I’d mentioned in an earlier post that I had a (presumed) pair of Pelvicachromis sacrimontis in my West African streambank tank. Well, I think I was wrong on both counts. I lost one of the fish to aggression; my guess is that I had two males. Off I went to see if I couldn’t do better on gender selection – this time I brought home three fish, both to improve my chances and to diffuse the aggression. I put the resident male into the filter (one of the nice things about the filter set-ups on the tanks – they provide nice spaces to isolate fish in) and, after a short quarantine, popped the three noobs into the tank. Today was the day I reintroduced the original and what fireworks! Two of the new fish went into full fledged courtship mode – clearly female – and the male responded. The dominant female and the male are house hunting while the sub-dominant female is trying to play homewrecker. The fourth fish (possible male) is just trying not to be noticed. The second count I think I was wrong on was species. Though they were sold to me as sacrimontis, the spots on the dorsal and caudal fins make me think pulcher – the good ol’ krib (Dan, you were right). I’m not complaining – they’re very pretty and quite entertaining.

The male.

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Dominant female.

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The females, sparring.