A dwarf mbuna from Pombo Rocks in Lake Malawi:

The picture above is my dominant male demasoni. I bought seven from a breeder at the Ohio Cichlid Extravaganza in 1999. I understand that the demasoni are not at all that aggressive in the wild but they are quite aggressive in the confines of the aquarium, especially with eachother. Some hobbiests claim that they are best kept in groups of no less than 12 in a tank no smaller than 100 gallons. Others claim that they will do okay in smaller tanks in smaller numbers if there are other more dominant species in the tank to keep them in line. Mine did well in the 75 gallon community tank and have bred many times. The males and females are identically colored although the females are slightly smaller, with shorter fins and (sometimes) a slightly more washed out color. Demasoni are smaller cichlids growing to only around 8 cm (3 inches). There is also another variation of demasoni with a slightly different look recently discovered called Ps demasoni "mozambique".

Well, I guess that I made a huge mistake. I saw a large beautiful dominant male demasoni at the LFS and purchased him. This upset the whole balance of the demasoni community. For three years the demasoni lived in relative peace and mated almost monthly. Then, within a week, I went from eight demasoni to only two and both the survivors are females. And to add insult to injury, I witnessed the demasoni cross breeding with the Lab hongi. I sold the two remaining females to another hobbiest. These are a truely fickle fish, with so many different experiences from different hobbiests, that it is tough to predict exactly how they will fair in different size tanks, in different numbers with different cohabitants.

The above two pictures show some demasoni fry

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