Eggspots Elsewhere - Welt der Fische / World of Fishes

with several pools. But to our disappointment we discovered that it was no more than some
kind of effluent disposal system and the artificial pools were perhaps settling beds.
To sum up this first day: while we might not have found the tilapiine fishes we were looking
for, instead we had discovered what was probably a new Haplochromis species and a new
location for Pseudocrenilabrus multicolor and Hemichromis letourneuxi.
Male Haplochromis sp. “Ismailia” courting a female (in the background).
Aquarium observations on the Haplochromis from Ismailia:
Although Haplochromis sp. “Ismailia” is only a comparatively small species, territorial
males are exceptionally aggressive towards not only rivals but also females that are
unwilling to spawn. I was, however, able to establish that in winter (I wasn’t able to
determine the precise months but it was probably at least from December to February) all
courtship activity came to a halt. During this period females and even males were in
harmony with one another, without any aggressive encounters at all. The rest of the time
the male was constantly busy displaying the moment a female came near, or actively
searching for a female to court. At the peak of courtship arousal all the bars on the sides
of the male’s body disappear. By contrast, the females are invariably pale grey to creamcoloured
all over.
A relatively shallow spawning pit is constructed by the male, who then entices ripe females
into this depression. Spawning takes place in the manner typical of all haplochromines, in
a head to tail position with the pair circling. The females brood for only around two weeks
and harbour up to around 50 fry in their mouths – a relatively small number in comparison
to other Haplochromis. The young are taken back into the mouth at any disturbance,
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SCHRAML: Haplochromis sp. “Ismailia“