As expected things changed substantially since February when I published the first gallery.

Pseudotropheus Saulosi cichlids reached 6-8 cm in length. One of the males transformed completely to blue with black vertical barring. Another male started transformation, but the progress is very slow, so I doubt if it will ever be completed. The both males fight against each other and compete for females, still both struggling and courting looks more like playing when comparing to more aggressive Maingano cichlids.

Saulosi females tend to school together and are joyful. Some of them love playing with water stream. They regard the tank as kind of a playground to have fun and to… devastate. All tear up Vallisneria leaves forcing me to supply two or three new plants monthly once the old ones are almost gone. Interesting, they do not eat leaves, so obviously tear them up just for entertainment. Permanently two or three females incubate at the same time, however no incubation was successful so far. One of the females dominates and shows black vertical barring and black dorsal fin usually.

Maingano cichlids reached 7-10 cm in length. Two males established territories in and around the rock caves on opposite sides of the tank. The supposed Maingano male who had previously occupied the right cave turned out to be the biggest female. I realized that first when she began her first incubation in the end of February. Meanwhile the smallest Maingano grown up very fast, made an advance in group hierarchy and established territory in the middle area of the tank. Once the biggest female released her fry from the mouth, merciless attacks on her begun. First she had been brutally disposed from her territory to the surface by the growing male. Thereafter the other three smaller females sensed the opportunity for advancement in group hierarchy and launched attacks on her. At the same time the two sexually excited males kept conducting violent bottom-up torpedo-like attacks on her belly, what seems to be their ultimate seduction strategy, whenever mating dance and chasing does not work. Lucky her (and lucky me, as she is my apple of the eye) she defended her against the other females, managed to evade the brutal courtship, regained weight and fully recuperated from partial tail and fins losses. Two weeks later all the scenario repeated itself, now starring the most aggressive female. After releasing her fry from the mouth, within only a day she got killed. It seems, that her death had somehow moved the two males, who almost completely stopped the violent torpedo-like attacks. So far I haven’t seen any serious fight between the two males, but I think that this will happen sooner or later. So far they practice only kind of a war dance in front of each other. Apart from that the bigger (and younger) male sporadically launches sudden attacks on the former undisputed tank boss - to travel to his enemy’s cave (around 60 cm), to hit him and to withdraw to his own cave takes him less than 2 seconds…

Synodontis Lucipinnis catfish reached 7-8 cm in length. They still seem to live in their own world, males struggle a bit, but do not hurt each other. Still shy, swim out in the open only in dim light.