a sexually reversed fish.

By that, I mean that the standard colour conventions seen in other fishes of the same Genus (by the way, the Cichlid Room website places it in Metriaclima, not Pseudotropheus, which was the original Genus under which it was described by Burgess - more on this in a moment) are reversed in this species. Most Metriaclima species have blue males, with females whose colours are somewhat variable across the Genus, with yellow being a popular base colour. Metriaclima lombardoi has yellow males and blue females.

This can cause some interesting integration problems if you are ever planning to house these fishes with other Mbuna, because the females of this species will resemble the males of other species, and therefore particular care has to be taken with choosing the species you integrate lombardoi with, if you wish to avoid some fairly nasty internecine warfare breaking out in the aquarium. If the lombardoi are the only fishes in the aquarium, this ceases to be a problem, of course, but it is worth making note of this right now, in case you decide to introduce the lombardoi to a different aquarium containing an extant population of other Mbuna species in the future. Basically, I would definitely avoid trying to integrate them with another Metriaclima species, as that poses far too many integration problems unless you're a veteran at the Mbuna game, and likewise would caution against trying to integrate them with members of the Genus Pseudotropheus, many of these being pretty aggressive fishes anyway that need decent amounts of space for proper housing. I would also steer clear of trying to house your lombardoi with any Melanochromis species, as these are hardcore aquarium terrorists (especially the demon berserker known as Melanochromis chipokae, which is basically Hitler with fins) and unless you're prepared to house your fishes in a very large aquarium with a LOT of hiding places, I'd avoid this mixture even after acquiring several years' experience with Mbuna, because Melanochromis species can be evil.

If you're going to integrate the lombardoi with other Mbuna in the future, then your best bet would be to pick fishes that bear as little resemblance to the lombardoi as possible colour wise. Cynotilapia afra is a possibility, provided you give the fishes enough space and hiding places (the lombardoi are likely to be somewhat more aggressive than the Cynotilapia afra), and Iodotropheus sprengerae (again, this is a mild mannered species by Mbuna standards and needs provision to hide from the lombardoi when the latter are in breeding mode). However, the level of aggression that breeding lombardoi exhibit would require a large aquarium for such integration to be successful. Your lombardoi are likely to be pretty feisty, and therefore not only do you need to choose fishes that are sufficiently different in appearance in order to try and stop internecine warfare breaking out at source, you also need to try and find such fishes whose temperament is as close a match as possible - not a trivial task, I can assure you!

However, let's assume for the moment that you're keeping the lombardoi on their own, which is probably the best bet at this stage. Bear the above notes in mind for the future however in case your plans change!

On their own, your lombardoi will need a fairly spacious aquarium, especially if you have 12 of them. The advantage here is that with 12 individuals, aggression will be spread out pretty thinly, but one problem I can immediately latch on to is your two males. Usually, two males of the same Mbuna species in an aquarium spells trouble, though again, this varies a lot depending upon species. How likely your two males are to come to blows once maturity kicks in remains to be seen, but I would prepare yourself for it in advance, as males are strongly territorial and likely to be pretty intolerant of each other once they're old enough to breed. I would start making contingency plans now for this, while the fishes are presumably still juvenile and not yet causing problems.

You might be able to get away with keeping the two males, but this requires careful planning on your part. You would need to set up your rock decor in such a manner as to create a good number of blind spots in the aquarium, so that the males are not continually glowering at each other from afar, and basically break up lines of sight from the standpoint of the fishes, so that the males can inhabit opposite ends of the aquarium and only come into contact occasionally. This requires some ingenuity on your part with respect to arranging the rocks, and will pose some interesting management problems for the aquarium as a whole with respect to siting the necessary items of technology. However, it CAN be done, and if you're successful, you can pat yourself on the back for a job well done. Be prepared in advance for trouble, though, so that if it happens, you'll be ready to deal with it, and if your two males don't launch into all out warfare, congratulate yourself (temporarily!) that you've somehow got it right. Balancing the territorial instincts of these fishes with available aquarium space is still something of an art form, unless of course you've acquired large quarters to start with, and basically, the best advice I can offer at this stage is give them the biggest aquarium you can afford so as to lessen the problems you are likely to face once maturity kicks in. By "sufficient space", I'm thinking here of around 75 gallons US - partly to provide enough water volume to reduce the loading on your filtration system from fishes that possess hearty appetites, and partly to mitigate the territorial concerns cited above. Ideally, you should be looking at a long and fairly shallow aquarium design if you can obtain it, so that there's as much distance between the two ends of the aquarium as possible, thus increasing the probability of your being able to keep those two males together if you wish to. I'd certainly consider a 6ft long tank to be the sort of setup you're thinking of for 12 of these, and if you can give them even more spacious quarters, so much the better!

