Stomatepia pindu
The Stomatepia pindu live in the volcanic lake Barombi-Mbo in western Cameroon. It is not a large lake, only 2.5 km across. The crater, however, is very deep, with a maximum depth of 110m in the lake. As the lake has no current, only the upper 40m of the water column contains enough oxygen for the life of underwater creatures. Fish can be found in the coastal area of the lake. It should be noted that these fish are very rare, so it is good luck to find them in aquarists' collections or on sale.
Male Stomatepia pindu have a bronze-green body colour. The females are darker than the males, almost black. When excited, the body becomes darker, almost black. Males reach a size of 12 cm, while females do not exceed 9 cm.
Keep Stomatepia pindu preferably in a species aquarium of 80 liters in a small group of 5-8 individuals. The fish are not particularly interested in each other, even during spawning, so clashes between them is absent. They do not cause damage to plants.
Water parameters: temperature 28-30° C, hardness dH 4-12°, pH 7,5-8,5. Requires aeration, filtration and weekly replacement of 1/5 of the aquarium water with fresh.
Coarse-grained river sand can be used as substrate. Arrange snags and piles of stones with crevices at the bottom for the fish to hide in.
The diet of the fish consists of various live and frozen foodstuffs (shredded mussel meat, chum, Coretta) as well as dry granular and flake food. Feed the fish twice a day.
Reproduction
The offspring of Stomatepia pindu have been obtained under aquarium conditions, although there is very little information about how this was achieved.
If you want to breed Stomatepia pindu, the water in the aquarium needs to be alkaline. A pH of 8.2 and relatively hard water is recommended. The water temperature should be between 25 and 28° C.
Spawning is relatively easy. Female lays eggs directly on the substrate virtually the entire area of the bottom, without first cleaning it and the construction of at least improvised nest. After the female spawns, the male fertilizes the eggs, after which the female collects all the eggs into her mouth, where they incubate for 3-4 weeks. The fully viable fry leave the female's mouth.
In the early days of life, fry are fed at least 4 times a day with live dust and powdered dry food, and after 1-1.5 weeks begin to give nauplii artemium.
During the first few spawns, the female usually eats her eggs or spits out her young prematurely. Don't get discouraged when this happens, next time things will stabilise and the female will become a model mother...
