Egyptian mouthbrooder

Female

The multi -colored or Small mouth brooders ( Pseudocrenilabrus multicolor; Syn: Haplochromis multicolor; Lat: . " Multus " = a lot, "color" = color) is an African cichlid, which occurs widely in the northeastern and eastern Africa from Egypt to Ethiopia and Lake Victoria.

Features

Male Small mouthbrooders be 8 cm long, females stay smaller. The body is elongated and strongly flattened in the rear part. The terminal mouth is wide, the lips are blue. The caudal fin is clearly rounded. The base color is rust-colored clay - up. Depending on the incidence of light the various regions of the body greenish, lemon yellow, golden or bluish, especially on the back. The fins are colored. The unpaired fins often show greenish spots on a sturdy rust-red ground, the pelvic fins are yellowish. Females are plain colored with a more yellowish color and dark transverse bands or spots on the body sides.

• Fins formula: Dorsal XIII-XV/8-10, Anal III/6-9, pectoral 12
• Dandruff formula: MLR 25-29.

Way of life

The species inhabited mainly wetlands, small streams, and thickly overgrown backwaters of larger rivers and coastlines of lakes. It feeds on worms, small crustaceans, insects, small fish, algae and various plant materials. During the spawning season the males are revier forming and place a shallow pit in the ground water in the spawning partners. The 30 to 80 eggs are then removed from the females mouth. After about ten days the fry are released from the mouth, can in dangerous situations but still about a week looking for refuge.

Subspecies

There are two subspecies:

• Pseudocrenilabrus multicolor multicolor ( Schoeller, 1903); Its range extends from Marioutsee near Alexandria in northern Egypt to Ethiopia. The southern limit of its occurrence in the basin of the Nile is unknown. It is certain that it does not reach the Albert Nile, where the distribution area of Pseudocrenilabrus m. victoriae begins.
• Pseudocrenilabrus multicolor victoriae Seegers, 1990; Its range extends from the Albert Nile in Uganda on the Kioga and Lake Albert to the Semliki and the catchment area of Lake Victoria in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda. In the Kenyan rivers Sabaki and Tana it was introduced by humans. The northernmost limit of its occurrence is unknown.

Both sub-species do not occur in Lake Turkana.