Right, the next topic to concern yourself with is feeding. Mbuna are aufwuchs grazers in the wild that have adapted to a diet containing a fair proportion of vegetable matter. Feed Mbuna too much meat protein in the diet, and the dreaded "Malawi Bloat" takes hold, which, when symptoms appear, is inevitably fatal. You stop this at source by providing your fishes with a good deal of vegetable matter in the diet. Celery tops, fresh spinach, lettuce etc., are all likely to be useful in keeping these fishes in good condition, basically the sort of foods that you would feed to the likes of certain Loricariids catfishes and Silver Dollars. Keep the vegetable content of their food high and you won't have dietary problems, though you can include some animal protein in there as well. As a rough guide, I'd say try and make your fishes diet at least 75% vegetable based, and as much of that being greenstuff as possible. If you use prepared fish foods, check the ingredients lists carefully and make sure that the prepared foods you use are mostly vegetable based - specialist "Molly" foods and algae tablets are the sort of thing to look out for here, but again, check that the vegetable content is a good deal higher than any animal-based additives. Keep these fishes fed with a good, primarily herbivorous diet, and you should never see "Malawi Bloat" take a toll of your fishes.

Needless to say, because these fishes have hearty appetites, and are also fairly messy feeders, you will need decent quality filtration to stay on top of the ammonia and nitrite issues, which in hard, alkaline water will be more serious than in soft, acidic water. If your budget runs to an Eheim external canister filter, this is your optimum solution, but not knowing your income (and being too genteel to pry thereinto!) you might wish to consider other options if the Eheim external power filter is beyond your means. It's possible to keep fishes like this without recourse to Rolls-Royce engineering solutions such as the Eheim, but again, a large water volume to start with, and regular attention to the water changes, will become somewhat more important if your filtration capacity is modest.

Breeding ... these fishes are maternal mouthbrooders. With 10 females, at least the breeding load is going to be spread about a lot, which means that one female won't be being bred to death, which is something you have to watch for with maternal mouthbrooders. If you only have a limited number of females, you have to give the females a rest from male attentions to allow them to build up their body reserves before they're courted again. I would not worry unduly about the females being able to protect their fry from the other fishes, in any case it's likely that your males will have 3 or 4 of the females on the go with a brood of fry at any one time, and rotate among the available females. Your big problem will be raising the fry once the mother has ejected them pemanently to make way for a new batch, and these fishes can produce a fair number of fry in a short space of time! It's almost certain that you won't be able to raise them all, so you should prepare yourself to be pretty ruthless with respect to culling right from the start, and concentrate on raising 20 or so decent, healthy juveniles instead of trying to raise 200+ stunted runts! A rearing aquarium for the juveniles is itself going to be a substantial affair, because these fishes generally aren't saleable until they're 1½ inches long, which means you need space to bring them to that size.

This should cover all the bases. I can assure you that you won't be bored with these fishes!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

"Right... Lombardoi"

With all due respect, I may have spelt it wrong but in fact it DID get lots of info on google. It appears even those keeping them spell it wrong, OFTEN. (I don't keep them) The post sat here for 2 weeks so thought I'd attempt to help.

You could correct in a nicer way that doesn't centre someone out. It's not like you have to PROVE you're a genius

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=Pseudotropheus+Lombardi&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

The Amazon Nut...

Actually that wasn't my original intention ... I was translating my thought stream directly to the post. As in "Right ... Lombardoi ... that's the fish he has, what does he want to know about it?"


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I am extremely grateful for all the information offered, so thanks and hopefully we will have success with them . I never realised what was involved with them, so we are looking forward to the challenge

Glad to be of service JM.

Oh, if you're keeping them alone for the time being, as I stated above, this will reduce your challenges considerably at source. I cannot stress too much, however, the importance of watching these fishes in action.

Even behavioural quirks that at the time do not seem important when you first see them can acquire an importance later. If in doubt, take notes. If you have a digital camera, spare space on the memory card, and the ability to burn the results to a CD for future reference, film them. Include text files with behavioural notes among the saved pics. When the fishes start exhibiting interesting new behaviours for some reason (usually associated with the onset of mating and parenthood) you'll have a nice database to look back through and be able to track the behavioural development of your fishes. This will stand you in good stead as a reference benchmark for other Cichlids should you take those on, and you'll be able to compare and contrast, add to your knowledge and experience more quickly, and hopefully enjoy greater success with your fishes in future.

Something I've been saying here for a LONG time is this: every hour spent in research, patient observation etc., can in the future contribute to saving you a week of additional labour.

Oh, and by the way, you'll pretty soon discover that there are a LOT of interesting behaviours to watch for with Cichlids.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

thanks again and yes we are starting to see some bhttp://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/images/smilies/thumbsup.gif
Thumbs Upehaviours among them, so will have the camers ready Cheers

Not really sure what happened in my last post, but to repeat again, thanks again and yes we are starting to see some fascinating behaviours, so we shall have the camera ready. Great information offered and again we appreciate it