The 5 1/2 inch (14 cm) 5 year old dominant male Haplochromis sp "red tail sheller" shown below:
Other males at a younger age shown below:
The color changes quite a bit depending upon their mood.
Some of the females pictured below
More males below:
I bought seven of these little Victorians at only about 1/2 inch (1 cm) long at the Cincinnati club auction in April of 2003. They were labeled Haplochromis sp "blue fire fin" however; I believe that this is incorrect. After some research it looks to me like they are Haplochromis sp " red tail sheller" from the Kenyan shore of Lake Victoria. I believe that this cichlid might also be known as the Haplochromis sp "blue neon". Several sources on the internet seem to feel that the red tail sheller will be assigned to the genus Platytaeniodus in the future. They grow to about 5.5 inches (14 cm) long and closely resemble Platytaeniodus degeni in body shape. As the name would suggest (snail crusher) it feeds on mollusks and they live in the sandy bottom areas of the Lake. I have 2 males and 5 females. As you can see, the females actually have a little bit of red on them as well, which is a bit unusual for many victorians. They spend all day picking at the gravel and are rarely more than 3 or 4 inches above the substrate.
In April of 2004 (one year after buying them) they mated and the female spit 12 very tiny little fry. In May I got 11 more from a different female. Then in August 9 more fry and 9 more in September. They are unbelievably small when the female first spits them out. I assumed that the number of fry would increase as the female grew larger and more mature, but that doesn't seem to be happening. At over two years old the females still spit only around a dozen fry.
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