bt — oe ee mw =m. 
Few of the many cichlids are more 
popular or better known than Hemuchro- 
mis bimaculatus. It comes to us from 
Africa, where it has a rather wide dis- 
tribution, ranging from Egypt westward 
and south to the Congo. In habits it 
does not differ from the familiar South 
American Chanchito, but propagation is 
apt to be fraught with more difficulties. 
But when success comes, and the aqua- 
rium is peopled with a school of this gor- 
geously colored fish, one is quite apt to 
pertinently remark that “the game is 
worth the candle.” 
The baby Hemichromis, six to eight 
weeks old, is striped, displaying two dark 
brown horizontal lines on a_ lighter 
ground of the same color. This changes 
into a dull bluish green on the back and 
sides, which merges into the dull yellow 
of the belly. The two spots indicated by 
its specific name, bimaculatus, now ap- 
pear, one at its lateral centre, the other 
at the base of the caudal fin. However, 
the name bimaculatus is rather a mis- 
nomer, a third equally pronounced spot 
appears on the gill-cover, so the fish is 
really three-spotted, rather than two- 
spotted, as the name implies. Small, glis- 
tening spots are scattered over the upper 
half of the body and on the dorsal, anal 
and caudal fins. 
When about half grown the back and 
sides become reddish brown and _ the 
throat first shows the brilliant red. With 
maturity, and particularly during mating 
and breeding activities, the color splendor 
The body 
becomes 
of both sexes is amazing. 
from the abdomen 
upward 
EOS Oa Es Fa Sd Od Ps 9 nt a 
Cy 
| Hemichromis Bimaculatus | 
ERNEST LEITHOLF 
% 
bright scarlet, blending into a rich olive 
on the back. Glistening emerald dots in 
broken lines bespangle the body and ver- 
tical fins, the latter edged with red. 
It is a rather difficult task at times to 
persuade this fish to mate. The male is 
gifted with a quarrelsome disposition and 
a total lack of geniality, though some- 
Hemichromis bimaculatus 
times it is the female that stands in the 
way of mutual understanding and team 
work. It is this lack of cohesion that 
makes breeding difficult. When the fam- 
ily scrap tends to become serious, it is 
well to separate the couple by placing a 
glass partition in the aquarium, feeding 
both well, and trying in this way to make 
them become more kindly disposed to- 
wards one another. We have had males 
that positively refused to mate, which 
would have killed every female placed 
with them. A method often successful 
is to rear a number of fishes together, 
selecting apparently congenial pairs when 
old enough to distinguish the sexes. 
If the quarrels of courtship pass and 
