Cyprichromis leptosoma “Blue Flash”

By Randy Longrie

This particular species of Cyprichromis leptosoma I obtained through one of the many mail orders I have done with another GBAS member (I didn’t ask his permission to use his name so he shall be nameless).

The location from which this fish is from is Utinta. It is located on the eastern shore of Tanganyika in Tanzania. The group of four were a F1 generation (offspring of wild caught fish).

Not all males will look the same in Cyprichromis leptosoma. The two most common color schemes are all blue or all blue except for the caudal which is yellow.

When I acclimated the fish from delivery, two went belly up immediately. As it turns out, the remaining two were a male and a female. The male sports an all blue coloration. I try to keep all my tanks between 78 and 80 degrees. Feeding Cyps are not a problem as they generally eat anything. They are plankton eaters in the wild.

I have never seen these fish actually spawn. But I have witnessed the mating dance by the male which results in a mouthful of eggs in the female the following day. They spawn in the middle of the tank. Not on the substrate like other cichlids. The male will curve his body towards the female, flap his ventral fins rapidly, and will open and close his mouth very fast. Ad Konings says the female is actually nose down when she lays the eggs and catches them as they sink towards her mouth.

These do best as a group and one male will spawn with several females in the same week (STUD).

For an African cichlid, these are pretty nonaggressive. And if they get stressed out, they will go blind. This is also true for the Altolamprologus species. They seem to go good with other nonaggressive Tanganyikans.