Protomelas maginatus

Thanks for the reply Senase. My male is maybe three inches and the females 2 1/2 inches. The male is starting to color up. So I guess it will be awhile for spawning. From the photos I've seen, the males look real nice at maturity.

Hey Jlose I actually bought a trio from Dave from davesrarefish.com about a month or so ago. The Male is about 5-6 inches and the females are 4 inches or so. They are housed in a 60 gallon aquarium with a good amount of rock work. I have been feeding the trio NLS and some flakes.

I intentionally had a power head within the aquarium for the sole purpose of circulating the water for the first 3 weeks. During those 3 weeks I did not notice any breeding activity so I decided to change a few things. One of the changes was unplugging the power head. Soon after....breeding activity had begun. I have not bred many haps, so im not sure if this is coincidence or not. Just some food for thought and also just my experience. Good luck!

Thanks for the reply mikeg2929. I've been working with Lake Malawian cichlids for 30 years now. I haven't worked that much with medium to large haps. I've worked with about 90 different species of mbuna though. From the photos I've seen, the males look nice when they fully color up.

They were popular in the club 5 - 10 years ago. Someone got a group, bred them split up the group, the fry grew up, more people got them, etc. Often, fish like this can command a nice price for a while and that gets the fish sellers all hot for them. Then, when the price plummets to $1 per fish, everyone stops giving a shit.

Nice fish, not too aggressive, they grow to a decent size, so you might need a 75 gallon plus tank for them to really show colors.

Just wondering if anyone has worked with this species? I picked up six from my LFS. It appears I have one male and five females. The male hasn't colored up yet.